Well, that didn’t take long.
Narcos: Mexico star Tenoch Huerta was first announced to have joined the cast of Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever last November, but as of yet, his role hasn’t officially been revealed. However, a recent rumor hinting that he might be playing Namor the Sub-Mariner gained a whole lot of traction, to the extent that the longtime comic book favorite was trending on Twitter.
As we all know, though, wherever trending topics go, cancel culture follows swiftly behind. Indeed, almost immediately in the wake of the actor piquing the public’s curiosity based on a part he may or may not be filling in a blockbuster superhero movie that he’s at least definitely involved in, Huerta was facing accusations of being a racist and a homophobe, thanks to a tweet he made in December 2018.
Some folks are up in arms about it, and others are pointing out that a mistranslation of his words gives off the exact opposite intentions of what his initial message put across, but you can check out the reactions and the tweet itself below and decide for yourself.
Feliz Navidad a todos menos a los pobres, inmigrantes, homosexuales, trans, feministas, liberales, indígenas… Y si no entienden que es broma
¡tampoco para ustedes! pic.twitter.com/5gNnPeYgx1— Tenoch Huerta Mejía (@TenochHuerta) December 8, 2018
NAMOR actor homophobic, racist and a misogynist how fo you manage to offend everybody??? oh brother pic.twitter.com/MqpZEMrBtA
— jo📨 (@saintlioncourt) June 7, 2021
nvm the man who was casted as namor is homophobic and a horrible person the fun is over pic.twitter.com/iwy0ZWfyh3
— aniya. (@eliixirgenius) June 7, 2021
I heard rumors that Tenoch Huerta is going to be playing Namor. The least Marvel could do is choose somone that isn't homophobic, victim blaming, and racist… please do better Marvel…
— H0TSH0T (@H0TSH0TFPS) June 7, 2021
Wait they cast Namor already and he’s homophobic????
— Rene 🐝 🇸🇻 𒉭 (@Spiritofthebat) June 7, 2021
i found out the namor actor is homophobic on my tl before i even found out someone was officially cast as namor 😭
— dahlia ✡︎ (@starsandgxrters) June 7, 2021
The "Namor is rumoured to be in Black Panther 2" -> "Namor is rumoured to be played by this guy" -> "Here are the guy who's rumoured to be playing Namor's homophobic tweets" cascade was faster than I expected
— Al Kennedy (@housetoastonish) June 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/castlevcnia/status/1401964756001464322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1401964756001464322%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fepicstream.com%2Fnews%2F%2FBriConstantino%2FActor-Rumored-to-Play-Namor-is-Already-Getting-Canceled-Over-Accusations-of-Homophobia
Mexican guy cast as Namor and his name is Tenoch.
Thats good.
He made homophobic, transphobic, racist tweet.
That's bad.
Turns out it's a sarcastic tweet ridiculing conservatives.
That's good.
People calling for him to be fired are being weirdly racist about it.
Can I go now.— carlos magana @carlosmagana.bsky.social (@carlsmagana) June 8, 2021
I don't know if the guy rumored to play Namor actually said homophobic stuff or not, but I do know a lot people are jumping on it extremely quickly and using it as an excuse to push a bunch of exclusively light-skinned actors to play Namor instead.
Which seems weird to me.
— Stephan Krosecz (@Krosecz) June 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/SunkenStoneShip/status/1402021733364748309?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1402021733364748309%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fepicstream.com%2Fnews%2F%2FBriConstantino%2FActor-Rumored-to-Play-Namor-is-Already-Getting-Canceled-Over-Accusations-of-Homophobia
Twitter: “Omg the person cast as Namor tweeted something homophobic”
The Tweet: https://t.co/XaRmATlRR5— soft boi (@CloudTapia) June 7, 2021
It’s almost as though the cancel culture enthusiasts wait until somebody’s reached their cultural peak before digging into the past. A very recent example came when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu found himself under fire for tweets he’d posted in 2012, which nobody had bothered to mention for close to a decade until the first trailer for his biggest-ever gig debuted, and on his birthday no less, when all he said was that he didn’t care for the music of Nicki Minaj.
In any case, whether Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has found its Namor or not, chances are the latest storm in a teacup will have blown over by the time cameras start rolling next month.
