Chromatic Casting: Remixing The Dark Knight Rises

[Dusty Ayres]

In the same vein as other racial casting ideas (Thor, Little Orphan Annie) :

At the suggestion of a friend, I decided to revisit Friday’s post about Bane, Chromatic Comics-style. Keep in mind that there’s several different permutations of the casting choices I came up with.

Let me say up-front that this, ultimately, is an exercise in casting for fun. It is not intended to suggest that casts comprised entirely of people of color are “THE ANSWER.” To suggest that one must choose between calling for more POCs to be cast in race-neutral roles, or calling for the creation and development of more standout characters of color – be they heroic, villainous or otherwise – is to enable a false dichotomy. There’s good reasons why Luke Cage is best played by a Black actor and why Bruce Wayne could be played by, say, an Asian-American actor. (He’s not in this particular version, but I’m not saying an Asian-American actor or actress couldn’t pull it off, and if you’ve got any choices of your own, please feel free to chime in in the comments.)

Chromatic Casting: Remixing The Dark Knight Rises


Again, I think that the idea is completely foolish and does nothing but provoke a negative reaction from whites, but heck, I'm not the one writing this article, I'm just the one posting it.

[Captaindemotion]

I don't see how it would provoke a negative from whites and as a white, I think I can speak with a fair degree of confidence. It's just a bit of fun speculation. I remember a post on the BBS not long after I joined, just suggesting actors of different races for various iconic characters - to me, it's just like one of those threads like 'What if Tom Selleck was Indiana Jones or Terence Stamp was James Bond?' etc.

Some of the casting choices are odd though. Danny Trejo as Bane - but isn't Bane Latin American anyway? Or Colin Salmon as Lucius Fox - um, you've made Lucius younger, you haven't changed his race. Ben Kingsley as Alfred - not bad, but he plays varying races anyway (Indian, Iranian, Jewish, caucasian) so it's not like they've really stepped outside the box.

Suggesting Nestor Carbinelli as Batman is plain odd, because he's too old and he's already been the Mayor of Gotham in TDK (which they acknowledge) while nominating Halle Berry for Catwoman - well, enough said. Anyway, even before Halle, Eartha Kitt was a great Catwoman, so the idea of a black Catwoman is hardly earth-shattering.

I do like some of the suggestions, especially Gael Garcia Bernal for the Joker and Sendil Ramahurthy for Jonathan Crane. Alexander Siddig as Ducard - well, he doesn't have the physical presence that Liam Neeson brought to the role. Faran Tahir as Ra's Al Ghul (i.e instead of Ken Wanatabe) - not bad, but, well, given that Al Ghul is Arabic in the comic anyway, this is hardly particularly inventive. You're replacing an Irishman playing an (apparently) Frenchman who is actually Arabic (in the comic) and you're replacing a Japanese actor with an Arabic one, again to play a character who is Arabic in the comics. And of course, there has already been a black Harvey Dent, while this time the writer suggests an actor already involved in a 'change of race' controversy (Idris Elba from Thor).

All in all, I think that the writer of this article has 'cast' his names from a very limited pool. With about 4 exceptions, all of the names he's put out come from other genre movies or series - Star Trek, DS9, Heroes, Thor, Iron Man etc.

Had they suggested Vin Diesel for Bane, Don Warrington as Alfred, Jamie Foxx for Batman, that might have been more fun.

[od0_ital]

Captaindemotion wrote:

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... Suggesting Nestor Carbinelli as Batman is plain odd, because he's too old and he's already been the Mayor of Gotham in TDK (which they acknowledge)...

Don't forget, he was Batmanuel on The Tick!

[Captaindemotion]

^ Yeah, they mention that too.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Nestor is very talented, but I just don't see him as the Latin Bruce Wayane. Although I can't really think of anybody off the top of my head who could be, let me get back to you on this.

[Captaindemotion]

^I think Carlos Bernard aka Tony from 24 would have when younger.

[od0_ital]

ObiWanShinobi wrote:

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Nestor is very talented, but I just don't see him as the Latin Bruce Wayane. Although I can't really think of anybody off the top of my head who could be, let me get back to you on this.

Antonio Banderas!

He's already been Zorro, why not Batman?

[Spaceman Spiff]

A few years back, Dennis Haysbert would have made a pretty intimidating Batman.

[Too Much Fun]

Danny Trejo actually IS going to play Bane on "Young Justice".

[Aragorn]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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A few years back, Dennis Haysbert would have made a pretty intimidating Batman.

Well at least we know Gotham City would be in good hands with insurance with all the property Batman damages.