“Shall we begin?” Netflix asked when it dropped the trailer for “Death Note” on Wednesday, but the Twitterati wanted to first discuss how white some of the main cast is.
Coming from “The Guest” and “Blair Witch” director Adam Wingard, the live-action adaptation of the popular manga and anime series follows the same premise, in which a schoolboy discovers a supernatural notebook that will kill anyone whose name is written in it.
Light Turner (played by Nat Wolff), or Light Yagami as he was called in the original manga, decides to use the power of the notebook in his attempt at vigilante justice, but draws the attention of a detective (played by Lakeith Stanfield) along the way.
“Death Note” was originally going to be released with Warner Bros. before the adaptation landed in Netflix’s hands.
Although the movie has a black actor in the role of detective L, fans have taken to Twitter to note how, once again, just like “Ghost in the Shell”, the film industry has given a white actor the leading role in a story created within Asian culture.
Me when I saw the cast for Death Note pic.twitter.com/V8CcwTmO23
— 소라 (@crydiebuscus16) March 22, 2017
@Bearpigman Pictured here:
Iron Fist (2017)
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Death Note (2017) pic.twitter.com/W1XDOmjLLz— ᴊᴀᴄᴋᴀss (@Styxiedust) March 22, 2017
the netflix death note movie looks great pic.twitter.com/gtFhjjYqS6
— Alex Perry (@Yelix) March 22, 2017
The new #DeathNote trailer… pic.twitter.com/L9m4DxbGNw
— Shane McLoughlin (@ShaneIsPosting) March 22, 2017
Me at the White Death Note film by Netflix pic.twitter.com/Bfaay2gIfU
— rachel. (@SAlLORJUPlTERS) March 22, 2017
Death Note was lit af but this Netflix trailer for the US adaptation sort of got me like pic.twitter.com/tl0WAcH8YG
— just fátima (@fatimerz_) March 22, 2017
Death Note trailer… pic.twitter.com/EQ1ijzo4oy
— Matico (@Liaaron) March 22, 2017
[writes my own name in the death note]
— melanie (@twoheadedgrrl) March 22, 2017
Death Note?
Death Nope.
— Jon Tsuei (@jontsuei) March 22, 2017
The best news out of all of this, however, is that Willem Dafoe will play the role of Ryuk, a voice that will surely give you nightmares for months to come.
On the positive side for the Death Note live action, I’m 99% sure Willem Dafoe will slay his role as Ryuk pic.twitter.com/vOEWI0YMNe
— RYAN (@RYANlME) March 22, 2017
Light from the Death Note trailer looks like Toby Maguire from Spider-Man 3. Which is suitable since Ryuk is Willem Dafoe #DEATHNOTE pic.twitter.com/oOyXnn36g8
— Kultimore (@Kultimore) March 22, 2017
Willem Dafoe is a great choice for USA Ryuk. But why stop at voice acting? You dont even need to put makeup on him! #DeathNote pic.twitter.com/EFeLIuP1ae
— Art-Eater ➡️⬇️↘️ (@Richmond_Lee) March 22, 2017
i don’t care who they cast as light, cause light fucking sucks, keith stanfield as L and willem dafoe as ryuk are what interest me
— SungWon Cho (ProZD) (@prozdkp) March 22, 2017
According to The Wrap, fans will get to see some aspects of the Japanese source material in the adaptation, such as the name Kira, a Japanese romanization of the word “killer,” which is given to Light’s alter ego.
Netflix has previously been hit with heavy criticism surrounding Marvel’s “Iron Fist” after casting a white actor (Finn Jones) instead of an Asian-American who learns martial and mystic arts.
“Death Note” lands on Netflix August 25.
