Michael B. Jordan Responds to Critics of His Casting in Fantastic Four

Apparently people are upset that Michael B. Jordan was cast as Johnny Storm in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. The primary cause of concern? That Jordan is black. Obviously the realism that underpins a comic book adaptation in which a group of people are imbued with superpowers after a trip into an alternate universe is compromised by the presence of a black actor.

Jordan responded to his critics in a short piece at 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!”

[…]

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. 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.

Jordan’s piece is worth reading in whole — he nicely sums up the absolute stupidity of this non-controversy while simultaneously outlining the difficulties of being a black actor.