Is Sue Storm being played by a black actor? Because if she's not, Johnny shouldn't be. You know, genetics and skin tone and all that.
Sepko said:
"Oh no! I'm too distracted by different colored siblings I can't concentrate on the movie!"
Actually, I would be. The relation between Sue and Johnny very much relies on sibling interactions, and I couldn't take that seriously if one was black and one was white. I can suspend my belief for a while, but not on one problem that would last throughout the entire movie. And adoption might work, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about it.
My problem with changing the race of Johnny is simply for consistency. The only thing that's really changed about the Fantastic 4 are the costumes and time. Also, the fact that they're costumes never cover their face. Spider-man, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, and Daredevil can all be played by any race (didn't have a real problem with Hispanic Spider-man after the initial "that's different") because the majority of their time is spent behind a mask. The race doesn't have an impact because it's the same costume and the same hero. As long as the person behind it can pull of the character's attitudes, I don't care.
However, with characters that show their face, race becomes more of an impact. The race has always been obvious since the first comic, with no full-body suit to hide it (which would allow more room for change. When I hear Spider-man, I don't think Peter Parker, I think of the Spidey suit. It's more of the character.). The only characters I could see ch of changing (without making a bunch of excuses) are Richard and the Thing, because they have no family attachments to the others. I will always see F4 as three white people and a rock, simply because that's how they were presented and appeared throughout my life. While the movie might be great, and the Chronicle actor might do a great job (and I'd only partially accept that change if Sue was black too), I'm not sure how I'd feel about the change.
Sidenote: With the Spider-man change, and important thing is that it was someone else who picked up the mantle after Peter Parker died (unless I'm terribly mistaken). This prevented family problems (Uncle Ben, Aunt May) such as the Sue-Johnny relations