Netflix Earns Backlash Over Jared Leto’s Yakuza Movie ‘The Outsider’

Netflix’s latest is certainly causing a stir, though it seems to be for all the wrong reasons.

Netflix released the trailer for their newest original film The Outsider, which stars Jared Leto in the lead role. Leto plays Nick Lowell, a former American G.I. who starts to move up the ranks of the Japanese mafia the Yakuza. While an outsider coming into the Yakuza doesn’t sound that strange, fans aren’t happy with a white actor taking the lead in an otherwise Asian focused film.

The film fits its premise, as Leto is an outsider to the organization, but fans feel the premise could have landed just as well with a lead of Asian descent taking the role. The internet hasn’t responded with much positivity to the first trailer, which you can in the video above.

The Outsider is directed by Martin Zandvliet and written by John Linson and Andrew Baldwin. The project stars Leto (Nick Lowell), Tadanobu Asano (Kiyoshi), Kippei Shina, Rory Cochrane (Panetti), Emile Hirsch, Shioli Kutsuna, Yurino, Nozomi de Lencquesaing, Motokatsu Suzuki, Kohji Katoh, Sotaro, and Hiro.

Satch Watanabe executive produced the film, with Ken Kao, Art Linson, John Linson, and Mikael Chr. Rieks producing. David Klohn, Josh Rosenbaum, Jonathan Sanford, and Hiroki Shirota served as co-producers, with Brian C. Bennett and Caroline Eybye served as associate producers. William W. Wilson III took care of line producing duties.

The official description of the film is included below.

“An American soldier imprisoned in postwar Japan enters the dark world of the yakuza, adopting their way of life in repayment for his freedom.”

The film doesn’t hit until March 9, so we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see how the movie ultimately turns out. In the meantime, you can check out some of the standout reactions from fans in the following slides.

@nancywyuen

Some quickly took to hitting the new trailer with the Whitewashing label.

“Jared Leto as a Yakuza Killing Machine? No thank you to this #WhiteWashing mess. h/t @jesthevu”

“There is literal #Whitewashing (Dr. Strange, Ghost in the Shell) and figurative #Whitewashing when shows set in Asia center around a white actor (The Last Samurai, The Great Wall). If you don’t understand the subtleties, do not accuse me of idiocy.”

@therebeccasun

Fans like Rebecca Sun are just wondering who was craving a movie about someone wanting to be part of the Yakuza.

“WHO ASKED FOR THIS ???”

@PakistaniPepper

There are plenty of people who understand the premise of the film, but still feel like this is just using Asian actors as props.

“Seriously!?! Another one of those movies where the Asian actors are props and the story–set in JAPAN–revolves around the ONE Hollywood actor?!?”

@its_willyu

William Yu sums up his feelings rather quickly, and again references the idea of being Asian actors being turned into props.

“STOP. WRITING. AROUND. US.

@netflix”

He also offers up a different tagline for the film.

“white guy goes through an emo phase then decides to join a gang in this trailer for Netflix’s The Outsider.

there I fixed it.”

@CJMelendez_

CJ Melendez doesn’t necessarily feel this is whitewashing an Asian character, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.

“It’s different because the film’s creators created a white role for a white actor that appropriates another culture rather than, say, cast a white actor for an asian character? The transgression is all the same.”

@ShakExcellence

Others feel that the outsider viewpoint would have been just as easy to get across with someone of Asian descent.

“THE LAST YAKUZA STARRING JARED LETO

(Seriously, how hard is it to hire an Asian-American actor for this type of shit? Still gets the outsider point across.)”

@hoodieripper

Some fans decided to give examples of other Yakuza based films fans should watch instead.

“If you want to watch something on the Yakuza in post-war Japan, check out the five amazing films in the ‘Yakuza Papers’ series by Kinji Fukasaku which covers the Yakuza’s rebirth and rise from the early ’50s to the early ’70s. Leave this embarrassing mess unloved and ignored.”

@AndyAstruc

It does seem fans are interested in a Yakuza movie, just not one with Leto as the lead.

“Oh man, you know what would be more interesting than Jared Leto as some American dude joining the Yakuza? A show about the actual Yakuza. ?”

@karenyhan

Sometimes the best way to sum something up is with a rather iconic Spider-Man quote.

“just watched the trailer for the jared leto yakuza movie and can somebody please tell netflix that with great power comes great responsibility”