It's been a trend for a while now, but I'm wondering if anyone can answer why it is always the female lead in a story that features two white protagonists that is recast as a person of color? I call it the default black girl effect. When Tom Holland was cast as Spiderman for Spiderman: Homecoming, it was Mary Jane who was recast as black. In the upcoming Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the role of Annabeth is now a black one. But Percy remains white. In the upcoming Universal live-action adaptation of DreamWork's animation's How to Train Your Dragon, it is Astrid who is being played by Nico Parker (who is a person of color). In the new Dune Paul Atreides remains as white as snow while his mate, Chani Kynes, is now played by a black woman.
I could continue, but I think all of you have noticed this. It is always the female lead who is recast as a person of color, and I just want to know why? Is it patriarchy? Like...would it be too controversial if they recast a character like James Bond as black instead of giving him black women to romance? If Harry Potter were recast today, I know that Hermione Granger would be black. She just would. But not Harry Potter. There's no way we could recast the main male lead as a person of color, right? Why is that? I'm not trolling here; I legitimately want an answer that makes sense. There's something psychological that's going on here behind the scenes that no one is writing about...something that has to do with "audiences will accept a black female (or a person of color in a female role) a lot easier than they will a person of color playing a role that was previously reserved for a white male."
I bet if Alien were to be rebooted with a new Ellen Ripley, she would be recast with a black actress. But if Terminator were to be rebooted and recast, they'd still reserve that role for a white guy (probably with lots of muscles). I'm just wondering why people who make movies and television shows think that audiences can't handle the recast of a white male character as a person of color. Would people just not watch a show that had a black Harry Potter? I feel like people would be up-in-arms if Luke Skywalker was recast as a black guy, but they'd be okay with Princess Leia being played by someone like Zendaya. Could Conan the Barbarian be recast with a black actor? I'd be okay with it, but would anyone aside from me watch it? Anyway, these are the kinds of questions I have that go through my head. If anyone (wiser than me) has an answer, I'm all ears.
I watched the new Ninja Turtles movie on Paramount+ and they made April a black girl. That one makes more sense in that the main characters are turtles so you can't really make them black.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right thought where it's easier for some people to accept changing the character who's more the sidekick than the main character. It's probably just studios wanting to have their cake and eat it too. We want to show we support diversity, but let's not go nuts and have a black James Bond, Dr. Who, Batman, Superman, or whoever.
On my blog I was talking a little while ago about watching the first couple of episodes of The Winter King on MGM+ via Amazon. It's a more realistic King Arthur saga only they made the Merlin character black. Which I can grudgingly accept because this was just after the Roman Empire collapsed and they had contact with Africa so it's possible you could have a black Merlin, though historically not very likely. I'm sure the producers figured that was someone prominent but not too prominent so they could get some diversity in; since it's mostly set in 5th Century Wales there wasn't likely to be a lot of other chances for diversity. I mean you could have Hispanic characters and maybe Arabs, but characters from India, China, or North/South America would really be pushing it since it's supposed to be historical fiction and not fantasy and there hadn't been much if any contact with those parts of the world.
@P.T.: They are race swapping historical characters too. "Anne Boleyn" I think on the British Broadcaster Channel 5 has a black actress as Anne Boleyn in its mini-series. It didn't make sense to me, and I guess it caused a big backlash. The result was obviously that anyone who complained was labeled as racist.
DeleteYeah unless there's some historical basis for it that would be pretty ridiculous. I guess if that's sort of the point of it like Hamilton then whatever.
DeleteYour reply is probably correct, Michael.
ReplyDeleteAwkwafina as Indiana Jones would be a little odd though...
Most of the people in power in Hollywood are still white males. They can't replace the main character who they mostly identify with. It'll take some serious pushback from people in power before anything changes, and I don't think they want to change it as of this moment.
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