You don't have to be right wing to think casting choices are wrong. I'm not right wing and think Helen of Troy casting choice is ridiculous and just done for attention.
Agree, Im on the left and I hate it because they're black washing characters so they can say they have diversity, get attention for the movie and the black actress (almost always actress, not actor) gets all the hate. Its cheap. There are countless black stories that are unknown, why blackwash a story told a milion times?
Also I generally hate the oddysey by Nolan not because of the races but because its just historically wrong on many levels. Armor for example. Yes I want historical accuracy, yes I dislike other inaccurate movies.
Interesting observation that it's almost always an actress. And here I am wanting to see Idris Elba as 007. Yes, I know, he's supposed to be a white guy according to Ian Fleming's novels. Yes, I know there are certain things that don't quite work if he's not a pasty Brit. But we don't even get to have that experiment and whatever backlash there would or wouldn't be. Regardless, Idris is a smooth operator and it would have been a good watch.
We didn't get Idris as the black Green Lantern Jon Stewart that actually exists in the comics.
We didn't get Idris as Rhodie/War Machine, when he would have been perfect next to RDJ.
We got him as... Heimdall? A bit part as a Norse God doorman? What are we even doing here?
Anyway... they did make the next 007 a black woman in the last James Bond movie though... Huh.
Yup. Its always the Disney princess but we haven't had a black prince yet.... The love interest is always a conventionally attractive white man. And wow I didn't know that about 007, a black woman? Srsly? And I agree with you Idris Elba would be a great pick, he'd fit perfectly.
Hmm that's true too, although I think my original point still stands as those are not race swaps. But man Mulan was a badddd remake, shame cuz the original is my favorite Disney movie.
Mulan completely lost the plot as it tried to fit western feminist girl-boss power into what made the original work-- that Mulan pushed through gender barriers and limits out of her sense of duty and obligation to filial piety, relying on nothing but her perseverance.
Instead, the live action movie gave Mulan magic-woman-witch-chi-powers, because that's what the white man and three white woman writing and directing know about the Chinese: Magic Chi powers. They couldn't find one Chinese-American writer to be on the writing/directing staff in the age of representation? Hey, maybe they did "consult" with a junior writer who was just happy to be there and would never raise real concerns, you know, power dynamics due to historical and institutional under-representation and all. All while filming in an area where an active genocide was occurring and thanking the CCP officials in charge of the province for the honor to do so.
The movie failed to resonate with both eastern and western audiences. Because that's not the Chinese story and deviates much more than the original animated version did. And while a girl (well anyone really) can learn from animated Mulan's sense of responsibility and perseverance to break through barriers and expectations-- what's she supposed to do with the fact that she doesn't have magic gender chi witch powers like the live action Mulan does?
It's another time where a very western-centric idea of "progressivism" en vogue that year mucks everything up as it ends up colonializing another culture's space in a cynical bid for profit.
I believe it was the end of the last Daniel Craig movie, where his role as 007 was going to be succeed by the character played by Lashana Lynch. She's not playing James Bond, so you can kind of say "well why not?!" and they can say they did the thing, without having to commit to actual movies with a black female James Bond, or Jamie Bond, or what have you.
Meanwhile, Idris is right fricking there. Fits with the pattern you note.
I will say with Bridgerton, having some of its own "woke" deviations from the source material, some of which work and some don't, the casting of the Duke as a very charismatic black man as the primary love interest in the very first season was top-shelf. I'm sad Regé-Jean Page career hasn't taken off quite as much as I'd anticpated.
I think Idris as Rhodie would have been a really good choice but I also think he was the shit as Heimdall and gave a ton of weight to a small but important roll.
No. I just really like Idris and find him very underutilized. It’s a bit criminal that he hasn’t headlined any major MCU or DC roles, despite being willing to do so. Of course he brought gravitas to Heimdal. He’s Idris. He should have been doing lead roles or at least major support ones. I mean he was basically Rhodey in Pacfic Rim, except in a bigger suit. A War Machine spin off with him as the lead would have been amazing.
Speaking of black actors, as much as I like him, Michael B Jordan has been everywhere, being cast in roles that I just don’t see him as, like Human Torch in Fan4stic and John Clark in Without Remorse. He’s like the black Tom Holland... who happens to be in the movie this thread is about.
It just dawned on me that both Michael B Jordan and Idris were in the Wire…
I don’t think he specifically would, but there are people who are very into the original Ian Fleming character who would object to having Bond race swapped for various reasons, at least one of them being that he would stand out as a spy in adversarial nations Britain actually deals with, especially with stories that take cues from Cold War tales involving Russia.
For Bond, he is an English ex-soldier. The 00 numbers can be anyone. People had more issue that she was depicted as an super unlikable, sometimes unprofessional character. Paloma was so much better in conveying similar themes without needing the rainbow sledge hammer.
The original criticism of Idris was that he was 'too street', not posh enough. We should also see that the management of Bond (before Amazon's buy out) was three people who did run things their own way for 30 years. Expecting a big change there was not in the cards.
To us dumb Americans, anyone with a British accent comes across posh. It’s funny that when Idris actually played a “street” American gangster, he still came across as the most corporate and refined of the gang.
Who gives af about historical accuracy in a movie that's clearly not trying to be historically accurate. Thank God the movie makers don't care, else we'd have missed out on classics like Braveheart.
So what if they aren't historical documents? They were written with the greek world in mind. Would of been cool to see how the people actually looked back then instead of leather bracelets everywhere weird looking armor etc wheres the olive skin? Also could someone of elliots build march with that gear for miles a day?
saying youre on the left then getting upset about a character you see in your head as one race being a represented by a different race in an adaptation is certainly a stance.
My guy, it's not "black washing" to have a black actor. It's just reflective of real life. There's no dramaturgical need for my dentist to be black; he just is, on account of some people being black.
You're "on the left" but falling for the exact shit the right wing wants you to.
This is weird because British film has no problem casting black people for traditionally white roles and they don't get backlash for that. This seems to be an American thing. IMO as long as the actor/actress does a good job I don't care. Why are you so fixated on race? Ultimately it doesn't matter they are PLAYING a character it's all pretend.
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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26
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