Jordan) questioning his role burning books under Captain Beatty (Michael Shannon) after encounters with Clarisse (Sofia Boutella) and the Eels resistance group. The modernized setting adds social media and internet censorship elements, yet these updates serve the original theme of knowledge suppression rather than shifting focus to identity-based oppression narratives.

Casting places actors such as Jordan as Montag, Khandi Alexander as the character memorizing Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Lilly Singh as Raven, and Grace Lynn Kung as Chairman Mao in lead and resistance roles, reflecting diverse selections without altering established source-material racial specifications. The Eels group's expanded literary canon deliberately preserves works by Rumi, James Baldwin, Zadie Smith, and Mao alongside traditional Western texts, which contributes a measured progressive layer to the resistance's knowledge preservation efforts. This emphasis on non-Western and minority authors, paired with the updated censorship context, registers as intentional modernization rather than incidental diversity. Because these elements remain secondary to the central anti-censorship story and avoid foregrounding systemic oppression themes, the overall ideological content stays moderate.