In recent years, there has been a clear push for Black characters in games to feature more realistic and culturally appropriate hairstyles and personalities. Generally speaking, there has been a thoughtful approach to having more authentic Black hairstyles—Insomniac Games' Spider-Man and its focus on Miles Morales and the Harlem community being solid standouts. Unfortunately, many developers have recently honed in on one hairstyle for Black characters, and it's become something of a worrying sign for audiences—and that's the "Killmonger" haircut.
The issue with the look is that many developers have leaned heavily into it and have turned it into the hairstyle for Black characters, and it's been overused in recent years.
This focus on one hairstyle shows a very narrow insight into Black hairstyles, which ultimately contradicts the end goal bringing in a more authentic view of the Black experience and culture. According to Olander, one of the reasons why developers have leaned into this style is largely due to technology.
"It's really interesting to think about: why do so many games have this hairstyle? Why don't we see other types of hairstyles? There's a smorgasbord—as we say in Sweden—of hairstyles to pick from," said Olander about the Killmonger. "But, you know, from a developer point of view, I see it as a quite simple hairstyle to approach from a technical standpoint."
"It's already been working in games, and it's been accepted as something authentic, and for many game companies, this means that it's an efficient hairstyle that's been proven to work," he said. "But what we do see is that many games use this hairstyle, but they might not know how to make other various hairstyles to go along with that option. Furthermore, there's a lack of access to diverse dev teams who can help guide the proper implementation into those games."
