Spike is meant to be in his late twenties in the original anime, while John Cho, who portrays Spike in the Netflix adaptation, is 49 years old. During an Aug. 30 interview with Vulture, Cho revealed his biggest fear about taking on the role was he thought people would say he was "too old" to play Spike. "I knew people were gonna have issues with my age. And I had to get over it," he said, adding his years of experience as an actor actually allowed him to express Spike's more vulnerable side. "I don't think I would've done justice to the emotional depth we tried to give Spike [if I was younger]."