12 Years a Slave
This is supposed to be a Louis Hughes reference I take it?
ā¦such topics as the casting of Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torchā¦
That sounds fine to me, but are they changing the story so Sue Storm (now played by Kate Mara) is no longer his biological sister? Because otherwise Mrs. Storm must have had some 'splainin to doā¦
They may be the children from an inter-racial marriage or blended family. It is the 21st century after all.
With those particular actors I think half-siblings, adopted siblings or step-siblings would be the most plausible. Though you never know what the makeup team will do with them, I guess.
Were there such widespread objections to Idris Elba being cast as Heimdall?
you mean that minor side character who people have only a cursory knowledge of? Yeah, there wasnāt a big fuss about that, much like no one noticed that Fandral is played by a different actor in Thor 2.
There was a bit of a fuss by a few over Elbaās casting but I remember the news covering the minor fuss being more prevalent than the fuss itself.
The fun part of that fuss was the fussers claiming not racial bias but āupholdingā or āstaying true toā Norse Mythology were their motivations for being upset at Marvel - All while not seeming to care or ever making a fuss about all the many other ways Marvel has totally altered Norse Mythology in their comics for decades.
Plus the āIām no racist, butā¦ā hand-wringers seemingly missed the whole premise that Asgardians were worshipped by the Nordic people, but werenāt actually of Nordic descent.
There was also some fuss about Michael Clarke Duncan being cast as The Kingpin for that Daredevil movieāwhich by all accounts had much, much bigger problems than the villainās skin color.
I actually think Michael Clarke Duncan was perfect for Kingpin. The rest of the movie, however was just bad.
I agree. Itās hard to fault the decision to cast one of the few 6ā-6", 300-something-pound actors in Hollywood who actually had some talent. Too bad they didnāt give him any opportunity to use it.
Even more incredibly, there are people who still gripe about Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury because he was originally white in the comics.
Given that Marvel specifically started drawing him to look like Samuel Jackson years earlier, the complaints were spectacularly stupid even by the standards of racists.
Iām happy that movie studios are willing to cast black and otherwise minority superheros, but sad that they still resist female ones. Disney got over it and has strong princesses now, soā¦
I do have to give Disney credit for thatā¦ Brave passes the Bechdel test with flying colors.
While I understand all the reasons, what I find still puzzling and sad is that there is this need to āreinterpretā and āmoveā and whateverā¦ things that are so freaking old they would be in a retirement home complaining about kids this days.
What I mean is, I find it sad that there is this āwarā between people that want stuff exactly as it was when they were kids and people that want to make that kind of stuff racial diverse or GLBT friendly or whateverā¦
ā¦ what about NEW stuff? What about being inspired but at the same time bringing something new to the table and create new universes, new works, new characters? Why is our ācultureā so invested in the same old stuff? This F4 stuff is very boring to me; the previous movies were atrociously bad, this one doesnt look much better in principleā¦ and the question for me is WHY. Why go to do a new, diverse, 201* version of something that was new when bellbottoms was in vogue, and why should we care, instead of being surrounded by new, actual 201*, original stuff?
The commercial side of it I understand - I dont understand the āculturalā side of it.
Note: Just to be clear, as long as this kind of stuff keeps being done, Iām more than ok, Iām 100% behind modernizing it and having role models for all people of all races and orientations and all that. But really, Iām the only one that fears that āgeek cultureā or whatever is maybe a bit too much focused on the same old things instead of really producing new stuff?
My solution to the problem is pretty simple: make new characters! Itās worked fine with the new Ultimate Spider-Man and Batwing (the African Batman). Changing the skin color of established characters is just shallow and lazy.
Thatās important too, but it ignores the question being debated: should people get upset if Hollywood makes a movie adaptation using an actor who has a different skin color than the character had in the comic books?
Iād argue the answer to that question is āno,ā unless race is an important aspect of that character (i.e. making āBlack Pantherā a white guy would be offensive and contradictory to the characterās African roots.)
Okay, so let me play Devilās Advocate. What about movies like Dragonball Z and The Last Airbender? People were furious over characters they perceived to be Asian being played by white actors, but you canāt really claim that being Asian is an important aspect of the characters because Avatar takes place on another world and Goku is an alien. They have no Asian roots but itās considered offensive that they made those casting decisions.
A fair question. I think the problem in those cases is that non-white people are already under-represented in Hollywood, so it feels like an insult to the actors who actually did look like the characters.
