After receiving backlash for his casting as Johnny Storm, Michael B. Jordan responded through an open letter, asking his critics to embrace diversity.
When Jordan was announced as Johnny Storm in the upcoming "The Fantastic Four" - a role made famous by a blond-hair-and-blue-eyed male - the internet went on a frenzy.
After he was offered the role, Jordan said he did something actors are not supposed to do after being cast as a superhero - he checked the internet to read the responses to the news.
Turns out the comments were mean and racist.
In an open letter in Entertainment Weekly, the 28-year-old actor opened up about the backlash he experienced from racist "Internet trolls" that are angry over his "Fantastic Four" casting. In his essay, Jordan said he wasn't surprised to find that comic book fans were saying things like, "A black guy? I don't like it. They must be doing it because Obama's president" and "They've destroyed it!" Fans also thought Jordan's casting was "not true to the comic."
"It used to bother me, but it doesn't anymore," the actor explained. "I can see everybody's perspective, and I know I can't ask the audience to forget 50 years of comic books. But the world is a little more diverse in 2015 than when the 'Fantastic Four' comic first came out in 1961. Plus, if Stan Lee (former chairman and president of Marvel Comics) writes an email to my director saying, 'You're good. I'm okay with this,' who am I to go against that?"
Jordan, who received praise for his work in the 2013 award-winning drama "Fruitvale Station," said he was aware that some people would see his casting as "political correctness or an attempt to meet a racial quota, or as part of the year of 'Black Film.'" Instead, Jordan wanted fans to look at his role as a "creative choice by the director, Josh Trank, who is in an interracial relationship himself a reflection of what a modern family looks like today."
"Sometimes you have to be the person who stands up and says, 'I'll be the one to shoulder all this hate. I'll take the brunt for the next couple of generations,'" Jordan added. "People are always going to see each other in terms of race, but maybe in the future we won't talk about it as much. Maybe, if I set an example, Hollywood will start considering more people of color in other prominent roles, and maybe we can reach the people who are stuck in the mindset that 'it has to be true to the comic book.' Or maybe we have to reach past them.
On a final note, Jordan offered some words of advice for those who have an issue with him playing the Human Torch.
"To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends' friends and who they're interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It's okay to like it," he said.
"Fantastic Four" also stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell. It hits theaters Aug. 7.
