Homicidal_Squirrel
Adventurer
A question from a Dark Tower noob. I've never read the series, so I'm no means an expert, but is Roland's race ever described explicitly in the books? All the art of the Dark Tower series that I've seen (book covers, comic books, etc.) have portrayed Roland Deschaine as a white caucasian. But now we have Idris Elba in the role and he's clearly black. So is this a case of casting an actor over his ability rather than his appearance, that they change a fictional character's racial makeup? Or was Roland's race really ambiguous in the first place so they were free to cast any actor in the role?
Now please don't think I'm a some sort of pendant over a fictional character's race. I think Idris Elba is a wonderful actor and I really didn't give a s**t when he was cast as Heimdall (described as the whitest god of the Aesir) in Thor (I know some racist a-holes objected to his casting, but who cares about them?). So I wonder if they same thing happened again here. I guess it speaks volumes of Idris Elba's strengths as an actor that they cast him in such an important role despite the race issue.
Just curious.
King has said that he imagined Roland looking like Clint Eastwood, but he likes Idris in the role because it opens up a whole lot of great background possibilities. King doesn't seem to have a problem with it, and as you've said, Idris Alba is a pretty great actor.