John Campea Goes On Unhinged Rant, Calls His Subscribers Racists, Demands Over 30,000 Of Them Unsubscribe Over Race Swapping Of Astrid In ‘How To Train Your Dragon’

America Ferrera as Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), DreamWorks

YouTuber John Campea went ballistic on people criticizing the race swap of Astrid in the upcoming How To Train Your Dragon live-action film

Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs, Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, America Ferrera as Astrid, Zack Pearlman as Snotlout, Andree Vermeulen as Ruffnut, and T.J. Miller as Tuffnut, and  in Dragons: Race to the Edge (2015), Dreamworks

It was reported by The Hollywood Reporter that Universal Studios cast Nico Parker, the daughter of Thandiwe Newton, in the role of Astrid.

Astrid was an original character to the film series with author Cressida Cowell noting back in 2016 that the character “bears a strong resemblance to Camicazi.”

Cressida Cowell Twitter

RELATED: Live-Action ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Race Swaps Astrid With Thandiwe Newton’s Daughter Nico Parker

As described in How to Train Your Dragon: How To Speak Dragonese, Camicazi “was a small girl with wild blonde hair and a ferocious expression.”

DreamWorks’ official website also notes that Astrid has blonde hair, blue eyes, and is clearly white.

Astrid character biography via DreamWorks

Parker, who plays a race-swapped Sarah Miller in HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation, does not look anything like Astrid from the original animated films.

Nico Parker as Sarah, Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us (2023), HBO

Nico Parker as Sarah, Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us (2023), HBO

RELATED: Hasbro’s ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Gets Blasted By Fans For Race Swapping Aragorn In Their New ‘The Lord Of The Rings: Tales Of Middle-earth’ Card Set

Reacting to his own subscribers taking issue with the race-swap of Astrid, Campea lashed out at them.

He began, “I was going through some of the comments on some of the videos today … and I started noticing that there are a bunch of comments on the girl being in it and people complaining that this How to Train Your Dragon thing is already ruined because they ‘changed’ Astrid, because they ‘changed’ Astrid. And because they ‘changed’ Astrid that means this thing was a complete disaster. It was ruined. Destined to fail because they ‘changed’ Astrid.”

He continued, “I thought it was interesting. I thought that was interesting because you know, you know full g**damn well that if Astrid’s supposed to be 5’3 and they cast a girl who was 5’4 and a half that’s a significant change, but nobody would have said anything. They wouldn’t have said a thing.”

“If Astrid is supposed to have hazel brown eyes, but they cast an actress who had walnut brown eyes, well, that’s a change. But you know full g**damn well they wouldn’t have complained about it. Wouldn’t have said a thing. Perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with that change,” he went on.

“If in the movie Astrid was supposed to be right-handed and they had the audacity to hire an actress who was right-handed, well, that’s a change. It’s a change. You know g**damn well they wouldn’t have said a thing about it because that’s fine,” Campea said.

Zack Pearlman as Snotlout, Andree Vermeulen as Ruffnut, Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, T.J. Miller as Tuffnut, and America Ferrera as Astrid in Dragons: Race to the Edge (2015), Dreamworks

RELATED: Disney Fans Who Supported ‘The Little Mermaid’ Race-Swapping Attack Newly Cast ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Live-Action Remake Actress Sydney Agudong For Not Being Dark Enough To Play Nani

Campea then made it clear he was addressing individuals criticizing the race replacement, “But oh my God! If you get a girl who the pigmentation of her skin tone is a little bit different than Astrid’s is. And then by the way, Astrid, who comes from a complete mythological, fairy tale, nonexistent, completely made up in fiction race of people and Vikings that don’t really exist.

“If the pigmentation of her skin is a little bit darker than what Astrid’s is in the cartoon,” he continued. “Height not a problem. Eye color not a problem. Hand not a problem. Oh, tone of her skin, that’s a problem. ‘This movie’s doomed.’ Because they got an actress regardless of how talented or gifted whose skin color is a little bit darker than the one in the cartoon. See, that change, that’s too much.”

Nico Parker is Sarah in HBO's The Last of Us (2023) via HBO

Nico Parker is Sarah in HBO’s The Last of Us (2023) via HBO

Campea then told his subscribers to unsubscribe, “And I want to say this: please get the f*** off my channel, you mouth breathing, basement dwelling, cousin humping motherf***ers. Just get off my channel. Don’t come to my channel.”

“I’m on a personal mission. I want to purge 30,000 of my subscribers off my channel within the next 48 hours,” he declared. “And I would like them to leave. Because with the number of comments of people saying such idiotic, moronic things I figure there’s got to be at least 30,000 of you knuckle draggers around there. So please just leave my channel, don’t come back, don’t watch my stuff. I want to purge 30,000 things.”

Toothless and Jay Baruchel as Hiccup in Dragons: Race to the Edge (2015), Dreamworks

RELATED: ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ Star Yara Shahidi Responds To Criticism Of Disney’s Continued Race-Swapping: “People Think Of Diversity And Inclusion As Threatening Or Jeopardizing The Quality Of The Story Instead Of Seeing How Beautifully They Can Be Interwoven”

Campea then proceeded to call his own subscribers racist, “Do me a favor, you racist pieces of s**t and go and find one of your echo chamber websites where you can all stand around jerk each other off while you tilt your head backs and go, ‘Woke! Woke!’ And then you can c** on each other’s faces and tell each other that c** on your face cleanses you of wokeness.”

“Yeah, tell yourselves that,” he said. “Whatever is going to get you off and make you feel good about yourself,” he instructed. “Just don’t come around here. Nobody complains about the height of Hugh Jackman. Nobody complains about the physical differences between my beloved Henry Cavill and what he looked like in the comics versus  what he looked like in the movies.”

“No, because those changes aren’t a problem. The changes are only a problem if the girl’s skin color is a little bit different. Yeah, so just go away. Believe me, I’m coming up on my 20th anniversary. I’m perfectly good. I can retire tomorrow. It doesn’t matter. I still do this job because I think it’s fun. That’s all. But you really need to go find an echo chamber where you and your illiterate brood can just gather around and like I said just do a big circle jerk with each other,” he concluded.

America Ferrera as Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon (2010), DreamWorks

What do you make of Campea’s rant?

NEXT: Netflix’s ‘Queen Cleopatra’ Star Adele James Dismisses Egyptian Complaints About Docuseries’ Race-Swapping: “Blackwashing Isn’t A Thing”

Share: 
Mentioned This Article:

More About: