So a black actor is considering role of Johnny Storm and nerdrage has turned racist again.

[mooncalf]

The phrase "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." comes to mind, but I suppose if this is the direction they want to take you can't disagree with it just because he isn't what he used to be. No superhero is what they used to be.

 

[The Funslinger]

Not entirely sure what you mean on this one. You mean casting actors of one race for a movie based around the lives of people of another race?

I mean if movies in general are dominated by one race, then changing a character of an under-represented race into the over-represented race might not be the best of ideas.

I'm not really bothered about that, either. That's a little more questionable, but so long as they just choose an actor based on his ability to capture the personality of the original character, it should be fair game.

Well if they also make Sue Storm black then I don't really have a problem with it. But I can see where some people are coming from. If you really want your superhero's to look like they do in the comic then switching race is something you will disagree with. Same with different hair colour (Imagine the reaction to a blond Jean Gray) or costume.

Why should Sue Storm have to be black, too? There's such a thing as a "throwback" child. So long as somewhere in your lineage there is one family member of another race, a child can be born with a similar skin pigmentation in any generation afterwards. It's a recessive gene that's more common than you might think. Also, adoption is common there days.

Yeah, but that's hugely excessive just to change the ethnicity of one character. I think if they change one, they ought to change both, because let's face it, the in film explanation would just be massively phoned in.

I'm not really a Fantastic 4 fan so I don't particularly care, but I don't think you should paint anyone who might have a problem with this as racist. Some might prefer that the characters be a visually accurate portrayal of the source material. I've no problem with altering stuff like that a lot of the time, because I think one of the great things about adaptations into other media is that it allows us to see different incarnations of stuff. Like The RDJ Sherlock movies versus the BBC Sherlock series. Even so, I'm accepting that people may have problems with it.

Not to mention a vaguely annoying habit seems to be "let's make one of the main cast black" is becoming its own trope at this point. It's not always bad; I rather liked Heimdall, but for example, Grover in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (terrible film all round, but regardless) was clearly done for PC reasons and it showed.

Excessive political correctness is a massive bugbear for me, and "let's make these guys more ethnic, just 'cause" is a big part of that.

Let's just hope black Johnny Storm holds up his end of the performance, along with the hopefully black Susan Storm. Because only changing one of them would be massively tenuous regardless of what you say.

As a comparison, who else remembers that fuss kicked up where a black guy auditioned to be one of the Hobbits in the titular film. I'm glad they didn't cave and cast him, because having a random black Hobbit would have been ridiculous, with no decent explanation.

 

[Gameguy20100]

Fine by me as long as he does a good job as an actor.

Also they have to make Sue Black as well otherwise the would have to come up with some other bullshit and It might be distracting a lot easier to just keep siblings the same race.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Then why not CREATE good, well-written, non-white, superheroes? They are just lazy shmucks.

Well, you won't have the legacy appeal for one. OTOH, though, they should, but nobody of note seems all that interested. You get some outliers, but they are exceptions. Hell, they've never even gotten a Wonder Woman movie together, you need a white male lead. Even Aquaman is getting a movie, by the people who made Green Lantern.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Well I suppose I'm racist then. If I actually cared about the Fantastic Four, which I happen not to, I would be against a black actor playing a white character, in the same way I would be against a white actor playing a black character, providing there is no technical or narrative reason for the character to be a different colour to what they are.

Same thing with James Bond, unless there is some kind of canon nod to the theory that each acted James Bond is a different agent, and presuming that is not the case, I would be against a black James Bond, or any other colour.

Doctor Who on the other hand, has no reason to be white all the time since his regenerations seem to reconfigure everything else about him, and probably should have been another colour at least once by now.

Basically I don't think characters should change races at all without a good reason, whether this is between media or within a series. Good reasons include no capable actors of the same colour being alive, or a narrative excuse.

 

[La Kias]

This is not about racism. This is about being accurate to the source material.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka aren't white.

Bane isn't British.

Johnny Storm isn't black.

These are not hard things to avoid fucking up.

Also, Famke Janssen had to die her hair red to play Jean grey. So this would would logically...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteface_(performance)

Yeah...fuck no.

completely agree. As Tombsite said, if you change the race of Johnny you then need to change the race of Sue and if you change her race you have the future possibility of Franklin and Val to change too. The whole idea of casting is to not only cast a great actor but someone who looks the part. I wouldn't cast a black actor for a part i wrote with a white character in mind or vice versa. Its not racism its about getting the desired finished to the vision for the film.

This goes the other way too, it would be like casting Nicholas Cage as the lead in a film about Martin Luther King Jnr. Ok, sure Nick Cage might think he'd be up for it but you can hear the outcry now.

Samuel Jackson is the obvious exception to all of this but that is because he was the right actor at the right time and, more importantly, he is a fantastic actor and made the role his own. The character of Nick Fury allowed that. I don't think Johnny Storm's character does

 

[gjkbgt]

I think Brad Pitt should play Luke Cage. What? It will "add new depth to the character", or some other bull****.

how would that add new depth?
just curious how this works in your head.

 

[Longstreet]

The actual biggest problem here are the "black fanboys."
And yes i can say that since they call whoever sais they need to keep that Storm guy white a "white fanboy"

Ok, so before i get a warning for trolling / flaming hear me out.

You can't say it is a bad idea, with legitimate reasons, without being called a racist. Seriously, just no.

The best reason i have seen as to why it is a bad idea, is that you also have to change Sue Storm to black since they are family and all. And to me, that just seems... off.


But what is it with all these roles of white characters being, with lack of a better phrase, taken over by black people. I don't mind it, but it just seems more and more that they do it just to be politically correct than actual talent.

 

[Easton Dark]

It's weird that people get upset when this happens to superheroes.

The type of characters that wear full-body costumes or, in Johnny Storm's case, completely engulf themselves in flames.

I don't think it matters at all really, but then I'm not a very big comic fan. I'm sure if a film of say, Mass Effect, made Tali's outfit bright yellow, I'd be confused and maybe upset for a bit. That's the whole "I like it my way" mentality.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

If he's a good actor, then I'm all for it.

Hell, the guy who played the gate-keeper(I forget his name) in Thor was awesome!

Fantastic Four has never been about exploring character's genetic makeup and how it adds to who they are.

And even in the worst case scenario(if Michael Bay were to direct it) I still don't think that the director will do the whole "lol, stereotypes" thing.

 

[Genocidicles]

There's a certain difference there, actually -- a big part of the world of Avatar was based around clearly Asian-inspired designs. So in that case, we're talking about picking white people for roles that are specifically designed for Asians.

Surely the same applies to Heimdall from Thor though? Asgard is from the old Norse religion and all that, doesn't make much sense for a black guy to be there.

 

[BakedZnake]

This goes the other way too, it would be like casting Nicholas Cage as the lead in a film about Martin Luther King Jnr. Ok, sure Nick Cage might think he'd be up for it but you can hear the outcry now.

Yh but Human torch is a FICTIONAL character which can be rewritten however they want, whereas Martin Luther King was a real person, so of course people will get mad if a new biographical film he was portrayed as a white guy. Poor choice of comparison

 

[Thaluikhain]

There's a certain difference there, actually -- a big part of the world of Avatar was based around clearly Asian-inspired designs. So in that case, we're talking about picking white people for roles that are specifically designed for Asians.

Surely the same applies to Heimdall from Thor though? Asgard is from the old Norse religion and all that, doesn't make much sense for a black guy to be there.

Well, he is an alien, though. In any case, Europe wasn't nearly as all-white as popculture would have us believe.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

So, genuine question:

If they were instead considering a female actor for the human touch, would complainers be considered sexist?

and to current supporters, would you continue to support this ((and would you continue to use the same kind of justification: 'is the gender really an important part of the human tourches character? What does it matter which chromosomes they have?')
What about current non-supporters, would you continue to argue it's demerits based on their previous depictions not being female?


Or if we extend this line of questioning into lesser/greater degrees:
>Low end: What if they were considering casting someone with red hair? same again, would supporters be arguing that hair colour isn't important/defining, and non-supporters be arguing how it's bad cause he never had red hair? Would they be labled as prejudiced/bigots against red heads?

> Reverse midground: what if they considered casting a white man, if touch had always been depicted as black? would you supporters continue to argue race doesn't matter to the character, and non-supports be against it for the same reasons as current? would they be labled racist against white people?

>High end: what if they were considering casting an animal(such as a hampster)? would supporters be arguing that humanity isn't important/defining, and non-supports be in a fit of rage over how totally not a hampster the human touch has ever been? would they be labeled prejudiced/bigots (racist?) against... well, hampsters?

((bear with me, i know it's silly esspecially the last one, but consider it seriously for a moment when coming to your answer))

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I read comics and I frankly don't care really as long as they are a decent actor. It will least avoid Captain America and Johnny Storm being the same person... Do they know Perry White is going to be played by Lawrence Fishburne and Jimmy Olsen is a woman in the upcoming Superman film? http://www.themarysue.com/jimmy-olsen-a-woman/

LOLOLOL

Ahh is good times. Good times.

The only thing that's ever bothered me is them making Amanda Waller skinny in the new 52, she was such a badass character and her weight somehow added to that. She was like I don't fucking care if I'm fat Imma shoot your android with this huge nanogun! Meh.

 

[Queen Michael]

There's a certain difference there, actually -- a big part of the world of Avatar was based around clearly Asian-inspired designs. So in that case, we're talking about picking white people for roles that are specifically designed for Asians.

Surely the same applies to Heimdall from Thor though? Asgard is from the old Norse religion and all that, doesn't make much sense for a black guy to be there.

You do have a point, and I felt the same way when I first heard about black Heimdall. But when I saw the movie I was fine with it for two reasons:

1. Idris Elba pulled off the role so convincingly that it worked.

2. He wasn't the only non-white Asgardian, so he didn't stand out as much.

IMO, the Asgardians should have been very ethnically mixed, since they're the gods of all mankind (although only Norse people worshipped them), and they could easily have managed to squeeze in a line about how the old vikings assumed that the gods looked just like they did out of hubris.

 

[Alluos]

I'd like to point out that Nick Fury was white for the longest time, then the ultimate universe came along and now we have the Nick Fury we saw in the Avengers movie.
It's a reboot that isn't connected to the main continuity the source-material has set up, there's no reason they should have to follow it point for point.

 

[Queen Michael]

The only thing that's ever bothered me is them making Amanda Waller skinny in the new 52, she was such a badass character and her weight somehow added to that. She was like I don't fucking care if I'm fat Imma shoot your android with this huge nanogun! Meh.

That change bugs me as well. Her wight gave her authority. It kept you unconsciously aware that she's a woman who won't budge.

 

[Lawyer105]

You do have a point, and I felt the same way when I first heard about black Heimdall. But when I saw the movie I was fine with it

This.

This is basically a repeat of the Elba/Heimdall thing. I'll freely admit I was concerned about it, because I couldn't imagine how they were going to pull it off without it being a jarring, exmersive obviously-PC move. And yet, having watched it with a (mostly) open mind, Idris was awesome.

I'm just going to wait and see on this one - there's really no reason to get twisty-knickered over it.

That said, there's equally no reason to simply assume that somebody who's concerned about the change is automatically racist.