Lovecraft Country: Why A Major Character Was Gender-Swapped For The HBO Show
Lovecraft Country on HBO mostly follows Matt Ruff's novel, but there are some changes, such as Caleb Braithwhite gender-swapping to Christina; why?
Lovecraft Country on HBO is proving to be an action-filled TV series that mostly follows Matt Ruff's novel, but audiences are noticing some subtle changes. For instance, gender-swapping one of the main characters is an interesting choice. Why did showrunner Misha Green decide to do this?
HBO's Lovecraft Country is based on the sci-fi/horror novel by Matt Ruff that was published in 2016. It is written as eight stories that are interconnected by their main characters. The first story carries the title of the book, "Lovecraft Country", and is about Atticus, Uncle George, and Leti going on a road trip in search of Tic's father. After encountering some racist police officers, they discover Atticus's father, Montrose, is being held at a manor house where a group of white men who call themselves the "Sons of Adam" are planning a ritual that involves Tic's blood because he is a distant descendant of the original leader of the order. This ritual is led by Samuel Braithwhite, who intends to use it to gain immortality.
In the book, Samuel Braithwhite has a son named Caleb who ends up helping Atticus foil his father's plans by giving him an incantation to say that causes the ritual to unleash some kind of power that turns Samuel Braithwhite and all of the other members of the order to dust. In the show, however, Caleb was changed to Christina Braithwhite, swapping the character's gender from male to female. There are a few reasons why Green could have chosen to do this, but the most likely was to help with the character's overall motivations.
In Lovecraft Country, Samuel Braithwhite is the current leader of the Sons of Adam, also knows as the Order of the Ancient Dawn. They are sorcerers capable of tormenting Tic and his companions with horrifying illusions. Nevertheless, it's a boys club, and only men are allowed to join the order, which means that Christina Braithwhite, being female, can never be a part of her father's legacy. In episode 2, "Whitey's on the Moon", it becomes clear that Christina has never gotten along well with her father. While this is similar in the book, with Caleb being the one who is resentful of his father, having a female character who can't be a part of her father's world further strengthen's the motivation for why the character would turn against their father.
This gender-swap does change the context of the story a little. For instance, in the book, Caleb seems to turn against his father not only because he dislikes him but also because he will be the new leader of the order, being male. Christina, on the other hand, does the same thing more out of spite, although it's possible she may try to start her own order as the HBO series continues. While episode 2 proved to audiences that the show would be following the book, with the first two episodes covering the first of eight stories from the novel, it's likely that Caleb's change to Christina in Lovecraft Country will only involve minor changes to the overall story.