Black Thor Actor Talks About Racist Comic Book Fans

[Fetzenfisch]

Well, it isn't because we're racist.
It's because the Norse gods were all white.
(Ya dumb prick)
Since most of the vikings lived in the northern parts of Europe then they didn't see alot of black folk, so they thought that the gods were just more badass versions of them selves (hence the reason why the Aesir are not immortal).
So it's rather silly that a black guy was playing a Norse god, not because I'm a racist, but because I like it when people actually follow the story and follow mythology.
This would be like taking Anubis and putting him in a clown costume.

you are talking about stargate ?
Yeah i totally would agree with you. But its (like i said before) not a movie about norse mythology, its a marvel superhero movie. So its ok. Its not about the actual gods, its about comic book characters in tights. Asian mmos are raping norse myths for years, without loud cries of terror. marvel still does a decent job at it. ('xcept the tights).

It goes against the comics thou as well, an I honestly think if it goes against the comics an thus the fans, that give them the solid fan base for every single one of these films to at least break even (hence why there are so fckin many as they know they have nothing to loose) then it should be enhancing that experience, instead it just creates a WTF moment!?!?!

Seriously if you had a charter you had loved as they were, would't you be pissed if you rolled up to the cinema and he was a compleatly different race to what he originally was?

Cause I'll be fucking pissed off if in 60 years they remake rocky an Apollo creed is white, I swear to god I would be rioting in the street, even if I was the only one there!!

1st) I hope you are as drunk as me, if not: go see a fucking tutor

2nd) i can totally understand what you want to say and yes it is strange and something you have to get used to. But that's usually what happens if comics, games, books, etc. are made into movies. They change stuff. Lord of the rings changed a lot of stuff and just erased a lot of others. but it was ok. Spiderman changed a lot of stuff. still a good movie.
I could go on now, but i really want to watch my series, so i just summarize again: Its just the movie made after a comic.And those have NEVER been true to the original and: Its never been ment to be faithfully after the ancient religion. So: watch it or leave it.

 

[Gibboniser]

He was an incredible bad ass and a great character, nothing wrong with him.

 

[thahat]

I just saw the film yesterday, and I'm glad he was cast in the role. He was epic! I would have gladly watched an entire film about him without a single mention of Thor.

I just saw the film yesterday, and I'm glad he was cast in the role. He was epic! I would have gladly watched an entire film about him without a single mention of Thor.

This, a thousand times this. Me and my friends all agreed he was the most badass character

Me too! He was so awesome...
Now, I do think that main characters should be cast as close as possible to the source, Thor being black would have been kinda weird. But other characters, especially one as minor as this guy (he really doesn't do much, disappointingly). And he did a great job being a badass.

must say, the black heimdall isent even so strange if you think about it, i mean, he's the gatekeeper, he's a bit more distanced from the rest of the godds, a bit a strange duckling in the pack. i myself was more anoyed at the casting of the chinese fellow that was one of thors friends WHAT ON EARTH WAS HE DOING THERE XD, i mean white/nordic < supposed to be there
black heimdall, well black goes with everything and a logical explenation could be made up on the spot. but the random chinese dude XD? anyone have a good explenation for that XD?

 

[thahat]

In all likeliness, the Aesir would have all been grey anyway, so i don't get why people are complaining.

why gray?

 

[Nurb]

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But that's just excusing race-based hiring. If we're talking just about ability, then there shouldn't be any accusation of "whitewashing" in the new "Americanized" live action Akira movie. (which is going to suck no matter who's cast). Also, making the assumption someone got their role because of their skin color and making is racism Too.

Hollywood is one of the most liberal places in the country filled with people that made Mel Gibson apologize for his drunken idiocy, but there's these holdouts from the 50's in charge somewhere? A lot of the producers, directors, and writers who make the actor selections are jewish too, so the "status quo" implication includes them as well you know.

A double standard is a double standard and I'm a liberal bisexual, so I run into them all the time from straight and gay people alike and catch plenty of shit when I refuse to treat someone differently when dating just because of their gender. That's why I want people to just make up their minds because trying to fix racism with racism isn't a solution, it's just "the ends justifying the means".

"Liberal" =/= not racist. First and foremost, Hollywood is about making money. They think that white actors will make more money than minority actors, so they cast more white actors than minority actors in roles that would go to either. The solution to this problem is to "cast an equitable number of minority and white actors," not "change nothing, then pretend we cast an equitable number of minority and white actors."

Then you're making the implication that the conspiracy theorists and Mel Gibson have a gain of truth when it comes to the "Greedy Jews in control of hollywood" or are you just singling out the straight, white christians, atheists and scientologists as being the ones causing the problems? Because that's all anyone envisions when they imagine the people protecting the "Status quo", forgetting about all those other religions involved in the industry, and most being powerful enough to make the selections like those jewish directors, producers, and writers I mentioned earlier.

Also, I'll quote this guy again, because people cared more about the race than the facts behind the characters

I like how the thread starter mentions the example of utter hypocrisy this issue brings up in a complete handwaving motion.

When The Last Airbender cast was announced, there were dozens of online petitions and websites put up declaring that the movie was racist because much of the cast was white.

Ignoring that it was cast by a man of Indian descent.

Ignoring that the characters in question all had blue eyes in the cartoon.

Ignoring that the cartoon was not set on Earth, and so there were no such terms as "Inuit" or "Caucasian" to begin with.

Still, there was tons of protest and hand-wringing, and oh that racist racist white... M. Night Shymalan!

Here, the reverse happens, and you have the audacity to call the people complaining racist? Why didn't you level these complaints at those protesting The Last Airbender?....

Snip

 

[Croaker42]

Let's cast a black jew as hitler in the next WWII movie, ok?

I understand the complaining about canon, but the plot of the movie is pretty different from the comics.

/This.

If the movie had stuck to cannon even I would be pissed. I have only ever read a few thor commics.
This instance sounds like a movie that has nothing to do with the commic except names.

 

[Saulkar]

While I personally have no problem with a black guy playing Loki. I feel that only certain ethnicity is capable of pulling off certain roles. A black James Bond would not feel right and would go against 50 years of established canon while a pair of white Bad Boys would lack that feeling of bad ass and humor that Will Smith and Martin Laurence established. Some roles are just best left for certain people. I am all for going against the grain under the strict circumstance that they do it right. I had my reservations about playing a black character in GTA San Andreas given the previously established atmosphere but Rockstar did such a good job that it felt strange playing a white character in GTA 4. If you feel I came off as racist because I feel different ethnicity can bring different things in media then that is your own sad little moral indignation, not mine. By the way my Commander Shepard is a black female.

 

[thahat]

I just want one question answered. If Heimdall is being played by a black man then why is his sister Sif being played by a white chick? Color me confused. I think there is a bit of token casting going on here, and if you call them out on it you are a racist. I say Sif should have been black as well.

blame loki, he probably tricked the blind milkman to shoot his 'mistletoe'-hur hur hur-around, where it caused either sif or heimdall XD

 

[Ilyak1986]

Some imbeciles are racist. However, in this case, I think there needs to be a distinction drawn between racism and source-ism. If a character is white for however long in a canon comic, I think it's fair to complain that a black actor was hired for the role. Not because I have anything against black people, but because in canon, the character was white.

It'd be like casting a Caucasian person to play Michael Jordan in a biographical film or something. It's not that we're racist against white people, but it's that Michael Jordan *WAS BLACK*.

Same deal here. No racism involved.

 

[SeriousIssues]

If it was the other way around it's probably generate more controversy, but to me, I don't care as long as the part is good AND the change isn't extremely radical (I'm talking, like, a black Spiderman)

 

[Technicka]

Ignoring that it was cast by a man of Indian descent.

That doesn't make it any less of a racists decision. In fact, it made the casting worse, because he had the opportunity and passed it up.

Ignoring that the characters in question all had blue eyes in the cartoon.

Eye colour was indicative of what nation they were born in and their bending element. Water = Blue, Fire = Red, Earth = Green and Brown, Air = Grey

Ignoring that the cartoon was not set on Earth, and so there were no such terms as "Inuit" or "Caucasian" to begin with.

Except the creators themselves said what the Nations were inspired by. Not to mention, Earth Kingdom very blatantly uses Chinese as it's written language within the series.

Also, no one thinks it's a completely asinine argument to make that it's okay to switch a character's race because there's magic and space aliens involved? Would the same convention apply to the supremely magical Monkey King from Journey to the West?

Dragonball Evolution did just that. Remember, after all, Goku is just another reiteration of Monkey King.

 

[Jimbo1212]

It was most likely done to 'balance out the colour of the cast' showing that the reason behind the decision was a racist one as Norse Gods are white thus they should have been white.

 

[Ilyak1986]

It'd be like casting a Caucasian person to play Michael Jordan in a biographical film or something. It's not that we're racist against white people, but it's that Michael Jordan *WAS BLACK*.

Michael Jordan is a real person. Heimdall from the movie 'Thor' is a fictional movie character, loosely based on a fictional comic book character, *very* loosely based on a mythological figure, depictions of which vary from source to source.

Except when you make a movie about someone out of marvel comics, who exactly are you marketing it to? Oh, RIGHT, consumers of the CANON.

It doesn't matter whether he's real or not. All that matters is the canon. If you're taking liberties to re-imagine the canon, the people who call you out for changing it have every justifiable right to do so.

For example, I don't have much of an issue with Michael Bay updating Starscream from an F-15C Eagle to the jet replacing it, the F-22 Raptor. However, I don't like the fact that he made the very recognizable transformers look like these mechanical monsters instead.

So if someone takes a character who was canonically white and makes them suddenly black, there will be an outcry, and in fact I think it'd be justifiable in reverse (EG black character, white actor).

Yes, there are racists who look for every excuse to say "HE'S BLACK! BOO!". However, I don't think every casting criticism is simply racist. I think that if you deviate from the canon of the original medium, you have every right to be called out on it.

 

[Technicka]

Then you're making the implication that the conspiracy theorists and Mel Gibson have a gain of truth when it comes to the "Greedy Jews in control of hollywood" or are you just singling out the straight, white christians, atheists and scientologists as being the ones causing the problems? Because that's all anyone envisions when they imagine the people protecting the "Status quo", forgetting about all those other religions involved in the industry, and most being powerful enough to make the selections like those jewish directors, producers, and writers I mentioned earlier.

The colour in power is green. Hollywood's primary goal is to make money. They realize that they're making the most money with white leads. Thus, they stick to whites as leads.


I'm not even sure what the rest of your rambling is going on about. Your eagerness to turn this into a debate on those pesky Jews and their stranglehold on the world is mind boggling.

It'd be like casting a Caucasian person to play Michael Jordan in a biographical film or something. It's not that we're racist against white people, but it's that Michael Jordan *WAS BLACK*.

Michael Jordan is a real person. Heimdall from the movie 'Thor' is a fictional movie character, loosely based on a fictional comic book character, *very* loosely based on a mythological figure, depictions of which vary from source to source.

Except when you make a movie about someone out of marvel comics, who exactly are you marketing it to? Oh, RIGHT, consumers of the CANON.

It doesn't matter whether he's real or not. All that matters is the canon. If you're taking liberties to re-imagine the canon, the people who call you out for changing it have every justifiable right to do so.

For example, I don't have much of an issue with Michael Bay updating Starscream from an F-15C Eagle to the jet replacing it, the F-22 Raptor. However, I don't like the fact that he made the very recognizable transformers look like these mechanical monsters instead.

So if someone takes a character who was canonically white and makes them suddenly black, there will be an outcry, and in fact I think it'd be justifiable in reverse (EG black character, white actor).

Yes, there are racists who look for every excuse to say "HE'S BLACK! BOO!". However, I don't think every casting criticism is simply racist. I think that if you deviate from the canon of the original medium, you have every right to be called out on it.

But Marvel has said that the movies are a separate universe, so what's canon in 616 doesn't hold to what's canon in the movies. So, you can't really cry foul in the name of "Not the comics!"

And in case someone tries to make an argument of that, Marvel's been saying the movies were a separate verse since the X-Men trilogy.

 

[pdgeorge]

I think it's a load of crap, the whole issue.

I don't believe that every character has to be white, however I don't believe there should be a problem if every character happens to be white.
I've had times in my life where I ONLY knew white people, times where it was purely people who were the same race as I was. It's people who are focused on issues of race that notice. Now though, I don't care about the difference in race with people. I saw the black guy in the movie and my first thought was "...wtf?" considering the canon behind it. Then I just ignored it.

I don't see a reason for making changes like that myself. If white-washing is a problem, how come colour-washing isn't? Instead of changing someone from 'coloured' to 'white' a number of people are changing 'white' to 'coloured' and sometimes (not all the time) there is no reason for doing it except to appeal to a wider audience.

 

[RQshadowe]

I was a tad apprehensive when i heard about a black guy playing a norse god, (A primarily scandinavian pantheon, I don't give a shit about the comics)
And then i realised it was the same actor who played Russel "Stringer" Bell in the wire, and i saw that is was good.
Gonna go watch this movie.
If you haven't seen The Wire, watch it. 5 minutes ago.