|
Post by Famous Rocking Chimes on Dec 10, 2015 4:30:30 GMT -5
I'll be honest I always thought Iron Fist was Asian when I first started getting into Marvel so I was quite surprised to find out he was actually white.
I'm not bothered either way about whether they cast a white or Asian actor to play Danny Rand, although it would certainly help out in terms of diversity if an Asian actor was cast. I don't think there's anything racist about casting an Asian actor in a martial arts role. If that were the case, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li wouldn't have been as big as they were.
|
|
AFN: Judge Shred
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wanted to change his doohicky.
Member of The Bluetista Buyers Club
Posts: 18,221
|
Post by AFN: Judge Shred on Dec 10, 2015 5:21:15 GMT -5
Or, why not make Iron Fist kind of like a legacy character? People always complain when characteristics are changed that why don't creators make new characters instead if they want a much more diverse universe in terms of gender, race, and sexuality. So why not this? The new Iron Fist is the son of Danny Rand. Danny Rand is white, the mother of the new Iron Fist can be Asian. Danny Rand was previously tapped as an Immortal Weapon, but have Madame Gao take out Danny (say, with Elektra... synergy!), and have Danny as he's dying pass on the mantle to this son character newly invented for the show. It already is a legacy, just not one done by blood line. It is whoever removers the heart of the dragon is the Iron Fist. As for the White-saviorness. If you have read the comics, the city Saves Danny, Danny doesn't save the city. He comes back and helps save New York. When K'un L'un does need saving, he goes back, but he is part of a team. At least that is the modernized version from Fraction, Brubaker and Aja. ANd I would bet they use that story as it is the most acclaimed. They could put in elements of Kaare Andrews, but I doubt they go full in on his story as it mostly takes place much later.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2015 9:06:31 GMT -5
Seeing as how that's not really what you said, but I get why Cheung would see it that way. Personally, I'm of the mind you can have an Asian Iron-Fist and have an Asian Star-Lord, an Asian Daredevil or Asian Spider-Man for instance. Just because Iron Fist would be doesn't mean you couldn't have others, but I did tell you the reason why I'd rather Iron Fist get the nod. The story of Danny Rand hits one too many White Savior bullet points. I can see why you feel he hits white saviour notes, but those are the same notes hit from the different end of the scale when you make the martial arts guy an Asian guy. There are negative race issues either way. It's an industry-wide problem and Cheung totally does have a point when he asks "Why is it the only time there's seriously consideration for an Asian lead, it's for something related to martial arts?" Though I wonder what corners of the internet he frequents because I often see pushes to get Asian leads for all sorts of things. I don't think that article even made a good case for why exactly Danny Rand shouldn't be an Asian guy, it read more that he'd rather people would more broadly consider Asian leads for other things, which is what I'm cool with. Problem is with the way Hollywood works is that instead of actually casting an Asian guy as Star-Lord or casting an Asian guy as Peter Parker, they'll more likely do some shit like...cast Rooney Mara as a Native American to supposedly avoid stereotyping so even the roles where marginalized people would at least be considered now also go to white people. Again, you wouldn't have to do fifty million tweaks to avoid White Saviordom in that origin story if you just made Danny Rand an Asian-American kid...which actually could be interesting if he were to ever come across Shang-Chi. But really, Danny Rand is going to be a fleshed out, complicated character while also being a martial artist. That role is likely going to have some meat to it, because if it didn't I guarantee you they would cast an Asian kid in it then. ...but lemme stop. They haven't even cast Iron Fist yet.
|
|
BR329
King Koopa
Support the WWF
Posts: 11,477
|
Post by BR329 on Dec 10, 2015 19:36:35 GMT -5
Is it me or do all there Marvel threads turn into a giant debate on race?
|
|
Bub (BLM)
Patti Mayonnaise
advocates duck on rodent violence
Fed. Up.
Posts: 37,742
|
Post by Bub (BLM) on Dec 10, 2015 20:19:46 GMT -5
Is it me or do all there Marvel threads turn into a giant debate on race? It's comic book movies in general. The problem is, fans want to see the characters jump off the page visually. Most big characters are white, so you see a lot more complaints about black Johnny Storm or black Kingpin than anything else, because it's just far more frequent that a white character will change race due to how many white characters there are. What is often overlooked however is that the majority of those same fans would be FURIOUS if Luke Cage were anything other than black, or if Jubilee were anything other than Asian. They aren't typically racist, they just want the characters to stay the same. Hell, angry fans got the last TMNT movie to force reshoots with an Asian Shredder, because they were pissed off that they were trying to whitewash him as "Eric Sacks" (an American-ized "Oroku Saki").
|
|
|
Post by The Tank on Dec 10, 2015 20:28:28 GMT -5
Is it me or do all there Marvel threads turn into a giant debate on race? It's comic book movies in general. The problem is, fans want to see the characters jump off the page visually. Most big characters are white, so you see a lot more complaints about black Johnny Storm or black Kingpin than anything else, because it's just far more frequent that a white character will change race due to how many white characters there are. What is often overlooked however is that the majority of those same fans would be FURIOUS if Luke Cage were anything other than black, or if Jubilee were anything other than Asian. They aren't typically racist, they just want the characters to stay the same. Hell, angry fans got the last TMNT movie to force reshoots with an Asian Shredder, because they were pissed off that they were trying to whitewash him as "Eric Sacks" (an American-ized "Oroku Saki"). Or the big one everyone forgets, flipping shit over Bane being a white dude with a weird voice instead of the only Latino villain in comics.
|
|
|
Post by Savage Gambino on Dec 11, 2015 11:09:57 GMT -5
The thing is, the Golden and Silver Ages of Comics (which most comic book fans grew up with) are eras that mostly took place when black people weren't even allowed to vote, let alone had a any real positive media representation. A lot of the big Marvel titles came out in the 60s, at the peak of the Civil Rights Era. So we end up with a battle between those who want authenticity and those who want more equal representation, and both sides have a good argument. I mean, if Agent Sitwell and Heimdall both kept their traditional racial complexion, Hogun would have been the only person of color in Thor, and that's not even counting Nick Fury in the post-credits stinger, who was also traditionally white until The Ultimates came out. That said, I'm all for more minority representation, but I'll be the first to admit I could care less about a Black Bond (I would go with Jason Isaacs or Michael Fassbender).
|
|