Netflix’s Whitewashing Ruined Stranger Things Star Finn Wolfhard’s Favorite Anime

Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 just dropped on Netflix, so here’s a quick detour to talk about one of its stars, Finn Wolfhard, and the franchise he loves that Netflix famously fumbled: Death Note.

Finn Wolfhard loves Death Note. Netflix… not so much.

Back in 2022, during a Wired chat with Guillermo del Toro (yes, the Pinocchio one Wolfhard voiced in), Finn was asked about anime. His answer was simple:

"My favorite anime is Death Note."

Now, if you also love Death Note, you probably still have flashbacks to the 2017 Netflix movie. Let’s revisit how that went sideways and where the upcoming TV adaptation from the Stranger Things creators might land.

Remember Netflix’s 2017 Death Note? Yeah, about that…

Adam Wingard’s 2017 live-action Death Note for Netflix took huge swings away from Tsugumi Ohba’s original story. The action moved from Tokyo to Seattle. Light Yagami became Light Turner. The ruthlessly calculating anti-hero we knew turned into a more reactive, less sociopathic teen. Fans clocked the problems immediately, and the biggest criticism wasn’t subtle: the main cast wasn’t Asian, despite adapting a massively popular Japanese property. The result felt like it erased the representation the story could have brought with it.

To complicate things further, the character dynamics flipped. Misa Amane became Mia Sutton, who basically took on Light’s original predator instincts and pushed him around. L was reimagined but still just called L, played by LaKeith Stanfield. Meanwhile, Light’s dad Soichiro was turned into James Turner. The only Japanese actor in a prominent role was Paul Nakauchi as Watari. Willem Dafoe voicing Ryuk was inspired casting on paper, but keeping the Shinigami myth intact while overhauling everything else only made the lore feel patchy.

• Light Yagami → Light Turner (Nat Wolff)
• L → L (LaKeith Stanfield)
• Misa Amane → Mia Sutton (Margaret Qualley)
• Soichiro Yagami → James Turner (Shea Whigham)
• Watari/Quillsh Wammy → Watari (Paul Nakauchi)
• Ryuk → Ryuk (Willem Dafoe)

The wild part is that many of these actors are great in thrillers — Margaret Qualley in The Substance, LaKeith Stanfield in Get Out, The Changeling, and Knives Out — so the talent wasn’t the issue. The adaptation choices were. Fans didn’t just dislike the movie; they felt the changes hollowed out what made Death Note compelling while sidelining Asian leads in their own story.

Can the Stranger Things team fix it?

After Stranger Things Season 4 hit, Matt and Ross Duffer launched Upside Down Pictures in July 2022 and announced a live-action Death Note series. Writer Halia Abdel-Meguid is attached, and now that Season 5 is underway and the end of Stranger Things is in sight, we should finally start hearing real updates.

There’s one more twist: the Duffer Brothers recently signed a 4-year deal with Paramount Pictures and are set to leave Netflix in April 2026. What does that mean for Death Note? At minimum, the Duffers won’t be Netflix lifers much longer, which could shift where this series ultimately lands or how it’s handled. Details are still murky, but the takeaway is simple: if this thing moves forward, it won’t be the 2017 playbook again — and that’s the point.

Set expectations accordingly

The bar is on the floor. Most fans just want a version that respects the original’s cat-and-mouse brilliance and actually casts Asian leads in the roles that started it all. It could be great. It could whiff. But repeating 2017? That’s the one outcome nobody wants.

Where to watch right now: the 2017 Death Note movie is on Netflix. The anime is streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll.

So, where do you land on the 2017 take — unwatchable disaster or overhated experiment? I’ve got my feelings, but I’m curious about yours.