Daniel Dae Kim To Take Over For Ed Skrein In ‘Hellboy’ Reboot

Daniel Dae Kim will play Maj. Ben Daimio in the Hellboy reboot, replacing Ed Skrein.

DANIEL DAE KIM TO REPLACE ED SKREIN IN HELLBOY REBOOT

Skrein was originally cast to play the Japanese-American character, and the film was subsequently chewed out on social media for whitewashing. Once this came to Skrein’s attention, he stepped down from the role. “I accepted the role unaware that the character in the original comics was of mixed Asian heritage,” Skrein wrote in an Instagram post. “It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people, and that to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voices in the Arts. I feel it is important to honour and respect that. Therefore I have decided to step down so the role can be cast appropriately,” Skrein said.

Kim personally thanked Skrein and the film’s producers for acknowledging their error and fixing the mistake in an Instagram post announcing his entrance into the film. “Hi everyone- I’m excited to confirm that I’ve officially joined the cast of #HELLBOY. We start shooting today and I’ll be playing Ben Daimio, alongside our very talented cast, headed by David Harbour, (@dkharbour) and director, Neil Marshall,” he wrote. “#ThankYou for all the supportive tweets and comments, especially in light of the recent events surrounding its original casting. To that, I will only add that I applaud the producers and, in particular, @EdSkrein for championing the notion that Asian characters should be played by Asian or Asian American actors. He could not have addressed the issue more elegantly and I remain indebted to him for his strength of character. I look forward to this new chapter and will be sure to share more news about the project in the days ahead!”

The character Ben Daimio is a member of the Bureau of Paranormal Research, as is Hellboy. He maintains the power to become a jaguar when he is angry or in pain. Hellboy will hit theaters January 11, 2018.