Here’s Everything You Need To Know About The Backlash Over Amandla Stenberg Being Cast In “Children Of Blood And Bone”

Earlier this week, Variety unveiled the cast for the upcoming film Children of Blood and Bone, which is an adaptation of author Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling novel.

The novel follows protagonist Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magic to the fantasy African kingdom of Orïsha, which is widely recognized as a fictional version of Nigeria. The book is inspired by West African mythology.

Variety announced that the forthcoming film adaptation, which Gina Prince-Bythewood will direct, will star Thuso Mbedu as Zélie, Tosin Cole as her brother Tzain, Damson Idris as Prince Inan, and Amandla Stenberg as his sister, Princess Amari.

Amandla’s casting has since sparked backlash online, with several fans of the book pointing out that Princess Amari is canonically a young, dark-skinned girl.

In fact, her “dark brown copper complexion” is an important factor in the novel, given that the character — whose skin is much darker than the rest of her family’s — faces colorism from those around her.

In the book, Amari is particularly criticized by her own mother, Queen Nehanda, who constantly encourages her to lighten her skin tone.

With this in mind, fans anticipated that a dark-skinned actor would be cast in the role of Amari in the forthcoming film — especially given that an open casting call was held.

Last July, author Adeyemi shared about the open call casting, “We want everyone to submit. So, we’re looking in Hollywood, we’re looking in Nigeria… we’re really casting a broad net to bring the team together, to bring this entire franchise to life.”

Adeyemi later highlighted that she and the casting team were “especially” looking for Nigerian actors to put themselves forward. “Because this book is based on Nigerian spirituality and mythology, we are especially looking for Nigerians to submit,” she said.

While Adeyemi has since noted that more “Nigerian castings and results” will be shared soon, fans were pretty disappointed when it was revealed that Amandla — a light-skinned, biracial actor — would be portraying one of the main characters.

“A little disappointed in the Amari casting. She faced colorism and fatphobia from her mother in the book and they decided to cast a light skinned biracial,” one person wrote on X.

“The children of blood and bone casting just pissed me the hell off. What was the whole point of the open casting then?? when are young Nigerian actors going to get the opportunity to tell their own stories with their own culture,” someone tweeted.

“Wherever there is a place for darkskin representation you will for some reason find Amandla Stenberg there,” read one popular post with over 200,000 views, with several users looking back on the time she was cast in the 2018 film The Hate U Give.

Amandla, who uses she/they pronouns, played protagonist Starr Carter in the film, which was based on the 2017 novel by Angie Thomas. On the book's original cover, Starr notably had a dark skin tone and an afro. The decision to cast an actor without these features sparked some controversy amongst fans.

What's more, several internet users were left particularly upset by Amandla’s recent casting given that the actor has previously talked about turning down roles that aren’t meant for her.

Back in 2018, Amandla said that they made the “challenging” decision not to star in Black Panther because they felt it wasn’t “right” as a “biracial American.” They explained, “These are all dark-skinned actors playing Africans, and I feel like it would have just been off to see me as a bi-racial American with a Nigerian accent just pretending that I’m the same color as everyone else in the movie.”

“That was really challenging, to make that decision, but I have no regrets. I recognize 100 percent that there are spaces that I should not take up and when I do take up a space it’s because I’ve thought really, really critically about it and I’ve consulted people I really trust and it feels right,” she added.

Given Amandla’s past comments, some internet users have now branded her “performative” for taking on the role of Amari.

“I thought you didn’t want to take parts from dark skin actresses anymore?” someone wrote under her most recent Instagram post. “Why do you keep taking roles meant for dark skin women???” another user said.

“PLEASE stop taking roles meant for darkskin Black women!!” someone said, while another comment read: “YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN THE ERASURE OF BLACK WOMEN IN FILM/HOLLYWOOD.”

In turn, Amandla’s casting has sparked a conversation around the apparent “erasure” of dark-skinned, Black girls in media.

“the film & tv industry hates casting young, new black talent,” one person tweeted. “especially the darkskinned girls. how is it that there was more opportunities for teen black actresses to breakthrough back then in the 90s & 2000s than there is now?!”

“the erasure of monoracial black girls in media & it’s so frustrating that it’s happening,” someone wrote.

“Shows and movies have no problem casting dark skin black men but when it’s time to cast a dark skin black women, here they go using a biracial woman. This really isn’t talked about enough,” another user added.

Amandla has yet to address the controversy, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted if they do.