Peter Shinkoda, the actor who played Nobu on Netflix's Daredevil series, has made the claim that an executive from Marvel chopped the storylines for him and another Asian actor after reasoning that "nobody gives a shit" about Asian characters' storylines.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Shinkoda aired the allegations over the weekend during a virtual roundtable discussion for a #SaveDaredevil campaign. Specifically naming this executive, ex-Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb (who had an executive producer credit for the now canceled series), Shinkoda says that Loeb told the writers' room to disregard backstories for both Nobu and Gao (another character, portrayed by Wai Ching Ho).
"I'm kind of reluctant to say this, but...I'm going to take this moment, but I have to because — because I just have to. I'm not into really protecting certain things anymore," Shinkoda said on a livestream. "Jeph Loeb told the writers' room not to write for Nobu and Gao — and this was reiterated many times by many of the writers and showrunners — that nobody cares about Chinese people and Asian people. There were three previous Marvel movies, a trilogy called Blade that was made where Wesley Snipes kills 200 Asians each movie. Nobody gives a shit, so don't write about Nobu and Gao, so they were forced to put their storyline down and drop it."
Shinkoda further alleged that writers axed a plan to delve into a journey Nobu has in America, under the appearance that he's there for a medical procedure, so that he could aid Gao and the supervillain organization The Hand.
"All that backstory was dropped," Shinkoda added. "The writers told me they regret it and they were reluctant to do it because they were stoked about including that in the storyline but they were prevented so I had to concoct this other storyline and rock that material I was given."
Daredevil was canceled by Netflix in November 2018. Marvel is set to regain the rights to the character two years after that, meaning November 2020, due to the nature of the contract those two companies share.
As for Loeb, IGN adds that he was released by Marvel last fall after Marvel TV got absorbed into Marvel Studios.
You can watch Shinkoda's comments below around the 10:00 mark:
