Michael B. Jordan Pens Essay To Those Criticizing His Casting In ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot

Michael B. Jordan wrote an essay to respond to those who’ve been criticizing his casting in the forthcoming Fantastic Four film.

Michael B. Jordan Addresses Critics

Jordan, an African-American actor, was cast to take on the role of Torch in the new Fantastic Four flick. In the comics, Torch is white. Many fans of the comics and the previous Fantastic Four movie took issue with Jordan’s casting, which didn’t go unnoticed to the Fruitvale Station star.

“You’re not supposed to go on the Internet when you’re cast as a superhero. But after taking on Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four—a character originally written with blond hair and blue eyes—I wanted to check the pulse out there,” Jordan wrote in an essay for Entertainment Weekly. “I didn’t want to be ignorant about what people were saying. Turns out this is what they were saying: ‘A black guy? I don’t like it. They must be doing it because Obama’s president’ and ‘It’s not true to the comic.’ Or even, ‘They’ve destroyed it!'”

Jordan admits that at first he took the undue criticism personally. However, Jordan believes that his casting is representative of where the country and the world at large are now in 2015 rather than where they were in 1961 – a more diverse place that’s more excepting of its diversity. Furthermore, Stan Lee, who wrote the Fantastic Four comic books, has no problem at all with a black actor playing Torch.

“To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you,” Jordon wrote. “Look at your friends’ friends and who they’re interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It’s okay to like it.”

Fantastic Four hits theaters Aug. 7.