Two recent additions to the surprise hit of last year, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, will help bring a little balance to the cast.
In an EW exclusive, it was revealed that Asian American Ross Butler, best known for his work on Riverdale and 13 Reasons Why, is playing the best friend of Noah Centineo’s character, Peter Kavinsky in the Netflix movie’s sequel.
In All the Boys, Peter was the main love interest for the lead character, Lara Jean, played by Lana Condor, whose mother in the movie is Korean American. It was the chemistry between Lara Jean and Peter that attracted the large audience and gave Netflix its rom-com hit, especially among the Y.A. demographic.
“We’re thrilled to announce that the endlessly charming Ross Butler has joined the cast of the To All the Boys sequel as Trevor Pike,” producer Matt Kaplan says. “His real-life friendship with Noah brings a natural chemistry and great rapport to the set and we can’t wait for fans to see this friendship play out onscreen.”
Last week, it was announced that Jordan Fisher would play John Ambrose McClaren, another of Lara Jean’s suitors. Fisher recently played Mark Cohen in the Fox Network’s Rent: Live.
“We couldn’t be more excited to have Jordan Fisher join the To All the Boys family as John Ambrose McClaren,” producer Matt Kaplan says. “Jordan’s charisma practically leaps off the screen with anything he does, whether it’s acting, singing, or dancing. There isn’t a more perfect guy who could believably shake things up in Lara Jean and Peter’s world.”
Perhaps with Fisher, who has Cambodian blood in his multi-racial heritage, and Butler, whose mother is Indonesian, the producers hope to deflect some of the early criticism from the AAPI communities because none of Lara Jean’s love interests were Asian, reinforcing the stereotype that Asian males are not boyfriend material for many American girls..
“I understand the frustration and I share that frustration of wanting to see more Asian American men in media,”responded author Jenny Han in an interview with IndieWire. “For this, all I can say is this is the story that I wrote.”
Filming on this project is already underway and will air on Netflix later this year or in 2020.
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