Sepko said:
Strain42 said:
It's not white washing if you don't get a white actor. If there was an Asian Luke Cage, or a Latin John Stewart it would still cause the same discussion. It's still needlessly changing the race of an established character. I'm not saying that it's automatically a bad thing. Just that it's needless. And I think it's a bit unfair that someone should be considered a racist just because they feel it would be equally needless to change a white character as much as a character of any other race.
As much as we'd like to live in a perfect world of perfect equality and happiness, that's not the case. There are more white characters in western media than there are any other races combined. Does it have to be needless to try something new with a character, who's skin colour is about as interchangeable as their costume? Does it matter if it's needless? Is it going to dramatically change anything? It doesn't matter. At all. And that's fine. It's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean they shouldn't do it in the first place as well. Because it doesn't matter, allegedly.
That's sort of my point. It doesn't matter, therefore it is needless. It's true there is little reason why they "shouldn't do it in the first place" but you can just as easily say there isn't really any reason why they should. The only argument I've heard for why they "should" would be to add diversity to Hollywood, but Hollywood could easily do that without changing existing characters.
How many popcorn action movies come out every single year that have new and original characters that could have easily been non-white from the start? How about we work on these rather than changing existing characters?
I'm not going to deny for a second that there aren't more white characters than any other race out there in most western media, but that doesn't mean the solution to this is to take established characters and change them.
But like you said, and I agree with you, it's basically pointless.
In my eyes if an actor does a good job with the role, it's fine.
I'm sure when auditions were held for Heimdall, they hired Idris Elba because he did the best job, and it showed in the film because he was awesome.
I'm hoping if Michael B. Jordan gets cast as Human Torch, it'll be because he auditioned fairly and was the best choice for the part. Not because the director is already his friend and certainly not for the sole purpose of trying to add some diversity.
And if he turns out to do a good job, I will come out of that theater opening day saying he did a good job. If he does a good job I'm not gonna walk out of the theater going "but why was he black?"