Last night, the trades broke the news that Marvel Studios had finally cast Elektra for the second season of Daredevil, which is currently in production in New York City. G.I. Joe: Retaliation star Elodie Yung will be taking up the sais opposite Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock when the series returns to Netflix next year.

That’s right, Elektra will be portrayed by a mixed race Cambodian actress! Does this mean an Asian American Danny Rand is still in the cards? We shall see. In the meantime, holy shit Elektra is Asian!

Now, a lot of fans might be upset that for the second time, a Greek actress isn’t playing a live action Elektra. For what it’s worth, Yung resembles the comics version a hell of a lot more than Jennifer Garner ever did.

Interestingly, Elektra isn’t the first iconically Greek superheroine Elodie Yung has auditioned for. Back in 2013, she was one of the finalists for the role of Wonder Woman in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman. That part eventually went to Gal Gadot.

Needless to say Daredevil season two has already ascended to the top of my must-see list for 2016 (or whenever it’s supposed to come back). To be fair, it didn’t have far to climb since the addition of Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, and the excellence that was season one already assured its place at the top.

Still, the fact that the producers were unafraid to racebend a character as iconic as Elektra — remember, she’s one of the few female superheroes to ever topline her own movie, even if it was garbage — gives me hope that the same thing is still in the cards for the Iron Fist series. And since Marvel still hasn’t figured out how to approach that show, maybe the positive reaction to Elodie Yung’s casting might still sway them in the right direction?

https://twitter.com/AngrygirLcomics/status/618597151929683968

Elektra will also be the third major Asian American heroine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Agents May and Skye on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (fourth, if you count Age of Ultron’s Helen Cho). Still, that universe is quite lacking in Asian American male character representation. Especially since they neglected to cast Ryan Potter for Spidey.

Whatever happens with Iron Fist, it’s nice to see Marvel Studios isn’t afraid to diversity its superhero lineup — on television at least. In addition to Yung’s Elektra and the multicultural cast on S.H.I.E.L.D., fellow NOC Brandon Easton has been added to the writers room for Agent Carter, and there’s still Jessica Jones and Luke Cage to come on Netflix. But a few more Asian dudes in the mix wouldn’t hurt.

So yeah, the next season of Daredevil can’t come soon enough. Hopefully, more details about Elektra will come out during Comic-Con this week, even if Marvel Studios won’t be there. In the meantime, I’m going to go rewatch Retaliation for the 134th time.

PS, apart from this brief mention on Hard NOC, I’ve never given that movie the praise it deserves in a full-on post. We’ll have to rectify that soon. You can see my thoughts on the first Joe movie here, though.