Image: ABC

Daniel Dae Kim, best known for his roles on Lost and Hawaii Five-O, is in talks to join Neil Marshall’s upcoming Hellboy reboot. That’s good news on its own, but the better news is he may play Major Ben Daimio, the role actor Ed Skrein recently vacated after learning the character was Japanese.


Dae Kim, who is Korean-American, is no stranger to socially charged dealings. He and Hawaii Five-O co-star Grace Park both left that show because of salary parity with the show’s white lead actors. Now he steps into a role of a badass paranormal detective who can turn into a jaguar. Daimio got a lot of attention last month when Skrein (best know as the bad guy in Deadpool) was cast as the character, then left mere days later, after considerable backlash.

“It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people, and that to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voice in the Arts,” Skrein said in a statement. “I feel it is important to honour and respect that. Therefore I have decided to step down so the role can be cast appropriately.”


Now it has. The Hellboy reboot, which also stars David Harbour and Milla Jovovich, does not yet have a release date.

[Hollywood Reporter]