Children of Blood and Bone is looking like it’s going to be an exceptionally good movie. I can already tell, and I honestly cannot wait for 2027.
That said, I want to say something about the conversations I’ve been seeing around the cast and their accents.
I’ve decided to start giving actors a lot more grace when it comes to things like this.
We’ve watched Hollywood actors attempt French accents, British accents, Spanish accents, Italian accents, South African accents, and plenty of others over the years. Sometimes they nail it. Sometimes they don’t. But that’s part of acting. They’re stepping outside their comfort zone to become someone else.
So I don’t think every conversation should immediately become, “Why didn’t they use mainly Nigerian actors?”
First of all, there are Nigerians in this movie. There are actors of Nigerian heritage. There are actors who grew up in Nigeria. There are actors who have strong Nigerian roots. It’s not as though the production completely ignored Nigerians.
Secondly, movies are art, yes. But they are also businesses. They’re in fact businesses first before anything else.
This is a massive Hollywood production with a huge budget. The producers aren’t just thinking about telling a story. They’re also thinking about how to get people across the world to buy tickets. Whether we like it or not, certain names have global pull. Some actors don’t just play a role; they help sell the film.
That’s not an insult to Nigerian actors. It’s simply how the movie business works.
It’s more like getting angry over the casting of American actors in a Greek or Roman story when there are actual Greeks and Romans.
The argument is not totally invalid, but it doesn’t take anything away from the films either.
Could more Nigerian actors have been cast? Maybe.
Would I love to see even more homegrown talents in projects of this scale? Absolutely.
But I also understand why producers try to find a balance between authenticity and commercial success.
As for the accents, let’s at least watch the full movie before we conclude they ruined it. Acting is literally about becoming someone you’re not. If an actor spends an entire film speaking in an accent that isn’t natural to them, I think that effort deserves some credit, even if it isn’t perfect.
Some are saying it looks like Black Panther and Woman King. Tor. How many DC and Marvel movies have had the same type of theme and costume? Since when has that been a problem?
These are just my personal thoughts though. They don’t have to be yours.
I’m just hoping we judge these things with a little more grace sometimes.
Because from everything I’ve seen so far, Children of Blood and Bone looks like it could be something really special.
Trailer in the comments.
Olubukola Ozone
#ChildrenOfBloodAndBone
