Black Thor Actor Talks About Racist Comic Book Fans

[Hat Man]

A black Norse god....

I find that to be just a silly notion. But it's just as silly as a notion as a women (or Valkyrie) fighting when in historical context.

However I do find the notion of being against "whitewashing" to be just as racist as having a black guy in a movie just so you can say your movie has a black guy in it.

 

[L-J-F]

Although Elba doesn't look like a typical viking, it's not as if he's playing a historical figure, and it's hardly the only liberty that Marvel has taken with the Norse pantheon. As insults go, saying that the Norse gods were actually aliens with some really advanced technology - which is actually true in the Marvel canon - would seem to be much worse than casting a black actor as Heimdall, but strangely, no one seems to be bothered about that fact.

I also find it a bit ludicrous that people can do that, change the race of a god, make them actually aliens (which IS more ridiculous) and get away with it, if you had an Asian playing Jesus or a white woman as Mohammad you'd be dead before you finished speaking the proposal.

Not to mention it would be socially acceptable to be against either of those two (more so with the latter though).

 

[Vrex360]

I honestly never understood why it was such a big deal. I mean the character's just a gate keeper and spends most of his time just standing around, save for the occassional moment of awesomeness that he pulls off.
It's just a skin color, it shouldn't matter what skin color it is and, like Movie Bob once said, it's not 'caving in to evil left wing politically correct agendas'... it's just being fair and acknowledging that we are living in the 21st century.

Besides, isn't the rest of the cast pretty white apart from him? I mean the only other person in the whole movie who I can think of who wasn't inherently white was Natalie Portman and that's because she has Isreli origins.

Other than those two, pretty much everyone is white. White as a snowman's clean teeth at Christmas. With that in mind, does it really matter if just one character who spends nine tenths of the entire movie just standing in one spot happens to be black?

I admit I never read any of the comics and this movie was kind of my first experience with Thor as a franchise but still, I honestly didn't think there was anything wrong with a few minor tweaks.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

If all of the other Gods are White, wouldn't it make sense for one of the Norse Gods who likes to stand out to represent himself as different from the rest?

 

[Gladiateher]

Comic book fans aren't racist! we love our black Nick Fury!

 

[kickyourass]

Wow I must be way behind on movie news cause this is the first I've ever heard about this. Well since I'm here I might as well throw in my two cents.

I'll say to this what I said about a black guy playing Frair Tuck in the recent BBC Robin Hood series, he was probably the best guy they could find for the part. Besides, he's a god, he can look how ever he wants to look, I'm pretty sure that's one of the perks of godhood.

 

[Mechalemmiwinks]

Eh......depending on what continuity you like, Norse Gods can look however they want. This isn't anywhere near as bad as black Kingpin.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Although Elba doesn't look like a typical viking, it's not as if he's playing a historical figure, and it's hardly the only liberty that Marvel has taken with the Norse pantheon. As insults go, saying that the Norse gods were actually aliens with some really advanced technology - which is actually true in the Marvel canon - would seem to be much worse than casting a black actor as Heimdall, but strangely, no one seems to be bothered about that fact.

I also find it a bit ludicrous that people can do that, change the race of a god, make them actually aliens (which IS more ridiculous) and get away with it, if you had an Asian playing Jesus or a white woman as Mohammad you'd be dead before you finished speaking the proposal.

Not to mention it would be socially acceptable to be against either of those two (more so with the latter though).

You have to remember though, that there's a difference between changing elements of Norse mythology - which is for all intents and purposes, a dead religion - and changing elements of a living, breathing religion followed by millions of people all over the world.

 

[A Distant Star]

I've yet to see the movie, so I cant comment on the content of the roll, and given how fantastic and ultimately dismissive Thor the comic can be of Norse Mythology, a black Norse god hardly seems like the biggest liberty Thor the movie is going to be taking with the mythological subject mater its using. http://satwcomic.com/nordic-halloween

But at the same time, lets play a little game of hypothetical that may get me into a little bit of trouble.

Lets take the same basis plot of Thor, only switch it up with a different mythology. For the purposes of this example lets use Haitian Voodoo.

So our new comic follows the Loa (Loa are basically the caretakers of the world, something between and angel and a god, they are often analogous to Catholic Saints) Papa Legba, the intermediary between humans and the loa, as he is cast into the human world for some slight by Baron Samedi lord of the cross roads. He becomes something of a hero as he battles against the Voodoo Satan figure Kalfu. There's some romantic tension between him and Erzulie the loa of love, beauty, jewelry and peculiarly gay men. Now say for all this, there was a minor character, an important figure in voodoo mythology, Loko the Loa patron of healing. Say in the film adaptation of this comic a white actor was cast to play the roll.

Would people still complain about his ethnicity? Would it be considered racist of they did? Would it actually be racist?

 

[Valdus]

Heres an question to everyone who thinks he should have gotten the part despite being black...

Would you have cast a female actor to play Thor if she was genuinely the best actress for the part? If not, why not? Saying someone doesn't fit a role due to skin colour is the same as saying someone doesn't fit a role due to gender - on the big screen their only difference is how they look.

 

[Preacher zer0]

I thought he was excellent in the role, very stoic and imposing.
I honestly can't imagine him being played with such badassery by a white guy.

Also, people are bwaaing about a black norse god but don't seem to give a shit about an asian norse god?

Sounds to me like there might be something other than comic book canon on their minds. -.-

 

[Teimuraz]

I absolutely agree with preacher. He was awesome. In my opinion, he played his role better than thor himself. I don't think that Thunder-God would talk unfunny bullshit and act like a clown.

 

[Bruden]

To all the "an asian norse god" people: Hogun is a creation straight out of the comics who is routinely drawn looking like a Mongolian warrior, and not technically a god in the comics.

Elba is a quality actor but the decision to cast him was purposeful to get people talking. The stunt was successful, but sadly it means a good actor will have his name thrown around as "that black guy who shouldnt have been in the movie" rather than as a good actor. A terrible part about this whole trainwreck is the utter obviousness of intention demonstrated. Kat Denning's character is purely made up for the movie, and is a reasonable part to cast any actress you want without angering fan boys or causing talk of racism, but instead of using the character created for the movie as their "we need a colored person to appeal to a bigger audience" they had to shove in Elba as a Norse god.

Everyone who defends the casting has been duped, as has Elba himself. There is no way you can claim the move was done for anything other than exactly what happened, an outcry that makes everyone talk about the movie. And the worst part isn't even the blatant racists who've complained, or the closet racists who exclaim people can be swapped and looks don't effect the way people receive you. No, the worst part is that Elba is a good actor and his role in this movie is going to be overshadowed by the fact that he was a bad PR stunt and nothing more.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

As long as the guy plays the part well, and the character's identity isn't tied to a race, why does anyone care?

 

[Ulvai]

Next time, they will have black SS officer, for greater equality! Anyway, Comic is stupid, so is the movie. Besides, in Stargate SG-1 for example, the Norse Gods were Roswell Grays. Pointless argument.

 

[BrionJames]

A great super hero film. Just saw it last night, really really liked Heimdall. The way he portrayed the charcter was perfect. Wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[PhoenixVanguard]

From the perspective a of a black dude and a comic book fan (Though not a fan of Thor)...I don't really like the change much. If a character is portrayed a certain way in the comics, then they should probably stay that way (Purist Comic POV), and throwing him in for ethnic diversity really is just kind of cheap (Black Dude P0V).

But.

Idris Elba is a good actor, and from everything I've seen, he put on a spectacular performance. Since his being black, white, asian, latino,or caublasian in no way adds or detracts from that, we should probably all just get over it and love or hate the movie for its actual merits.

 

[Cyberjester]

I do dislike a black person being cast as a white guy, it's just.. You know when you walk into a room and it isn't how you left it? You're not sure how but it feels off and you can't be comfortable? That sorta thing. Yes, they're aliens, but the original guy was a white skinned alien, it's like changing Supermans suit from red and blue to a nice shade of purple. The point is that it was changed. And annoying. -.-

But it's also "reverse racism", as they call it. It's.. Well, the dude should be insulted. "We want to be multicultural so here's a token black guy instead of a white guy so we don't get called racist", canon aside, tokenism is pathetic. Placing a black guy in there simply to look good is going to fuel both racism, hate from their fans, and (more often than not) also hate from the people they're trying to look good to. It's just not cool.

Kinda like Avatar when asian kids became white kids and we ask why oh why did they set Akira IN NEW YORK!?!!

Tards.. I'll watch Thor, but only because I've got too long to wait till Jane Eyre and Priest come out.