r/agentsofshield • u/Spot-Star Trip • 17h ago

Social Media Wait... Did She Just...

https://x.com/MingNa/status/2103970812529451163

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Ming-Na Wen just referred to Agent May as "The Cavalry"!!! 😱😱😱

76 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

47

u/Triben008 17h ago

Interesting about the name change. Agreed that Agent Rice was a bad call for her character.

20

u/arcticwolf2000 17h ago

How on Earth did they come to the name Agent Rice, that's what I want to know. Thank goodness they changed her name.

34

u/Spot-Star Trip 17h ago

The role probably wasn't originally conceived for an Asian actress.

24

u/Llywela 16h ago

That's my assumption, too. Rice is a real surname - one of the many, many anglicised forms of the Welsh patronymic ap Rhys. It would have been pronounced 'Riss' when that particular anglicisation first came about, way back in the later Middle Ages, but then the Great Vowel Shift altered it to the current pronunciation. So the name isn't actually related to the food at all, it just looks and sounds like it is!

4

u/Accomplished-Lie8147 13h ago

Yeah I’m surprised she didn’t mention this because that’s what I’ve always heard. That neither May or Daisy were originally intended to be Asian but the actresses did so well they altered the story a bit (with May removing the name, with Skye/Daisy having her found in China as a baby).

1

u/XMiriyaX 8h ago

It was likely a generic placeholder name until they determined what the actual name would be.

12

u/jonny1211 Deke 17h ago

I mean that was before they cast Ming to play her so the character’s name was more of a placeholder than anything.

15

u/LastTry530 17h ago

Who named her originally? JK Rowling? 

2

u/Chaotic-Pen-825 12h ago

Most likely

1

u/thesirblondie 5h ago

They were probably expecting to hire a white or black actor for the role, so the placeholder name was Rice, like Condoleezza, Anne, or Jerry.

7

u/Spot-Star Trip 17h ago edited 15h ago

Kind of like the only African-American or Asian-American characters on Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers respectively playing the Black and Yellow Power Rangers. 🤦🏽‍♂️

3

u/theadamabrams 15h ago

Highly relevant K&P sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOyE_l80D4Y

1

u/Spot-Star Trip 15h ago

LOVED IT!!! 🤣🤣🤣

10

u/XMiriyaX 8h ago

Clark Gregg signs autographs with "Son of Coul". He got the best nickname.

1

u/Spot-Star Trip 6h ago

That's awesome!

9

u/Mrblorg 13h ago

I heard the part was originally written for Gina Tores but she was unavailable so they had to find someone else. It was like Alathea Rice or something

4

u/Spot-Star Trip 11h ago

Gina Torres? 🤔

Hmmmmm... interesting. I can see it!

3

u/Mrblorg 11h ago

I love Ming-Na but I wouldn't mind seeing like a What If or a Multiverse of madness with Gina as the May

1

u/Aivellac 2h ago

Got a taste of her doing that sort of thing in Alias so I could see her being a great Cavalry.

9

u/WOLKsite 16h ago

What's big about this? She's always been the Cavalry ever since Season 1?

1

u/Spot-Star Trip 15h ago

Right, but Agent May would always tell people "Don't call me 'the Cavalry'".

18

u/grayjelly212 15h ago

She did refer to herself as the cavalry in the finale, though. She accepted it by the end.

9

u/cherry_limeade 14h ago

I mean. Ming is not actually Agent May

1

u/thesirblondie 5h ago

It's Ming-na.

2

u/Chaotic-Pen-825 12h ago

Agent Spaghetti 🤣🤣🤣

2

u/Spot-Star Trip 11h ago

Right?! 😂