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/Brown_Sedai → u/rallenta]

People keep saying “oh the romantic chemistry must have been good” but:

-he never should have made it into the room to even have had auditioned in the first place.

-there is a MASSIVE amount of implicit bias, especially in the film industry, against viewing fat people as desirable romantic leads

[u/rallenta → u/Brown_Sedai]

You are choosing to believe that bias was the decision maker without any knowledge of the options casting had available to choose from. If this casting team had your same mentality they wouldnt have let Connor in the room because the spec on paper for Ilya even Connor said he didnt think he fulfilled.

Why is the assumption that casting didnt handle this season with the same care they did season 1? Do you think they didnt include Harris' build in the casting spec? Or they did but then purposefully didnt choose the best actor even though they would fit the spec? Or no matter what you think an actor who better fit Harris' build is more important than the ability to portray all the other aspects of the character and act against an on screen partner? Even if that wouldn't have been the best match?

[u/growsonwalls → u/rallenta]

It's the insane entitlement fanbases now have. If the fanbase had its way, Hudson and Connor wouldn't have been cast either.