How Thor breaks down racial barriers in Asgard

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Tell you what...I'll agree that this casting is ok if YOU'LL agree (and MEAN it) that it would be ok for a white actor to play Booker Washington, or Kunta Kinte, or any other black character.

It's not necessary to concede a nonsensical point in order to secure your "agreement" to anything: people will do as they will do, and non-traditional casting is already here to stay - it's not even a novelty any more.

Patrick Stewart, of course, played the lead in Othello nearly fifteen years ago; because the ethnic contrast between that character and many of the others is important context to that story, the producers simply cast black actors in the other parts.

 

[Aragorn]

So have you parked the URL elbanotheimdall.com yet?

 

[Greg Cox]

Like I said before: Eartha Kitt. Forty years ago. No big deal.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Isn't Wonder Woman supposed to be a Greek amazon?

She's a statue brought to life.

 

[Aragorn]

So realistically, what does a statue brought to life look like?

 

[iguana_tonante]

Why, depends on the sculptor.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

So realistically, what does a statue brought to life look like?

[spillane] Nipples like bullets. [/spillane]

 

[Neroon]

So realistically, what does a statue brought to life look like?

[spillane] Nipples like bullets. [/spillane]

"Je shr shuh muh lan dong shi!?"

Now I need to get a new keyboard!!

 

[Dusty Ayres]

The fact Dusty and duckwing are all bent out of shape about this actually pleases me, and I think TPTB make casting decisions like this to piss people off and get them talking about their projects.

I'm not bent out of shape about it, in fact I have no problem with it at all. The people in the Sci-Fi post, however, do have a problem with it, and are complaining loudly. Just like the fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender are complaining about the characters in the movie version being white, incidentally.

BTW, there's talk of a big-screen remake of the 1960's TV show It Takes A Thief with Will Smith as Al Mundy. Anybody up for that? Universal finds man of steal for 'Thief' adventure

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The fact Dusty and duckwing are all bent out of shape about this actually pleases me, and I think TPTB make casting decisions like this to piss people off and get them talking about their projects.

I'm not bent out of shape about it, in fact I have no problem with it at all. The people in the Sci-Fi post, however, do have a problem with it, and are complaining loudly.

BTW, there's talk of a big-screen remake of the 1960's TV show It Takes A Thief with Will Smith as Al Mundy. Anybody up for that? Universal finds man of steal for 'Thief' adventure

Sure - what difference does it make what Al Mundy looks like?

 

[darkwing_duck1]

I ran this past a couple of people I know who are of the pagan-y persuasion and know a great deal about Norse mythology. One of them is a self-professed follower of the Norse Pantheon.

Both of them though this was a terrible idea.

That good enough for you clowns?

 

[JoeZhang]

I ran this past a couple of people I know who are of the pagan-y persuasion and know a great deal about Norse mythology. One of them is a self-professed follower of the Norse Pantheon.

Both of them though this was a terrible idea.

That good enough for you clowns?

Stormfront members right?

 

[darkwing_duck1]

I ran this past a couple of people I know who are of the pagan-y persuasion and know a great deal about Norse mythology. One of them is a self-professed follower of the Norse Pantheon.

Both of them though this was a terrible idea.

That good enough for you clowns?

Stormfront members right?

If you said that to either of their faces, one would probably laugh and the other would knock your teeth down your throat.

In fact, I just relayed what you said to the first one on IM, and he replied:

"No, people with an education and a reverence for a pantheon"

 

[Kegg]

In fact, I just relayed what you said to the first one on IM, and he replied:

"No, people with an education and a reverence for a pantheon"

If they have a reverence for the pantheon, then surely they're offended by the Thor comics line in general? Making Thor Odin's son is a much more drastic change and fundamentally shifts one of the major dynamics in the Norse pantheon.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

And as for the shortage of white superheroes on film, let me add Jonah Hex, Green Lantern, Thor, Captain America, and the Green Hornet to the litany. All of whom currently have movies in the works.

Though in Green Lantern's case that depends on who has the ring and is wearing the green and black spandex at the time.

 

[Greg Cox]

I ran this past a couple of people I know who are of the pagan-y persuasion and know a great deal about Norse mythology. One of them is a self-professed follower of the Norse Pantheon.

Both of them though this was a terrible idea.

That good enough for you clowns?

Again, we're not talking about the actual myths. We're talking the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby version, which I guessing pagans never venerated in the first place.

If you want to argue that that bygone gods should never be exploited for pulp entertainment, that's a whole 'nother issue. Although that would pretty much render whole swaths of fantasy and literature out of bounds--which strikes me as an extreme.

Comics, myth, literature, religion . . . it's all grist for the the mill. And mixing and matching them sometimes yields interesting results.

 

[Red Ranger]

It's one thing to not pay attention to race if the story is explicitly about race, and another to not pay attention to race when it's entirely immaterial to the story.

Right. For a character like the Black Panther, say, it's a significant part of the character concept that he's an African prince; a white actor would be very dissonant. But for a lot of white comic book characters, their race is not really significant; the comic book writers just tended to make everyone white by default. So using black actors for some of them would not be a big dissonance.

Like hell it isn't. Keep your PC off my superheroes!

If you want an ethnic hero to show "diversity", do the hard work of developing an original character and putting it out there for public inspection. Stop trying to co-opt existing characters for your political agenda.

You know, I just love it that you're bent out of shape about casting Idris Elba as Heimdall! It makes me laugh! But then again, what should we expect from a poster whose avatar is the Confederate flag?

Did you freak out as much when James Rhodes took over as Iron Man in the comics? Or that the Justice League cartoon chose to have the African-American John Stewart as Green Lantern? I hope so! And I'll just bet you're one of the ST fans who flipped when Tim Russ was cast as a -- gasp -- black Vulcan!

Or how about when Madonna kissed a black saint's feet in her video, "Like A Prayer." I'm sure you were apoplectic!

 

[Greg Cox]

And as for the shortage of white superheroes on film, let me add Jonah Hex, Green Lantern, Thor, Captain America, and the Green Hornet to the litany. All of whom currently have movies in the works.

Though in Green Lantern's case that depends on who has the ring and is wearing the green and black spandex at the time.

True, but the new movie is about Hal Jordan, played by Ryan Reynolds.

 

[Red Ranger]

In Norse myth, Heimdall was known as Gullintani because he had bright, brilliant, golden teeth. So will Idris Elba have a grill of golden teeth to be more accurate? Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

 

[Red Ranger]

Has anyone actually mentioned yet that the actor in question is Idris Elba, who happens to be the man? Seriously, get Elba to play Thor or even Superman or Batman. He kicks ass. If it has been mentioned, I apologize, I tried my best to wade through the comments from the person with the confederate flag as an avatar and a location stating he's fro the unreconstructed south saying that a black person can't play a white person...

THIS. Someone clearly has an agenda, wouldn't you say? Like this lovely piece.