How “Snake Eyes” breaks Hollywood barriers

The latest movie in the G.I. Joe series, Snake Eyes, is breaking barriers in Hollywood by embracing an Asian-led cast for it’s latest addition to the series.

G.I. Joe, one of the classic “All-American” superhero stories, is making many changes to its very “out of touch” characters. G.I. Joe, a popular action figure from the 1960s, represents a US soldier from the war and what it means to be  “a true American hero.” Over the last few decades, the franchise has grown enormously, creating extra characters, comics, and numerous movies to go along with the action figure. While installments of the G.I. Joe series have been very successful in the past, critics have never failed to notice that these superheroes who were portrayed as “ the real Americans” were all white. Since the 1960s, America has become increasingly diverse, and an all-white cast simply does not reflect what it means to be an American hero. In response to this, producers of an upcoming movie, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, picked an Asian-American lead cast starring Henry Golding as Snake Eyes, also including Haruka Abe, Iko Uwais, and Andrew Koji in lead roles.

Many say that this decision is long overdue, not only because this franchise has continuously excluded different ethnic and racial groups that make up America, but also because Snake Eyes was really meant to be of Asian descent all along. The origin story of Snake Eyes is that he (a white man as portrayed in comics) traveled to Japan and “learned the ways of the ninja,” eventually coming back to fight alongside G.I. Joe. Larry Hama, the creator of Snake Eyes, always dreamt that he would be of Asian descent, citing that as a kid growing up he “never saw any sort of representation” for Asian Americans in pop culture. Unfortunately, with the comic industry being overwhelmingly white at the time, there was “external pressure to center white characters” as the face of any new comics, which led to Snake Eyes being white. But now after many decades, the dream has finally come true for many Asian-Americans around the country along with Hama, saying that “to be making these tent pole movies with Asians in the lead is something that I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.”

Unfortunately, there was a lot of criticism from the public about Henry Golding, an accomplished actor starring in Crazy Rich Asians. He was called “not ‘Asian enough for Crazy Rich Asians’ and ‘not white enough for Snake Eyes’.” Henry Golding responded by making one point: “We’re playing characters. Not their background,” and that was exactly what he did. Golding played his character, Snake Eyes, very well, having critics rave about his “undeniable screen presence”(Associated Press). The rest of the cast and crew also did a phenomenal job with the movie. For example, movie critic Mick LaSalle praised Andrew Koji’s performance, claiming that, “Koji has a fascinating presence: tall, with very distinct eyes and a deep voice. He has a quality of being both extremely composed and extremely sensitive, so we look at him no matter who’s talking.” Even Larry Hama took all the hate in stride, simply laughing, “I saw that coming a mile away!”

All in all, the decision to have a majority Asian cast for the movie Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins has not only taken a big step for Asian Americans in pop culture in America but has also united many Asian Americans in the process. As Henry Golding said, “We’re fighting for something so much bigger.”