brayzie

I always thought it was supposed to be the same person, until the Pierce Brosnan films.

I think you're doing a disservice to Elba by saying that's all you need to be Bond.


Holy shit, you're right. I like Henry Cavill, but yeah, the Rock might not have the hair, but I think he embodies the character of Superman better.

Was it a big deal in the same way that all-female Ghostbusters was a big deal?
I only remember hardcore, neo-nazi white supremacists getting upset about Heimdal and Hogun. They didn't even know that Hogun in the comics was based off of Charles Bronson and was intended to have a Mongolian influence. They were bitching about the Jews in Hollywood corrupting "their" culture, since many of them identify a lot with Nordic culture.
I don't remember any of the comic forums I used to frequent making an issue of Elba playing Heimdall.

Jay G.

I don't think it was, but it was mostly comic book fans discussing it, as it was the first movie. Ghostbusters was a very popular film though, so a lot more people had a bigger attachment to the big screen portrayal.

Nick Danger

How is it? I've always been curious about the American Jimmy Bond.

Interesting. I have no problem with a Black man playing James Bond, but when you suggested a non-white actor as Superman, my first reaction was a visceral "Huh? No!"

Then this went through my head:

Superman isn't Black!
Why not? Surely planet Krypton has equatorial regions, just like Earth.
But Superman has been drawn as white since the 1930s!
Yeah, so? He was created by a couple of Jews as the modern Moses. That's kind of fallen away.
The Kent family wouldn't have adopted a Black baby!
Maybe Ma and Pa Kent were Black too.
But there aren't any Midwestern farmers who are Black.
Snort, really?
Um . . . every actor who's played Superman has been white . . .
That's just weak.

stvn1974

Neil Patrick Harris for Bond.

GoldenJCJ

I don’t really care who the next Bond is, just as long as he’s black. The blacker the better. What’s that “I’m the Captain now” guy up to these days?

DaveyJoe

So every few missions Bond changes his accent from Scottish to English to Irish and also the geo-political landscape changes but it's one dude that has to be white.

Troy Stiffler

Jay Baruchel for Bond.

Troy Stiffler

Lena Dunham for Bond.

Troy Stiffler

Jack McBrayer for Bond.

Josh-da-man

Rebel Wilson should be the next James Bond.

mspmms

How about:



- too soon?

DaveyJoe

I don't think we're ready for a Japanese Bond.

Groucho

GoldenJCJ

^ Let’s see Idris Elba do that!

Obi-Wanma

No, too late. I made that joke about a 130 some odd posts back.

mspmms

Sorry, was it about being originally cast in the role of a transgender man?

Obi-Wanma

It was an article from The Hard Times about her being cast as the first black James Bond.

fumanstan

Dean Cain was 1/4 Japanese!

I feel like we've had the comic book discussion quite a bit throughout various movie threads, but it would be hard for me to see Superman, Batman, Wolverine, or whomever as a completely different race because I'd prefer to see the character on the screen match the characters I grew up reading on paper. Minor characters (like Heimdall) I have zero attachment to, so it doesn't bother me.

Being Asian myself, if someone were to argue for an asian actor to play Superman my first instinct wouldn't be to say "yay! more representation!" If anything, it bothers me a little more that there were so many people willing to agree with Marvel's explanations for what they did with the Ancient One or Mandarin.

brayzie

What was the explanation exactly? The only thing I've come across was that Kevin Feige said that the Mandarin hasn't been in a ton of big Iron Man stories, he's just considered Iron Man's arch-nemesis because he's been around a long time.

I was thinking that we weren't going to get a Chinese Mandarin because it would look bad to have a white hero vs a person-of-color villain. But then again, they had no problem with stereotypes in the first Iron Man film with Al-Qaeda analogue "The Ten Rings" and being in Afghanistan.
I'm guessing it was mostly because IM3 was co-produced in China.

A short opinion article about the lack of the comic book version of the Mandarin in the film:
Following in the wake of The Avengers, which introduced an alien threat to our very human hero, The Mandarin should have been more of a mystical enemy who challenged Stark’s ability to counter technology with more technology.

^This is precisely what I was hoping for when envisioning a MCU Iron Man vs Mandarin story.

brayzie

Well, according to SYFY's Krypton show, there were Kryptonians who were African-American.


And why have him wear a cape? Just because he's mostly been portrayed having a cape? Doesn't make much sense for a superhero to have one when in a fight.

I don't think the reasoning is weak at all. Superman is white. Now if we had a series of like 25 consecutive Superman films, then yeah, maybe I'd be thinking they need to switch it up; a black Superman, a trans Superman, a skinny Superman (he doesn't need muscles to lift tanks. See Miracleman), a non-boy scout Superman, etc.

But why not ask for more movies starring superheroes of color?
DC could get this made if they wanted to:


There was an article a while back asking why can't the movie Wonder Woman be fat or a person of color?

Instead of asking why an athletic white comic book character is white an athletic in the movie adaptation, why not ask for a movie to be made about a a comic character who's already a person of color:

^Better than Wonder Woman too.

There's even a fat version of the character in the story.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, I think the main thing is that they're placating China. The Chinese government doesn't like it when the Chinese are portrayed in a less than honorable and noble manner, so the traditional Mandarin was out. And there's also the matter of the Mandarin being an offensive "yellow menace"/Fu Manchu stereotype.

With the Ancient One, there's the double whammy of being a Tibetan character and having supernatural powers. From what I've heard, the Chinese government
can get touchy about ghosts, spirits, and magic.

fumanstan

Yeah, most of the explanations have been due to sensitivity to China. And correct about the attitude toward dead and spiritual things; I work at a video game company and we have to make accommodations for character designs in China, covering up skeletons and blood. If I recall, when Favreau was directing the Iron Man movies he also had commented that Mandarin seemed too hokey for the universe at the time.

Still, its someone ironic to me that we're talking so heavily about representation in movies just a few years later with Black Panther and Wonder Woman when we saw at least two characters be whitewashed out of "respect" to China because of $$$ when there aren't many Asian comic book characters depicted. As an Asian American comic book fan, I would have loved to see a bad ass modernized Mandarin as a foe. The change being defended for other reasons like the swerve being handled well, Ben Kingsley's race, or that the real Mandarin exists somewhere in the world because of the One Shot seem like they miss the mark to me.

TheMovieman

We've been expecting you, Mr Bodyguard Film chiefs 'are set to make Richard Madden the new 007'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...iders-say.html

Kal-El

Robb Stark? It could work I guess.

Josh-da-man

Not a bad choice. We all know how Bond’s weddings turn out...