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The latest AI-fueled trend has social media under the impression that Netflix is producing a biopic on Martin Luther King, Jr., with the title role being played by Tom Hanks. And let’s just get this out of the way right now: no, Hanks is not playing MLK, and no, Netflix is not working on the movie in any way. The whole thing is fake. In fact, it’s a racist fake! So there you go.
Still, that didn’t stop the internet from doing its thing, with some actually believing Hanks is donning Blackface and portraying the revolutionary civil rights activist in a new MLK Netflix movie.
One wrote, “This is not true right?!? Please don’t tell me this,” while another wrote, “I thought this whole Tom Hanks playing MLK thing was a JOKE! But it’s true?!”
This is far from the first time this sort of racism has come into play online, usually framed with a nod and a wink, or a casual “what, I’m just saying??” accompanied by a picture of a white actor in Blackface, or some variation thereof. Another variation on the trend will crop up during superhero movie or TV show castings in particular. When a white person in the comic book source material is cast with an actor of color, purported superhero fans (really, racists) will tweet — for example — a picture of Chris Evans as Black Panther with a, “oh, so this is okay, right?”
No, it’s not okay. It’s far from okay. It is, in fact, racism. Overtly. For decades, actors of color have been relegated to supporting roles, if that. Opening up the casting process to allow for more diversity is a good, positive step for Hollywood; casting white actors in roles of color only seeks to expand a field that is already wide open. It’s also — not sure we mentioned this — racist.
In case you weren’t sold, the poster, or the idea for it, seems to have been generated off an April Fool’s article from Wolfshead Online, a site that from a casual perusal of their articles seems to be homophobic, anti-woman, and yes, extremely racist.
Back to the posters, which have certainly messed with people, though most Twitter users seem to understand they’re fakes, with one saying, “That’s crazy y’all think that Tom Hanks MLK shit real lol” and someone else saying, “This has to be fake.”
Many are sharing that the AI-generated image — which shows Hanks in character as the civil rights leader at a demonstration — appears to resemble Will Smith, someone writing, “That look like will smith playing Tom hanks playing mlk” and another Twitter user commenting, “It looks more like Will Smith and I know I ain’t the only one who sees it.”
The AI-oriented trend has inspired others to create even more fake film pictures, adding more racist fuel to the online dumpster fire.
So, for those still wondering “is Tom Hanks playing MLK on Netflix?,” the answer is definitely no. While the memes and pranks are easy to dismiss as AI creations, offline they call back to the decades-long issue of Blackface in Hollywood. The racist practice has been featured in Community, The Office and Scrubs; comedians including Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Tina Fey have since issued apologies for donning Blackface in the past.
Hanks himself has acknowledged whitewashing in the entertainment industry and in his own work, writing in a 2021 New York Times essay, “My experience was common: History was mostly written by white people about white people like me, while the history of Black people — including the horrors of Tulsa — was too often left out. Until relatively recently, the entertainment industry, which helps shape what is history and what is forgotten, did the same. That includes projects of mine.”
His words later inspired an op-ed from NPR’s Eric Deggans, who wrote in response, “[Hanks] is a baby boomer star who has built a sizable part of his career on stories about American white men ‘doing the right thing,'” and called for the actor to take the step from non-racist to becoming actively anti-racist.
Decider has reached out to Netflix for more comment on the hoax. In the meantime, if you’re actually looking for a film about MLK, we’ve got plenty of real suggestions for you, including Selma, I Am MLK Jr., and MLK/FBI.
