Daredevil Season 1 showrunner and writer Steven DeKnight responded to Nobu actor Peter Shinkoda’s recent accusations against Jeph Loeb.
During a Save Daredevil livestream, Shinkoda accused Loeb of saying “no one cared about Chinese people or Asian people.”
Shinkoda specifically stated, “Jeph Loeb told the writer’s 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.”
He elaborated, “There was three previous Marvel movies, a trilogy called Blade that was made where Wesley Snipes kills 200 Asians each movie. Nobody gives a sh**, so don’t write about Nobu and Gao. And they were forced to put their story line down and drop it.”
Later, he would indicate that he was not invited to the Season 2 premiere of the show, “It would’ve been nice to be invited to the second season premiere also.”
He elaborated, “Sitting there with Wai Ching Ho, and I mention ‘Did you go to the premiere?’ ‘I never got an invite, Peter.’ Neither did I. I found out watching it on live news that the red carpet, that there was a Daredevil Season 2 premiere and I was sitting at home, going what, watching commercials of me fighting people.”
Steven DeKnight responded to Shinkoda’s accusations on Twitter when he was asked about it by a fan.
He wrote, “Rightly so. But at no point was I ever told this or heard anything like it on Season 1.”
He added, “I loved the characaters of Nobu and Gao and had no restrictions on how much they were in the show.”
DeKnight concluded, “Did this happen in a later season? If true, inexcusable.”
In a subsequent tweet, DeKnight would write, “Of course! I have no idea what happened in later seasons, but I can 100% say no one ever tried to get me to downplay any of the characters in season 1.”
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He added, “Quite the opposite. We were all delighted with Nobu and Gao. So fun to write for.”
As for Season 2 showrunner Doug Petrie, he has not made a statement in response to Shinkoda’s accusations at this time.
However, in the original livestream where Shinkoda made his accusations against Loeb, fellow Daredevil actor Tommy Walker discussed Petrie’s ideas for an Asian-American Iron Fist.
Walker stated, “A very good friend of mine Doug Petrie, who was the showrunner of Season 2 of Daredevil, he was on Season 1 as you know, and then an executive producer on Defenders.”
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He added, “I think I can say this much safely that man came up with some brilliant pitches for Iron Fist early on before Iron Fist was well into production. That’s all I can say about that. But they were along those lines, very, very thoughtful very progressive for the time.”
As Walker is saying this, Shinkoda can be seen shaking his head in what appears to be agreement.
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