Recently, original Cleveland actor Mike Henry announced he was stepping down from the role, believing black characters should be voiced by black actors (Henry is white).
This decision appears to be a direct result of the Black Lives Matter movement and widespread advocating for diverse representation within the entertainment industry.
Family Guy is not the only show to change its organization in response to this movement; a number of shows have taken down episodes, restructured their casts, or made efforts to hire more non-white crew members.
Wendell Pierce is the Replacement?
With Cleveland set to be recast, the next question to be answered is who the new Cleveland will be. In a recent tweet, Pierce offers up himself as a potential candidate for the role.
In the tweet, Pierce explains that he wants to start campaigning for the role of Cleveland and includes the hashtag #WendellIsCleveland, possibly in hopes of garnering fan support and momentum behind his petition.
The response from fans in the tweet’s replies seems to be quite positive, with many fans mentioning how fun it would be to hear a version of Cleveland with Detective Bunk’s voice.
However, upon closer inspection of this tweet, it is unclear whether Pierce is being 100% serious. In the body of the tweet, Pierce has tagged two parody Twitter accounts, one pretending to be Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane and one pretending to be The Cleveland Show’s official account.
Fans responding to this tweet did go on to tag McFarlane’s verified Twitter, so if this was an honest mistake, it seems to have been remedied relatively quickly. But assume he’s really wanted to do this, do you all agree for him to be the new Cleveland Brown’s voice?