Steven Yeun's Sentry Casting Is Already Bringing Out Twitter's Worst Take

While there have been rumors for a while that Steven Yeun would play Sentry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Invincible" creator Robert Kirkman casually confirmed it in an interview this week. It does appear Yeun will suit up in yet another yellow and blue outfit for "Thunderbolts," where the character is expected to make his debut. Yeun is an immensely talented actor, as evidenced by stellar turns in "Nope" and "Beef," but his casting has a shadow over it with the worst of X, formerly known as Twitter, coming out to offer incredibly racist takes.

In the comics, Sentry is white. Steven Yeun is Korean, and actors of different races taking parts that have been traditionally white sends plenty of people online into a racist fervor to proclaim the casting "woke," a word that has lost all meaning at this point. Many on X point out how Sentry isn't Asian in the comics and have resorted to some old standbys in criticizing the casting. For example, one X user said casting Yeun as Sentry is like casting Ryan Gosling as Shang-Chi, which isn't comparable in the slightest. Shang-Chi's Asian heritage is critical to his character. Sentry is just a guy with the power of a million exploding suns, so anyone could play him.

It's disheartening to see these takes in this day and age. No actor deserves this kind of criticism, and there's good reason why these kinds of castings are necessary for greater representation and helping right old wrongs.

Hollywood has a depressing history of anti-Asian sentiment. White actors like Marlon Brando and Mickey Rooney donned yellowface to portray Asian characters in films. Even when Asian actors did get roles, they were severely limited in what they could do as a result of the Hays Code, a set of rules that dictated what could be shown on screen from the 1930s to the 1960s. Anna May Wong was a trailblazer for Asian representation in movies, but with the Hays Code, she couldn't have on-screen romances with white actors, and she regularly starred alongside white actors in yellowface.

Even in recent decades, Asian actors have often had to resort to racist caricatures in films, such as Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe) in "Sixteen Candles," who speaks with a racist accent, and whenever he enters a room, a gong sound plays. There have been more recent strides toward better Asian representation in Hollywood projects, with the success of films like "Crazy Rich Asians" and shows like "Fresh off the Boat." However, there's still a long way to go to make sure people of all ethnicities are represented and seen.

People may be quick to say, "Sentry isn't Asian in the comics." Who cares? He's a fictional character who's basically an overpowered, deranged take on Superman. His whiteness in the comics is never integral to his character, not in the same way T'Challa being Black is vital for telling that character's story. Ultimately, Sentry's race doesn't matter; it's all about the story, and the casting director clearly felt Steven Yeun best encapsulated who Sentry will be in "Thunderbolts." Anyone who has a problem with Yeun's race shouldn't be taken seriously.