Black Thor Actor Talks About Racist Comic Book Fans

[theguiltyone]

I know nothing of the comics or the movie and didn't read anything but the title of this topic, but casting a black man as Thor seems sortof like casting Hollywood Hulk Hogan as Nelson Mandela. It doesn't add anything to the role and you can't quite shake the feeling that something is up.

Fixed that for you.

 

[theguiltyone]

In norse mythology the norse gods were depicted as whit because most scandinavians (or at least their religious founders) never had contact with africans, so to their knowledge all humans were white.

Were?

So, theoretically speaking, since there ARE people of other color, and Scandinavians know that now, and the movie is set in present day, the God in question COULD have evolved in appearance since, y'know, he's a GOD?



EDIT: Huh. Vikings actually did have a term for black people: bluemen. So I guess they DID know they existed. The things I learn on this board.

 

[gphjr14]

Food for thought: If you think all racist are morons(insert random swear word) what better are you??

Morons? No
Ignorant and in need of enlightenment? Yes

Am I better than them? In that aspect, certainly.

The guy is a great actor I'm sure he did the role justice. Its not like they turned the character into a gang banger pimp.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Not that I give a shit, but it's amusing how when someone speaks of "black culture" they are proud of their heritage, but when someone mentions "white culture" they're racist.

 

[The Deadpool]

Well, to be fair, there was no reason why he was a GOOD casting choice.

See, had this been a part that required some impressive acting and the person they picked fit it perfectly except for race, I'd be fine with it. But Heimdall is a relatively minor character in the comics, his part could be played by damned near anyone with talent. All things being the same, why not stay true to the original?

It's not a huge change, and not one that ruins MY enjoyment of the movie, I just feel it was unescessary. And I dislike unsecessary changes.

saying that the Norse gods were actually aliens with some really advanced technology - which is actually true in the Marvel canon

RetCon'ed actually

 

[Ian Caronia]

Its the black Hobbit fiasco all over again.
Fans just get very attached to the source material.

Yeah, but for a reason, mainly being that it ruins the enjoyment of seeing a character people have come to love on screen. No, I don't care what you say. There are plenty of good actors out there of all kinds of races. An Indian character should not be white. A black character should not be Asain. etc.
Besides, making a Norse god black is like making a Greek god black. It just feels like the usual folks in Hollywood (fuckthemfuckthemfuckthem) saying "We need to fill our quota for this month. Make this guy black, this guy Asain, this guy Indian-"
And it feels that way, because it mostly is.

However, if the actor is great and fits the role like a glove, leeway needs to be given. Sure a white Kaneda is a thought that makes me want to vomit up brain cells and go into convulsions, but HEY, if the actor pulls off the role amazingly then the separation between the actor and the character because of race is broken instantly.

...However whereas this actor proves my positive point, the Hollywood remake of Akira will
DIE! EVERYONE BURNS! I'LL KKIILL TTHHEEMM!!

*is dragged back to his padded cell*

 

[BlueHighwind]

Yeah, like this Thor is totally faithful to the original mythology. Oh yeah. Black guy is a problem, but the bizarre Final Fantasy armor isn't?

People are just stupid and should shut up.

 

[iNsAnEHAV0C]

White, Black, Yellow, Red... who cares? is he the best actor for the job? will he make the movie better? thats all I care about.

 

[Mj0ln1r]

BTW: Gods (if that is not their feature) DO NOT change their appearance. When people were "forming" gods, they chose an unique appearance so their beloved character could be easily recognized. Their looks were often derived from their roles and characteristical traits.

Do not make mistake people. Heimdallr is white, in fact he is "the whitest of the gods"
So are Jesus and santa claus.

Again, any author has his right to interpert his heroes as he like. The thor movie is not movie about norse mythology it is about marvel mythology!!!

 

[lead sharp]

He was indeed epic in the role ( I loved the way his voice carried, really made him seem like he was plugged into everything ).

BUT I am sick of the reactionaries that are banging on about the racist issue. It's only an issue because it keeps getting brought up by people reporting about it.

and another BUT...

It IS weird having a black Norse god who's described as the "whitest of gods" and has a sister paler than snow (Sif for those who don't know)especially as we don't see any other black characters in the in the forefront of the film let alone in Asgard. That in itself could be considered racist as it makes Idris look like the token black guy.

Take Kingpin in Daredevil. They picked Michael Duncan Clarke because he had the girth and the chops to act the role. It worked and it wasn't weird, why? Because he was a human character that came from Hells (were you can be any colour your born) Kitchen not a god that came from Norse (not known for it's black community) mythology.

IT'S NOT RACIST!!! JUST CONTEXTUALLY WEIRD!!! and it's OK to think that way.

Now can this just go away please?

 

[Puzzlenaut]

Think of it this way:

Although you might think "yeah, I'm fine with that. Doesn't really affect anything all that much" (my view), imagine if instead a character who was always black (the Black Panther or Luke Cage for example) was cast as a white person. There would be absolute uproar!

Firstly, it would of course depend ENTIRELY on the story and the backdrop. If the character being a certain race was tied directly to the character, then yeah, shouldn't be messed with. But, in this case, Heimdall being white has nothing to do with anything, so yeah.

Secondly, people that make this kind of statement rarely realise how racist it really is. "WE'RE fine with it, we're the mature and level headed bunch, but if the tables were turned those ethnics would be going batshit!".

Says who?

It wouldn't necessarily be black people going batshit over said hypothetical scenario -- it would be anybody who loves political correctness. I had however meant to put in my post words pretty much to the effect of your first point, which would pretty much counter-act your second.

Heimdall's ethnicity doesn't affect his character at all, whereas with those characters I mentioned it has a massive amount to do with their backstory and how their character as a person works -- both, especially the Black Cat, have been at the end of racism in the stories they are in.
On the other hand, having a character like Blade, who could just as easily be white without his story being affected all, I honestly still think there would be something of an uproar from the politic-correctness-types, whilst I'm not even sure the black community would care.

 

[Mj0ln1r]

Food for thought: If you think all racist are morons(insert random swear word) what better are you??

Morons? No
Ignorant and in need of enlightenment? Yes

Am I better than them? In that aspect, certainly.

The guy is a great actor I'm sure he did the role justice. Its not like they turned the character into a gang banger pimp.

You are absolutely right. I was just implying the irony (you think something of somebody who thinks something of somebody)

 

[Beryl77]

It's a fictional movie, whether it's based off of a comic doesn't matter because the comic movies never tell the story exactly like in the comics. They always change some things. If someone in the movie said that all the gods are white and then he's black, then I would also think it's a bit stupid but only because of inconsistency.
But in the universe of this movie, there is a black norse God and fans of the comics should learn to deal with these things.

 

[0986875533423]

What happened to you, comic-book nerds? We used to be cool. You were, like, second only to Star Wars Nerds in your almost superpowered capacity to explain away semi-convincingly the utter bullshit in your respective source material, and you can't handle this?

Okay, I'll be the first to say I know almost nothing about Marvel Thor Canon, and I haven't seen the film yet (though I plan to) but, seriously?

The guy is a God. In this case the definition of "God" is admittedly "Superpowered Alien" but really, he doesn't have it within his capability to transform himself into Idris Elba in order to be badass if he wants to? (And really, who wouldn't?)

 

[Hive Mind]

Show me a photo of a white Norse god.

I'm not going to debate with you if this is your idea of an argument. If you want to intelligently make a claim, please do so. If you want to continue with questions like that, we are done.

 

[Jodah]

I find it more racist that they had to put him in it than I do people complaining. He is the token black guy of the film to silence activists. He may be a very fine actor but you can't tell me a white actor couldn't have done just as good. I have no problem with racial equality in films, I have a problem with movies putting minorities in just to be "fair".

 

[Soviet Steve]

Fixed that for you.

Actually I did read the post, I appreciate the sentiment though.

EDIT: Huh. Vikings actually did have a term for black people: bluemen. So I guess they DID know they existed. The things I learn on this board.

Was going to add this - We did run trading operations in Russia, we did raid as far as Sicily (Which was raided by Muslims for a while) and plenty of Norse went to Byzantium and worked as Varangean Guards, and with the trade, exploration and turmoil of the days there were likely people of all races who encountered the vikings at one point or another (Except the divine Heavenly Great Father and Dear Great Leader Kim Il Sung, obviously)

Religions tend towards favoring the familiar and demonizing the unfamiliar however, and seeing how no-one thus far has mentioned that Thor was a blåmand, it seems like a legitimate point that a black person would look miscast in that role.

Also worth noting in the opening post is that the movie is based on the comics rather than the actual norse Gods, and in the comics he does have a specified canonic appearance, which is a white person. From there we can at the very least conclude that the lad on the big screen does not match the lad he is supposed to depict.

 

[Gene O]

I am cautious about the casting of a black actor as Heimdall for the same reason I disliked turning the water tribe into Europeans for The Last Airbender movie. The Avatar tv show was about an Asian world (albeit fictionalized) and Thor is about Northern European gods (also fictionalized). The first was about people who weren't white, the second is about nothing but white people. Changing the race of one group or person in each case is completely inappropriate to the setting.

That said, this is the same director that cast Denzel Washington as Keannu Reeves brother in Much Ado About Nothing without any explanation to the audience and it worked because Denzel is an outstanding actor who executed his role perfectly. By the accounts I've seen in this thread, Idris Elba kicks ass as Heimdall and that's what really matters in a summer blockbuster.

I'm seeing Thor this weekend and from the comments I've read so far I can expect to more of the triumph of the second paragraph than the nagging fears of the first.

 

[RileyFaux]

I went to see this movie and I'm not going to deny that it's a good movie but I couldn't get over that Heimdall was black, mostly because the movie Thor is about my religion(Germanic Neopaganism) and there were a lot of other details that bothered me. I know the comic is based on Germanic Neopaganism(feels weird to say in english) but it left out so many important things, like how Óðinn lost his eye(that's not how I lost it)and the frost giants weren't really giants, but yeah, the Heimdall thing really bothered me, it's like casting a black guy or caucasian to play Jesus since he was neither!

 

[Lucifron]

I think it was a weird decision to cast Heimdall as black, because he decidedly was not as imagined by his creators. It's a bit like casting 7 feet hobbits with shoes in the Lord of the Rings.

Not that I really care, but still.