The Flash star Keiynan Lonsdale on dealing with racism after Wally West casting

Over the past few years Keiynan Lonsdale has played the character of Wally West fantastically on The Flash and now Legends of Tomorrow — yet, there were some bumps in the road when he first came on board. Like we’ve seen many times before, there is often a quick internet reaction anytime that comic-book characters are changed in some form from who they were in the source material. The entire West family in the Flash comics was white, so when that was shifted for the show the backlash was continuous for a while. We like to think that it’s calmed down for the most part, but unfortunately we do think it’s probably still out there in some corners.

Our feeling on the matter is pretty simple: Appearance is superficial. What matters more is the depth underneath. Lonsdale captures the energy and excitement of Wally West and his performance should be what matters the most. Is it also great that the TV version does get to speak to an under-served demographic? Certainly, but without that performance race or any other demographic would not matter.

In speaking to the Los Angeles Times about his new movie Love, Simon Lonsdale opened up more on the backlash, coupled with what some of how he got through it with the help of his co-stars:

“The character is originally Caucasian [in the comic books], and so when I got cast — they had changed the character in the most recent comic books and his father and sister are black, but people still didn’t put two and two together. It was interesting. I was upset and hurt and I couldn’t understand it.

I think one thing that helped, and made me sad but it made me realize it wasn’t personal — was once I got to set, I found out that Candice [Patton], who plays my sister Iris, had also been receiving it, so I was like, ‘Whoa, this is what people do? People care about that?’ Coming from Australia, of course we still have racism, but it’s different. So it was an education. I needed to experience that. There were definitely things that have tested my emotions, and just learning how to not respond to really awful [stuff], and learning to be like, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m good, good exactly as I am.’ I learned a lot about that by joining a show.”

Obviously, Lonsdale has gotten through that and the Wally character is beloved by a lot of people out there. In general, what we love about this character is that he acts in a way that so many would in the event that they had superpowers — there is a giddiness about him and a sense of genuine excitement — it’s really hard to say that there is a definite equal to that with other people in the Arrowverse.

For more on Lonsdale’s character, click here to read more about what’s next on Legends of Tomorrow. Meanwhile, be sure to also like CarterMatt on Facebook to get some other insight when it comes to the series. (Photo: The CW.)