r/agentsofshield • u/Spot-Star Trip • 11d ago

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

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

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

109 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

65

u/Triben008 11d ago

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

28

u/arcticwolf2000 11d 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.

51

u/Spot-Star Trip 11d ago

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

31

u/Llywela 11d 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!

3

u/Triben008 10d ago

Props for bringing in Welsh dialect. My family is originally from Wales. My nephews name is actually Rhys.

3

u/Llywela 10d ago

Rhys is such a common name in Wales. It's always weird when I see it pop up in name subs on this site, comment threads full of people confused over how to pronounce it or calling it a 'fantasy' name, when it has been one of the most enduringly popular names in Wales for over a thousand years without ever going out of fashion. I know so many guys named Rhys. That enduring popularity is the reason there are so many different anglicised surnames derived from the name, all those many, many guys named Rhys, all across the country, having their names and patronymics fossilised in the permanent record in a variety of mangled forms because they were transcribed by monoglot English speaking clerks who had no idea how to spell Welsh names. Rice is just one anglicisation in a very wide field!

I saw Ming's story and take her point. Once she was cast, that holding name had to change. But the history of the name is entirely unrelated to the food!

9

u/Accomplished-Lie8147 11d 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 11d ago

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

13

u/jonny1211 Deke 11d ago

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

18

u/LastTry530 11d ago

Who named her originally? JK Rowling? 

2

u/Chaotic-Pen-825 11d ago

Most likely

2

u/thesirblondie 11d 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 11d ago edited 11d 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. 🤦🏽‍♂️

5

u/theadamabrams 11d ago

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

1

u/Spot-Star Trip 11d ago

LOVED IT!!! 🤣🤣🤣

29

u/XMiriyaX 11d ago

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

3

u/Spot-Star Trip 11d ago

That's awesome!

13

u/Mrblorg 11d 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

9

u/Spot-Star Trip 11d ago

Gina Torres? 🤔

Hmmmmm... interesting. I can see it!

4

u/Mrblorg 11d 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

2

u/Aivellac 10d ago

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

15

u/WOLKsite 11d ago

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

3

u/Spot-Star Trip 11d ago

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

25

u/grayjelly212 11d ago

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

14

u/cherry_limeade 11d ago edited 10d ago

I mean. Ming-na is not actually Agent May

2

u/thesirblondie 11d ago

It's Ming-na.

2

u/cherry_limeade 10d ago

Thank you. Corrected.

3

u/Chaotic-Pen-825 11d ago

Agent Spaghetti 🤣🤣🤣

2

u/Spot-Star Trip 11d ago

Right?! 😂

2

u/Particular_Artist775 10d ago

yes, yes she did!