During a #SaveDaredevilCon panel on Sunday, Daredevil actor Peter Shinkoda claimed that former head of Marvel TV Jeph Loeb told the series’ showrunners to scrap major storylines for Shinkoda’s character, Nobu, and another major villain, Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho). Shinkoda also stated that Loeb used racist, anti-Asian comments to justify his demands.
“Jeph Loeb told the writers’ room not to write for Nobu and Gao,” Shinkoda said roughly 10 mins into the panel. “This was reiterated many times by many of the writers and showrunners that ‘Nobody cares about Chinese people and Asian people. There were three previous Marvel movies — a trilogy called Blade – that was made where Wesley Snipes killed 200 Asians each movie. Nobody gives a sh–, so don’t write about Nobu and Gao.’ [The writers] were forced to put their storyline down and drop it.”
Loeb, who oversaw Marvel TV’s many productions, which also included ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., was released from the role last fall when Marvel TV was absorbed into Marvel Studios; Kevin Feige, now Chief Creative Officer for Marvel, has taken over creative direction for all of Marvel’s content, including live-action and animated TV shows as well as films.
Shinkoda went on to say he had been privy to Nobu’s planned storyline, which would have offered a deeper look at how the character came to work for Madame Gao and the Hand, a criminal organization that was introduced in Season 1. According to Shinkoda, the writers had intended for Gao to sneak Nobu into the country for his Black Sky plans using the guise of needing a medical transplant, which would have shown the audience the full scope and size of an how organization like the Hand wields power — even at the highest levels of bureaucracy. The actor said that he’s not really into protecting certain things anymore — meaning Loeb and the multimillion dollar brand that he used to control — so he finally felt comfortable enough to reveal his experiences.
“[The writers] were very apologetic that they couldn’t follow through with it and their hands were tied. … The writers told me they regretted and were reluctant to [drop the storyline], they were so stoked about including that in the storyline but they were prevented,” said Shinkoda. Despite his lack of material, Shinkoda said he did the best with the role he had, including building a broad stroke backstory of his own.
Shikoda also took to Twitter to reveal that he and Madame Gao actress Wai Ching Ho were not invited to the Season 2 premiere of Daredevil, and only found out about the event when it was live-streamed.
#WaiChingHo aka #MadameGao and I, aka #Nobu of #Daredevil weren’t at the season 2 premiere…because we weren’t invited. Wai was insulted…and that pissed me off A LOT. We found out about the event as it live-streamed. “They” were sorry we were “overlooked”. #HellsKitchen pic.twitter.com/S6i8FSHiBt
— Peter Shinkoda (@PeterShinkoda) July 26, 2020
TV Guide has reached out to Marvel and Netflix for comment.
Daredevil is streaming on Netflix.