Fantastic Four reboot-- Casting, Rumors, Pix, ect;

I may be misunderstanding you...are you saying that you think that every person who wants a character to be portrayed "the way they were in the comics" is a racist?

 

I think he's saying it's just a non-issue.

 

Yep. There's no logical, sensible objection to it, so the emotional reactions have become repetitive and dreary. It's an unnecessary dance. This is the sort of thing for which "get over it" is a wholly adequate reply that grants the complaint all the hearing and respect it's due.

And seriously: "Will they explain why siblings are different races?" Seriously?

 

Whatever.

I'm sure you'll back up a studio's play when they decide to make a distinctly black or other non-Caucasian character Caucasian just because the actor allegedly was better at the casting call. (That is the only reason they change races in the first place, isn't it? Because anything else would be quite racist.)

 

I don't believe Dennis had any issues with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan. Neither did I. I don't see skin color as being an issue as long as the actor can handle the role.

 

True. That's the other thing that's peculiar about folks bringing up this racial casting nonsense - they want to play turnabout and they're so confident they know how that will go.

Seems like it would be easier to let go of the silly objection to start with.

 

We all bleed red. The rest is superficial BS.

The older I get, the less patience I have for this kind of stuff.

 

My 'favourite' contributions on this topic - and in fairness, I don't think anyone on this thread is guilty of it - are the ones along the lines of 'Well, if a black actor can play Johnny Storm, why can't a white one play Martin Luther King?' Because fictional characters and real people are exactly the same, obviously.

 

We should always strive to be as accurate as possible when depicting real world people.

 

Having said that - would you want a white actor playing, say Axel Foley? I wouldn't.

 

Exactly. Arguments to the contrary are just stupid. </grumpyoldman>

 

Seems to me, I'd want the best actor possible playing the role. Better actor should increase the enjoyment of what you're watching.

 

The oldBSG folks were all like "Yeah, you think Moore is so great, wait until one day they reboot Star Trek and see how you like it."

And then Abrams rebooted Star Trek and I was all like "Awesome!!"

 

Eddie Murphy accepted the role after Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Al Pacino and others had turned it down.

But it's a straw man argument. Foley is a role identified with one particular actor rather than one successively played by various black actors. A better question is 'can you imagine anyone other than Eddie Murphy playing him?' He's not a character who is reinvented for a new generation every few years the way Batman or James Bond are.

 

In the case of a character like Foley though, I'd want to see the best black actor portray him - a huge amount of what makes the character the funny guy we know is down to his race - can you imagine a white guy doing the 'look man I ain't falling for no banana in my tailpipe' gag to pick one of many - the character race in this case actually defines him.

 

Fair enough - I was just using it as an example, we only have the one portrayal to go off, but I still think my comment is valid.

 

Yes, I accept the point that some fictional characters are defined by their race. I don't think you could have a white actor playing John Shaft or Black Panther, for example. If race is essential or intrinsic to the character, then they should be played by someone of that race. However, I don't think that Johnny Storm is one of those characters.

 

Well, at least until you were embarrassingly proven wrong about the whole Cumberpatch being Khan thing. That had to sting.

"No" indeed.

 

I was right about that. Try again.

 

I get the impression that the older members participating here, like myself, are the ones who don't give a flying crap about a character's skin color, and the younger members are the ones pushing the issue. The non-issue.

Is it just me? From everything else I read about us old folks it should be the other way around.