Netflix greenlights new "Lost in Space"

[Mr. Adventure]

Maybe it will be a dystopic future and the "Robinsons" are a government/media construct composed of people cherry picked from society to be members of a perfect family. So color/ethnicity isn't really a factor. Maybe there are many ships launched with "Robinson" families.

....or not

 

[JD]

I don't care about the casting as long as "the Robot" pays homage to the iconic Kinoshita design!

(Yeah, I know the creators may decide not to even have a robot. I just wanted to state my bullheadedness about my favorite aspect.)

I would really like to assume they'll have a robot, but I've seen them make some pretty weird choices with these kinds of reboots, so guess there's no guarentee.

 

[Starscream2112]

Molly Parker to Star in Netflix’s Lost in Space as Maureen Robinson.
http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/771261-molly-parker-to-star-in-netflixs-lost-in-space

 

[Christopher]

Okay, so it's not the biracial marriage I was expecting. I guess Judy is adopted. I hope there's more diversity in the rest of the cast. Since Major West and Doctor Smith aren't part of the family, they could be any ethnicity.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Lost in Race...it's too bad how it dominates these things. It pains me that it was the very first thing I thought of upon seeing the casting as well. I don't want to go through life mentally tallying every show I watch...there's one check, there's one check, there's one check.

 

[Christopher]

Lost in Race...it's too bad how it dominates these things. It pains me that it was the very first thing I thought of upon seeing the casting as well. I don't want to go through life mentally tallying every show I watch...there's one check, there's one check, there's one check.

Well, imagine how it felt for generations of Americans of color to turn on every TV show and see themselves virtually unrepresented except as servants or criminals. Only a white person would think that race didn't dominate casting until recently, because white people think of race as something that other people have. As far as everyone else is concerned, race has always dominated casting and it's only recently that that's started to change. Calling attention to the problem and trying to fix it is not what created the problem.

Diversity is simply the natural state of humanity, and it's increasingly the state of the American population. But TV and movies still do a poor job of reflecting that diversity realistically, though many shows are getting better at it. (For instance, the movie Minority Report had a virtually all-white cast despite being set in the nonwhite-majority city of Washington, DC decades in the future, but last season's TV version had a far more diverse cast that was more plausible for the setting.) It's no more wrong to update the cast of an older show with greater diversity than it is to update Lois Lane to use a computer instead of a typewriter. It's just acknowledging modernity.

 

[mos6507]

I just find it kind of tokenish to make a racial flip with Judy while playing it fairly conservative with the others, especially Will who is almost a dead ringer for Bill Mumy. They haven't cast Major West yet, right? If they make him black I can see blowback on the basis that since Major West was supposed to have eyes for Judy that they need to be the same race. That's kind of the problem with this casting stuff is it really does start to feel like a quota system rather than, you know, telling a story.

 

[Myko]

When going from a business where white people are hiring and casting white people to a version where white people hire and cast diverse actors, it feels like they are following a checklist. We need to also have diversity in the behind the scenes personnel and up the chains.

 

[Christopher]

When going from a business where white people are hiring and casting white people to a version where white people hire and cast diverse actors, it feels like they are following a checklist. We need to also have diversity in the behind the scenes personnel and up the chains.

There is increasing diversity behind the scenes -- heck, Cheo Hodari Coker's Luke Cage debuts tomorrow, and we have all the Shonda Rimes shows, and Maurissa Tancharoen co-running Agents of SHIELD and her brother Kevin as one of the top directors in TV today, and James Wan behind the MacGyver reboot, and that's just off the top of my head. Berlanti Productions is big on promoting diversity in writers, directors, and producers, so they're helping to correct the traditional imbalance.

Still, there doesn't seem to be much behind-the-scenes diversity on the LiS reboot so far.

 

[JD]

I guess Judy must be adopted then. I'm not to bothered by that, but it is a bit surprising. I was just assuming we'd be getting a mixed race couple.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I guess Judy must be adopted then. I'm not to bothered by that, but it is a bit surprising. I was just assuming we'd be getting a mixed race couple.

Or Maureen Robinson isn't quite as chaste as the original. Perhaps she had her with the black Doctor Smith just to crank up the modern day angst.

(btw I'm not being completely serious here...)

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Maybe they can adopt a sentient carrot and call him Donald.

 

[Starscream2112]

You now that if they stay true to the original concept there might not be A Robot and Dr Smith in this.

 

[Christopher]

You now that if they stay true to the original concept there might not be A Robot and Dr Smith in this.

I think the 2004 Douglas Petrie/John Woo pilot tried that approach. Well, it had a robot, but no Smith.

Staying "true to the original concept" is not as wonderful as a lot of people tend to think. Original concepts get changed because they don't work. Smith was added to the original pilot because the producers realized it was too boring without an antagonist figure. The fact that the character later went in a silly direction doesn't mean that the basic idea of adding the character was bad.

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

When going from a business where white people are hiring and casting white people to a version where white people hire and cast diverse actors, it feels like they are following a checklist. We need to also have diversity in the behind the scenes personnel and up the chains.

Anti-racism and diversity are pretty much the new form of racism. "We're not hiring you because you're a great actor, we're hiring you because you're a black actor, and that makes us feel great because we don't see color."

 

[Vendikarr]

Maybe the "Robot" will be a female android. That way she can look like any thing they want. And just to make things weird Will can develop a crush on her/it.

 

[Mudd]

Anti-racism and diversity are pretty much the new form of racism.

Fun fact: words have actual meanings.

 

[Ovation]

Anti-racism and diversity are pretty much the new form of racism. "We're not hiring you because you're a great actor, we're hiring you because you're a black actor, and that makes us feel great because we don't see color."

No. Not really. But thank you for playing. Your consolation prize will be a trip via De Lorean to 1955. Perhaps it'll be more comfortable there.

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

No. Not really. But thank you for playing. Your consolation prize will be a trip via De Lorean to 1955. Perhaps it'll be more comfortable there.

Yes. Yes really. When you do things based solely on race, such as picking one actor over another actor because you feel by doing so you're making the superior choice, you're being racist. (I'm sure your best friend is black, too, so you can show the world just how diverse and anti-racist you are.)

That's the great thing about racists. Most of them have no idea just how painfully racist they are.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Reverse racist "should" mean that you are not racist.