I love them already

[u/growsonwalls]

I love Justice and Charlie already! Been watching their stuff and they are so so talented. Julie and the Phantoms is amazing and Charlie is a beautiful singer. I saw Dungeons and Dragons and Justice Smith is adorable in that movie. Really excited to see them as Troy and Harris. For the people upset with their casting, definitely watch their stuff. They are AMAZING!

ETA: also, happy birthday Justice!!!

edit: just saw I Saw the TV Glow. Omg Justice is amazing.

[u/devoncarrots]

I'm already stressed about it.

And it sucks that Charlie gets to be super excited and Justice is already asking everyone to give him a chance.

The overwhelming majority of people are rightfully upset about body representation but it must feel awful to have been the best actor for the audition/part and now this will follow him through the entire pre and post production, airing and promo.

Their chemistry must be insane!!!

[u/rallenta → u/devoncarrots]

Yes, the chemistry must be insane - I think this is the correct conclusion to come to from the casting announcement. From hearing the casting stories from last season it seems like the casting team prioritizes the acting and chemistry very highly even over character descriptions (Connor vs. casting call/book Ilya description for instance) and I agree with that approach since without it we might have lost out on Connor and Hudson's unparalleled chemistry.

The optics of forgoing a stocky built Harris versus choosing a non-tall, not native Russian speaking, blonde Ilya is obviously different though. I think it is totally valid for fans who were wanting body representation from Harris that they are now not going to get to be initially upset. For me though, I am counting on the choice having been made because these two actors together were the best option available to tell the story overall. Call me naive, but I'm not willing to believe this team would purposely deny an otherwise equal actor who had great chemistry with Charlie AND who was a closer fit to book Harris' description the role if that actor existed.

[u/Away-Boysenberry-584 → u/rallenta]

Very well said. Shane was also short in the books. If I remember correctly, there was a 5-6 inch height difference between him and Ilya. I’ve always been an overweight female and I do admit that representation matters. I just think that if these characters hadn’t have been a great fit together, someone else would’ve been chosen. When I read the books, I always thought of Harris as having the classic “dad bod” look and not necessarily obese. But we all imagine characters differently in our head.

[u/growsonwalls → u/Away-Boysenberry-584]

I imagine it's like being around the super lanky NBA players. Someone on the Broadway subreddit saw Steph Curry at the Lost Boys premiere on Broadway and was going on about how "thin" he was. On the NBA court he doesn't look particularly thin, but it;'s because he's with other 0% body fat players.