But is there anything about April that requires he be white? Is there anything that requires he be English?
Hey, argue with them, not me. I'm the one who's in favor of colorblind casting in those debates.
I guess it depends on whether April counts as a canonical character or not. As depicted in "The Counter-Clock Incident," he's white and English-accented, but the canon status of TAS is ambiguous.
Since the Abramsverse is supposed to be a different temporal branch of the same reality, rather than an independent reality like a film adaptation of a comic or a reboot like
Galactica, presumably the characters should look basically the same, since they're supposed to be the same people biologically. (In the movie, Spock Prime recognized Kirk and Scotty on sight, so in-universe they look the same despite their differences to our eyes and ears.) So if TAS counts as "real," then April's ethnicity and nationality are established already.
I don't know that April will appear in a future movie. Honestly, I think that would be a fanwank bridge too far.
Yeah, I profoundly doubt he'd show up, unless it were a cameo or an Easter egg (like Adm. Komack and Capt. Chandra showing up in the background in ST'09). April isn't really that well-known a character outside of the dedicated fanbase, nor is he as major a part of Trek mythology as Pike.
As an example, years ago I wanted Dakota Fanning to play Ender if an Ender's Game movie were ever made. Chloe Moretz would be a really good choice for Ender now. Never mind that Orson Scott Card's Ender is a boy. I think a girl would fill the role better.
Well, sure, like I said, if it's an adaptation, that's a distinct reality and anything can be changed. But the conceit of the Abramsverse is that it branches off from the same reality, so anyone who was born before 2233 should be the same person they were in the Prime universe. It's a different standard.
Much like your own fierce protests when people have suggested Caucasian actresses for Trys in the casting threads, eh?
Now, that's entirely different. We're not talking about casting an alternate version of the character for an adaptation, we're talking about finding a good match for how the character is intended to appear in the books.
Though I'm baffled that anyone would have issues with Gina Torres as Wonder Woman.
So am I. But some people seem to think that skin color outweighs everything else. They always say, "But she's
Greek!" Which is wrong on at least three levels: 1) The mythical Amazons weren't Greek but were enemies of the Greeks; 2) The DC Universe Amazons are multiethnic and already have ethnically African members like Philippus; 3) Diana was molded from clay and given life by the gods, so genetics are kind of irrelevant here.
