‘My Hero Academia’ Fan Finds Aizawa’s Perfect Live-Action Double

Like it or not, Hollywood is working on yet another live-action anime. Despite a string of failed films, the industry seems more determined than ever to do the medium right, and My Hero Academia could be the thing that turns around Hollywood’s adaptive curse.

However, if that is going to be the case, Legendary needs to do something important. The studio has to nail its casting and there’s one actor who fans believe was born to play Shota Aizawa.

Over on Twitter, a now-viral post was kind enough to show fans what could be when it comes to My Hero Academia. A fan known as Keiid shared their reaction to the recent news about the anime’s live-action ambitions, and they said Joe Odagiri has to be in the film.

“I’ll only accept the MHA live action movie if Jō Odagiri plays Aizawa,” the fan wrote.

As you can see above, Odagiri looks like he was born to play the underground Pro Hero. The Japanese actor is know as much for his acting career as he is his grungy fashion. At 42 years old, Odagiri would suit Eraserhead just fine, and his work on projects like Kamen Rider Kuuga prove the actor can pull off stunt work.

At this moment, there is no word on how Legendary intends to pull together a cast for its My Hero Academia film but bringing in a star like Odagiri would appease plenty of fans. While the actor has yet to tackle an American production, Odagiri has a loyal fanbase backing him, and his Japanese roots would bring a sense of authenticity to My Hero Academia. In fact, one of the top complaints Hollywood’s failed anime films has to do with their lacking Asian leads. So, it would be wise to bring on Odagiri or other Japanese stars to the project. Recent box-office successes like Crazy Rich Asians proved the talent is out there for Hollywood to pick; It’s just a matter of giving diverse stars the audition spotlight and seeing what they can do.

So, do you think this actor could pull off the role…? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has super powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been collected into 19 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.