Fury over Black Hermione Granger

Tonguez · Dec 22, 2015

News that black actress Noma Dumezweni will be portraying a grown up Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play has sparked internet controversy as some complain that Hermione is always white - pointing to cover illustrations and the portrayal by Emma Watson in the film adaptations.

However JK Rowling herself has twittered "Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione"

so what do you guys think? Do you think Hermione being black would have made the movies different? Should we sneer at those who rage over the race of fictional characters or is the movie canon somehow now a sacred cow up there with White Nick Fury and Yellow Hulk? Is it racism or is it love?

DO you care?

http://time.com/4158516/jk-rowling-black-hermione-cursed-child-play/

Umbran · Dec 22, 2015

Having Hermione be black would have made the movies different, yes. The movies would then have been depicting a minority character in a position of intelligence and competence, and there are folks who really wouldn't have liked that much - especially as romantic tension between characters builds over time. This would have meant something else to the current social order, and would have meant something different in the context of societal assumptions and biases.

It is a sadness that this would have been an issue.

We should sneer at those who rage against this casting. Whiteness is not central to the character as written, and I think presenting her as black opens up interesting vistas of interpretations. Go to, I say!

Ryujin · Dec 22, 2015

It's magic. She cast a race change spell. That's no harder to believe than anything else in the Potterverse.

Cristian Andreu · Dec 22, 2015

I have no objections to the change, particularly if the author herself states that she never specified the colour of the character. Since I haven't read the books and only watched the movies, I'm used to a white Hermione, but causes me no distress to see a change.

That said, my personal preference in general is, if a character has been established one way (male, female, big, small, green, blue, etc), I'd prefer for it to be portrayed that way unless appearing in a work that's intentionally meant to subvert it somehow. But that's just a personal preference for consistency (I feel characters are more than just their personality and events; how they look and act is also part of them); I won't get offended by a female Quixote or a white Othello.

Cor Azer · Dec 22, 2015

Cristian Andreu said:
I have no objections to the change, particularly if the author herself states that she never specified the colour of the character. Since I haven't read the books and only watched the movies, I'm used to a white Hermione, but causes me no distress to see a change.

That said, my personal preference in general is, if a character has been established one way (male, female, big, small, green, blue, etc), I'd prefer for it to be portrayed that way unless appearing in a work that's intentionally meant to subvert it somehow. But that's just a personal preference for consistency (I feel characters are more than just their personality and events; how they look and act is also part of them); I won't get offended by a female Quixote or a white Othello.

I think adaptations should stay true to the source, not necessarily other adaptations.

Long live PoC Hermione!

Full disclosure: I've never read the books or seen more than 20 minutes of the movies.

Riley · Dec 22, 2015

Sounds fine to me. Would've welcomed a little more explicit diversity in the main characters.

Although the Caucasian illustrations of Hermione predated the movies (see the illustrations in US editions, at least), I'm reminded of this classic disclaimer from Ursula LeGuin regarding the TV version of Wizard of Earthsea:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2004/12/a_whitewashed_earthsea.html

Ryujin · Dec 22, 2015

Riley said:
Sounds fine to me. Would've welcomed a little more explicit diversity in the main characters.

Although the Caucasian illustrations of Hermione predated the movies (see the illustrations in US editions, at least), I'm reminded of this classic disclaimer from Ursula LeGuin regarding the TV version of Wizard of Earthsea:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2004/12/a_whitewashed_earthsea.html

That's interesting to read. My take-away from reading the Earthsea books, oh so many years ago, was that Ged was Polynesian. I certainly didn't buy the casting in the miniseries though.

was · Dec 22, 2015

...I couldn't care less about the race of an actor/actress and whether or not it matches up with the way the character was depicted in a book. Every movie takes a bit of creative license. What matters to me is the person's performance in the film.

Dog Moon · Dec 22, 2015

Personally, I don't like the change, though it has nothing to do with changing the race from white to black. I have never read the books, though I did end up watching some of the movies. If the movies had originally portrayed Hermione as a black girl, then I would be fine with a black actress playing Hermione as an adult. However, I would equally dislike the change if she had originally been cast with a black actress as a girl and now was being switched to a white actress to play the adult Hermione.

I'm not furious or upset or anything and I think anyone who is is overreacting; I just don't like the change.

I get the idea of expanding a lot of the movies with actors of a variety of races, but I guess I don't like changes to known characters just for the sake of changes or to mix in colors. Regardless of what anyone says to me it would be weird to have a black Batman [or in this case Hermione], but it would also be weird to have a white Storm.

Jester David · Dec 23, 2015

There was an Indian King Arthur for the performance of Spamalot. Worked just fine.
I'm more irked by the absence of red hair on a Weasley.

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