John Cho’s latest role might have broken the Internet. On Thursday, Netflix announced that Cho had been cast as the lead in its live-action remake of the hit anime series Cowboy Bebop. Cho will play Spike Spiegel, a hip bounty hunter who travels the solar system in search of potential hits.
The series will also star Mustafa Shakir (as the cop Jet Black), Daniella Pineda (as con artist Faye Valentine), and Alex Hassell (as hitman Vicious). Cho confirmed the casting news on Twitter shortly after it was reported by the trades.
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Commence your excitement for Cho, one of the Internet’s most distinguished boyfriends! His casting in this major series arrives three years after the #StarringJohnCho hashtag was born. That movement, created by fan William Yu, Photoshopped Cho’s face into posters for mainstream films like The Martian or James Bond installment Spectre—to make a point about how Cho should star in more films, yes, but also to ask a broader question about Asian representation in film, which was (and still is) sorely lacking. “I’m tired of hearing that a role can’t be played by an Asian actor because people ‘just don’t see it,’” Yu said in a 2016 interview with Mic. “#StarringJohnCho is here to literally show you.”
Cho, with his credentials and past experience, seemed primed to be an even bigger leading man at the box office. The hashtag gained traction, supported by actors like Constance Wu (who later got a #StarringConstanceWu tag) and Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu, who has said he was inspired to fight for that movie—which boasts a majority cast of Asian descent—after seeing the images. “It was like a light turned on,” he said of seeing Cho on those posters, in an interview with Cho himself.
Cho has also acknowledged the hashtag several times, writing in a 2018 Instagram post that the #StarringJohnCho movement helped propel his last two films, Columbus and Searching, both of which were helmed by Asian-American filmmakers. “The promise of #starringjohncho was for Hollywood to cast people who look like me in Hollywood hits,” he wrote. “Instead, you’ve made movies with people like me into Hollywood hits. . . . I cannot thank you enough.”
And now, he’s landed a major role in a hotly anticipated Netflix project. Wu tweeted her excitement about the news, celebrating the casting on Twitter, as well as sharing an old Instagram video of herself at the Critics’ Choice Awards alongside Sandra Oh, Ken Jeong, Jon M. Chu, Harry Shum Jr., and Chris Pang—all of them excitedly shouting “John Cho!” at the camera.
“Just found this video in my text convo with @johnthecho thought maybe it was too drunky to post but then I was like eh, why the fuck not?” Wu wrote in the caption. “WE LOVE YOU John!! So psyched to see you as Spike!”
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Yu also celebrated the casting on Twitter, capping it with a straightforward summary: “Representation matters today.”
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