Homicidal_Squirrel
Adventurer
Noma Dumezweni, or any other actor that plays Hermione, could be more perfect for the part.
Fury over Black Hermione Granger
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1) (white) Nick Fury does have a version of the super soldier serum fueling him. It's called the Infinity Formula. It's not quite as potent as what's in Steve Rogers.
I'm not sure if the Sam Jackson version does or not.
2) The Marvel Universe in the comics is (was?) comprised of many parralel universes. Each has a #.
The one that most of all the stories/issues took place in is #616.
That's the home of white Nick Fury.
3) about 15 years ago or so Marvel launched a line of comics set in a different universe (I can never remember the # they gave it). They called the line "Ultimates".
It had an Xmen title, an Avengers title, a Spiderman title, etc. Familiar characters, just variations on the theme.
This is the home of the Sam L.Jackson Fury.
Fury looks alot like Sam L. Jackson in this universe because the artist was a SLJ fan.....
This turned out to be a really popular version of the Fury character.
So when they started making the Marvel movies, who better to get to play Fury on screen than the guy who's spitting image they were already using there in the Ultimates line of books?
4) Flash forward a few more years:
SLJ as Nick Fury in the movies is a popular choice. And one that ALOT of people have now seen....
So Marvel decides to put him into the main stream universe (#616) in the books.
(I'm sure there's also a dose of PC/diversity
involved, but it was mostly a $ thing. SLJ like Fury sells more & ties in closer to what someone coming to the comics from a movie watching background would expect.)So they all but retire white Fury.
And then they introduce his previously unknown black son (who looks alot like a younger SLJ) who's also a super-spy type.
And here we are today.
I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about. In the show Merlin Gwen was played by Angel Coulby a black actress she did a great job in the role. How many different actresses have played Gwen. In Elementary Watson is not only being played by a woman but an Asian woman at that. The remake of BSG changed a lot Tigh went from Black to White, Starbuck became a woman Boomer became a woman and Asian Adama was played by a Latino actor.
I say unless race is central to the role then just cast the best actor. People keep bringing up real life people and I don't understand the sheer ignorance of that. MLK would have been a different person being raised white in Jim Crow south his race is an important part of who he is and shaped his experiences.
In Harry Potter the race of any of the characters are not central to who they are. What is important about Hermione is her non magical blood line.
Batman can work as any race what is important is the back story of rich boy whose suffers the loss of his parents and becomes a vigilante what color he is makes zero difference.
I say unless race is central to the role then just cast the best actor. People keep bringing up real life people and I don't understand the sheer ignorance of that. MLK would have been a different person being raised white in Jim Crow south his race is an important part of who he is and shaped his experiences.
In Harry Potter the race of any of the characters are not central to who they are. What is important about Hermione is her non magical blood line.
Batman can work as any race what is important is the back story of rich boy whose suffers the loss of his parents and becomes a vigilante what color he is makes zero difference.
There's an early Ultimates issue where the characters are sitting around talking about who should play them if they make a movie, and of course Nick Fury suggests Samuel L Jackson. After that issue, Jackson contacted Marvel and essentially said "Hey, you're using my likeness in a comic book without my permission. But I'll allow it if I get first dibs on actually playing Fury if/when you get movies made."
Quick question: is there actually a furor over this?
It's seems to me, the objections come from a small group of people online who are: a) racists, b) trolls, c) trolls pretending to be racists which means they sorta are, and d) fans who hold the opinion that you need to pretend fiction operates the same way the real world does in order to be believable & affecting (instead of the reverse).
It's probably best practices to ignore a), b), and c).
It's seems to me, the objections come from a small group of people online who are: a) racists, b) trolls, c) trolls pretending to be racists which means they sorta are, and d) fans who hold the opinion that you need to pretend fiction operates the same way the real world does in order to be believable & affecting (instead of the reverse).
It's probably best practices to ignore a), b), and c).
Ryujin
Legend
It's probably more of a manufactured story which, unfortunately, is becoming more and more the norm these days. Need to drive more views to your site so that you can please your advertisers? Find something real but conflate it into a non existent internet rage-fest, in hopes of actually creating said rage-fest.
Dog Moon
Adventurer
Are you speaking of the people that objected that caused the article in the OP in the first place or those that have made their comments in this thread? I can understand those that caused the article, but I think it's another thing entirely to say this applies to the people in this thread.
I know I for one attempted to present my thoughts on the subject even though clearly my views aren't the majority, which is fine. I wasn't intending to Troll, as you put it, but merely state my opinion in order to start a discussion, even though I've been busy recently and haven't had a chance to continue my part of the discussion as much as in the beginning. I am also not a racist and I had hoped to make this clear by presenting my case as a dislike for major change regardless of whether it was race, sex, or other distinguishing features and I tried to present it as replacing black with white or white with black or other combination.
And as for being a fan, I'm actually not that big a fan of Harry Potter. I tried reading the books but couldn't stand them and watched the Harry Potter movies only because a friend had borrowed them all to me and I was bored one week.
Granted I'm not actually in a fury about the whole situation and believe that even though I don't like the change, it is absurd to become ANGRY about the change. I mean seriously, it's a PLAY that most of us aren't even going to see and doesn't affect us really in any way. There's absolutely no reason to become FURIOUS over such a thing.
I still don't like the change though.
Oops... let me clarify: I wasn't speaking about people in this thread. I meant the folks in the article. Also, [MENTION=27897]Ryujin[/MENTION] has it right. The article & the "furor" are just clickbait. Manufactured controversy, or, more accurately, a teeny-tiny bit of real and insignificant controversy blown up to drive page views and fuel the sort of tweets that drive the current culture-war-as-sport online.
That's totally fair. I should probably say I like remakes and reinterpretations. Any story or character worth telling once is worth telling again in a different way, while exploring different things. My favorite version of King Lear has samurai in it, my favorite version of The Tempest is set on Altair IV. I'm totally cool with the next Bond being black, or queer, or female. Or in 20 years being a lesbian of color (though she'll probably always have to be from the UK -- I have my limits).I still don't like the change though.
Don't get me wrong, I like canon well enough. I'm a lifelong Trekkie enamored of the idea Federation universe being a real thing; a real future history. But in the end it's all fiction. Near infinitely malleable, where what's "true" and "factual" are whatever the current author(s) decree. I think certain genre fans place too much emphasis on continuity/canonicity/etc. It robs fiction of it's power, and misunderstands why people fall in love w/fiction in the first place.
For example, the original Star Trek had very little concern for continuity. That came later. After the show had inspired a group of devoted fans, ie continuity had nothing to do with why people loved it. They came to care about the show's "universe" more than the people who created it.
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Bedrockgames
Legend
Are you speaking of the people that objected that caused the article in the OP in the first place or those that have made their comments in this thread? I can understand those that caused the article, but I think it's another thing entirely to say this applies to the people in this thread.
I know I for one attempted to present my thoughts on the subject even though clearly my views aren't the majority, which is fine. I wasn't intending to Troll, as you put it, but merely state my opinion in order to start a discussion, even though I've been busy recently and haven't had a chance to continue my part of the discussion as much as in the beginning. I am also not a racist and I had hoped to make this clear by presenting my case as a dislike for major change regardless of whether it was race, sex, or other distinguishing features and I tried to present it as replacing black with white or white with black or other combination.
And as for being a fan, I'm actually not that big a fan of Harry Potter. I tried reading the books but couldn't stand them and watched the Harry Potter movies only because a friend had borrowed them all to me and I was bored one week.
Granted I'm not actually in a fury about the whole situation and believe that even though I don't like the change, it is absurd to become ANGRY about the change. I mean seriously, it's a PLAY that most of us aren't even going to see and doesn't affect us really in any way. There's absolutely no reason to become FURIOUS over such a thing.
I still don't like the change though.
Yeah. Just want to say even though I am taking the position that the change is totally fine and not something people really ought to get upset about, I don't think it makes someone a racist to prefer consistency on this issue. There are probably people who object for racist reasons, but I don't think it is particularly productive to assume that is always what is behind the objection.
Ryujin
Legend
Give it a few years, and a remake, and I bet that people will be upset that Finn isn't being played by a black actor, because of the resonance of a 'slave breaking his chains.' There are definitely reasons to object to changes, that are reasonable. Wanting some continuity to the way a character is portrayed is also reasonable.
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