'Immigration to toxic masculinity': Swapping of 'Adolescence' main character's race angers netizens

The four-part Netflix series Adolescence has been garnering wide praise for its portrayal of issues young boys face while growing up. However, now netizens are miffed with the show's creators for changing the race of the lead character.

A white actor has been cast to portray the protagonist of the series which is based on Hassan Sentamu, a black man convicted for the murder of a 15-year-old girl in 2023.

The creators of the show, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, have pitched it as a story of “male anger, male rage".

Even noted actor Stephen Graham told GQ magazine how controversial social media sensation Andrew Tate was an influence on the show.

UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer has also expressed his desire to screen the show at the UK parliament.

However, some social media users are now pointing out that the race of the lead character was intentionally changed to avoid debate on immigration.

One user wrote, 'Race-switching a murderer in your show to change the topic from immigration to toxic masculinity is so deeply evil and dishonest I have trouble properly expressing my rage."

The user shared a post by Irish far-right ideologue Keith Woods. "This is how Netflix portrays a 13-year-old knife murderer in the UK. Second image is the person it was based on," Woods had said in his post.

“Unfairly demonizes white working-class boys," a presenter of GB News also said.

When someone opined it might not have been deliberate on the showmakers' part, a user said, "That’s a fair point, and it’s not that’s it a documentary, but it’s that this attack which inspired adolescence, Southport, and the Nottingham attack have all been high profile knife murders with consistent demographic markers, and so it seems odd against this backdrop the protagonist of adolescence is picked from a very different demographic."