Why is batman always black in the films?

[Kegg]

Hollywood's approach is not at all PC for the simple reason that almost all of these superhero films have, you know, white leading men. In a lot of Hollywood produced genre fiction, your lead is a white male, and your supporting characters make the necessary nods towards the existence of nonwhite people.

This isn't that obvious a problem with superhero films where most of these leading characters are white anyway, but - if one takes Sci-Fi's Earthsea, or the recent The Last Airbender, where in both cases white protagonists take center stage in contrast to the source material, and both also have nonwhite secondary characters - it becomes a little clearer.

Now as far as Thor goes maybe if Hollywood was run by some kind of PC cabal, perhaps an actor best known for his stellar and highly lauded work in a critically beloved HBO series wouldn't have been playing second fiddle to some heartthrob from an Australian soap (but then, this is also a bit of a genre film tradition - solid character actors in supporting roles to buttress your young attractive face leading the movie).

 

[Christopher]

Also, as has been pointed out, Hollywood decisions are determined by business, not politics. If they include a more diverse cast, it's because they think it'll help attract a broader audience -- after all, everyone's money spends just the same. The American public is growing more diverse, whites are not the only people with spending power, and the younger generation doesn't typically care as much about traditional racial or sexual roles as their parents did, so being inclusive can draw in more viewers/moviegoers and boost profits.

 

[mswood]

Oh, bullshit, not another pointless PC rant. Hiring an actor who a director thinks can do a good job is not PC, it's common bloody sense. It's a movie, it's not going to be exactly like the comic books nor should it be. Just look at Nolan's films which were not like the comic books at all.

It is PC in a way though since it only works one way, go the other way and it's "racebending".

And oh yeah, it'd be interesting to see a gray costume in film.

Absolutely true to some degree, but as a side, in BSG was there much uproar over the white casting of Tigh? All I remember is the bitching about Female Starbuck, in both cases I thought the casting was superb.

 

[Green Lantern]

I think if they used the suit from the Arckham games, they could pull off a grey batman. Hell, why not make some films based on the Arckham games?

 

[Christopher]

Absolutely true to some degree, but as a side, in BSG was there much uproar over the white casting of Tigh? All I remember is the bitching about Female Starbuck, in both cases I thought the casting was superb.

I do remember some complaints about the lack of black actors in the regular cast -- not only was Tigh cast with a white actor, but Boomer was cast with an Asian actress. I may have complained about it myself. I certainly had no objection to changing the ethnicity or gender of any single character -- after all, they were from another planet and there was no reason why their casting should be bound to any human ethnic group, and they were essentially different characters who only vaguely resembled the originals in any sense -- but I didn't want the cast to lack diversity overall. Although now I understand it was a moderately diverse cast, just with a different ethnic mix than what we'd usually have in the states -- including the Mexican-American Edward James Olmos, the Korean-American Grace Park, the half-First Nation (native Canadian) Tahmoh Penikett, the South African Kandyse McClure, and the Italian-Chinese Alessandro Juliani. That's actually a pretty inclusive cast.

 

[tighr]

"sigh", I've created a racist disscussion flame thread again guys........

Green Lantern, now there's an example of a comic book character who was "cast" (in-universe!) as a black man. John Stewart didn't "ruin" the franchise.

 

[Kegg]

Absolutely true to some degree, but as a side, in BSG was there much uproar over the white casting of Tigh? All I remember is the bitching about Female Starbuck, in both cases I thought the casting was superb.

Actually, I remember that people were pretty mad that Tigh was now white and Boomer was now Asian (and a girl), thus eliminating the two main black characters of the original show.

They were also mad that there was a new woman President character with cancer, which they asserted was a Mary Sue insert for then-Syfy head honcho Bonnie Hammer. And that what had been the names of characters (Apollo, Starbuck, Boomer) had been reduced to callsigns. And that Athena was gone. And that the Cylons were made by humans and not an alien race... there were a lot of people very angry about very many things announced about that series long before an episode aired.

I don't actually recall anyone being upset about Edward James Olmos not being as Caucasian as Lorne Greene, but my memory's not eidectic.

 

[JoeZhang]

I do think that comparing Blade to Spider-Man doesn't quite work. The two characters are on whole different levels of popularity and profitability, especially where merchandising is involved. (You don't see a lot of R-rated BLADE coloring books.)

That's like wondering why they rebooted STAR TREK instead of SPACE: 1999!

I wouldn't mind seeing more Blade, though. I even enjoyed the tv series.

One of the most awesome things ever was the Dune colouring book. Look at the third image down

 

[Green Lantern]

"sigh", I've created a racist disscussion flame thread again guys........

Green Lantern, now there's an example of a comic book character who was "cast" (in-universe!) as a black man. John Stewart didn't "ruin" the franchise.

Infact, John Stewart is probably the most famous green lantern, and the 2011 film probably would have gotten better reviews if they used John instead of Hal.

Spawn is annother black superhero, and I for one loved the Spawn film.

 

[tighr]

the 2011 film probably would have gotten better reviews if they used John instead of Hal.

I was actually upset when I found out they weren't going that route. Although, that movie wasn't the fault of the actor, it had bigger problems. Ryan Reynolds deserved a better script.

 

[Green Lantern]

the 2011 film probably would have gotten better reviews if they used John instead of Hal.

I was actually upset when I found out they weren't going that route. Although, that movie wasn't the fault of the actor, it had bigger problems. Ryan Reynolds deserved a better script.

Yeah, Parallax in the origin story, worst move ever. It should have been Sinestro or Manhunters for that film, maybe both. Hector Hammond, Parallax the entity, bad CGI, I feel sorry for Ryan. Not his fault, or though they could have chosen better. It would have been interesting to see John in it, unless they were going to bring him in during a future film. If the series reboots, i think they'll use John this time (I'd like to see Kyle though, or how about Alan, that'd be interesting, but if it would be anything like cpation america: TFA, forget it).

 

[Nerys Myk]

So fine, I understand why he was in the 90s films, but he could have been in grey in batman begins.

Saw this picture somewhere which proves it would have worked ok. Or he could just wear a rubberish costume like spider-man. What do you all think, do you think he could have worked in grey, or do you think he's better wearing black?

I think it would work fine. I also thought Galactus should have looked like a giant humanoid and an actual muscleman should be cast as Superman for once, but nobody listens to me.

Hollywood costumers refuse to do anything that will look silly when they're trying to do a "serious" film. Bats's original costume looks like he's wearing underwear over pants, so you'll never see that on the big screen again, and an armored bodysuit that's flat gray wouldn't look menacing or dramatic enough.

Like I said, I think you're right. I'm just not going to hold my breath waiting for Hollywood to agree.

Why would you need to cast a "actual muscleman" as Superman? He's not a muscleman. He's not usually drawn as a muscleman but as a guy with an athletic build. His powers don't come from him working out anyway. Even DJ Qualls would be a superman if he was from Krypton.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

"sigh", I've created a racist disscussion flame thread again guys........

Green Lantern, now there's an example of a comic book character who was "cast" (in-universe!) as a black man. John Stewart didn't "ruin" the franchise.

Infact, John Stewart is probably the most famous green lantern, and the 2011 film probably would have gotten better reviews if they used John instead of Hal.

John Stewart isn't the same thing as making Hal Jordan a black guy though.

 

[Green Lantern]

Green Lantern, now there's an example of a comic book character who was "cast" (in-universe!) as a black man. John Stewart didn't "ruin" the franchise.

Infact, John Stewart is probably the most famous green lantern, and the 2011 film probably would have gotten better reviews if they used John instead of Hal.

John Stewart isn't the same thing as making Hal Jordan a black guy though.

That's right.........

 

[cultcross]

1. When it comes to Hollyweird, money talks. It will sound horribly racist of me to point this out, but unless its Denzel Washington or Will Smith, the majority of the audience, including non-white yet non-black minorities do not want to watch a minority actor take a franchise forward.

Well, I was talking about what I want, and I don't care either way. If that's what "the majority" thinks, then "the majority" needs to freaking get over it already. We've got a black president now -- it's well past time for this to become a non-issue.

See, I told you so! That's always the sentiment behind race changing! "It's time!" It may also be about money, but it's never about anything as esoteric as ability. Screw you to whoever said "It's not about PC!" Christopher just proved my point!

No, he really didn't. In fact, that you read this comment as such suggests you are just searching for 'PC' wherever you can find it and labelling any suggestion of race equality on film as just 'PC.' What Christopher said was that it was time it was a non-issue. That is, it is time we didn't give a toss what ethnicity an actor was when he or she was cast in a role, even an iconic role, wherever the ethnic background of the character doesn't affect the story at all.
After all, if historical precedent and 'how it's always been' is the standard we work to, it is disgustingly 'modern' and 'PC' to cast a black guy as Othello, instead of a white guy wearing boot polish.

By the way, Superheroes belong in SFF, so this is heading over there. Green Lantern, I have changed your hotlinked image in the OP to a link. Please don't hotlink images here.

 

[nightwind1]

And Catwoman being Japanese sounds pretty cool to me. Heck, Frank Miller arguably made her black in Batman: Year One.

And don't forget-

 

[Captaindemotion]

^And she was playing opposite a Cuban-American Joker!

 

[Green Lantern]

Wow, we've drifted off topic.

 

[tighr]

Wow, we've drifted off topic.

Well, if we go by the topic title and ignore the content of the OP, we're still on topic

 

[Captaindemotion]

Wow, we've drifted off topic.

Well, if we go by the topic title and ignore the content of the OP, we're still on topic

Yup, I'm afraid I managed to derail this thread by answering the title!