Race in Superhero Movies

Race+in+Superhero+Movies

Carlo Zahl-Batlle, Staff Writer

So the Iron Fist has finally been cast for his Netflix show. Game of Thrones actor Finn Jones will be playing Marvel’s living weapon in his own Netflix show. Marvel stuck to the Iron Fist canon by casting a white actor, but problems have arisen with the actor cast in that many people wanted the heavily oriental-themed character to have been played by an Asian man instead of a white man in an effort for more representation in the Marvel cinematic universe. In my opinion, no one will care about this because Marvel’s Netflix division has so far has been amazing. If Netflix trusts Finn John to be Iron Fist, from what we have seen of Daredevil and Jessica Jones he will not disappoint.

But I understand the complaints, as the Marvel universe is filled with a lot of one thing – white people. Most of their heroes are white; Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Antman, Thor, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Star Lord and Hulk to name a few. And things are not looking up to much in the form of representation as Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and The Inhumans (excluding Triton because he’s green) are also white.

But the problem with race changes to previously established characters is that it is a double-edged sword. The reason why is that the public has grown used to seeing certain characters as being certain races. People would be confused if, say, Batman was played by a black actor instead of a white actor. Batman’s sidekick Robin was almost played by Marlon Wayans (a famous black actor and director from The Wayans Bros and Scary Movie), but like with Batman, the character of Robin has traditionally been white. But for certain characters no one cares what race they are. Nobody batted an eye when actor Idris Elba played Heimdall (a character who had been previously established as white in Thor comics) because he was great in the movie. And all of three people cared when Ben Urich was played by a black man in Daredevil because he was great. People have grown so accustomed to the Marvel movies using the ultimate version of Nick Fury (the version being played by Samuel L. Jackson) that they even got rid of the prime version of Nick Fury (the white one) that they retconned in a black version for Marvel’s main comic book continuity. And do you know why, dear readers that no one cared that characters like Heimdall and Nick Fury got race change? Because characters like Marvel’s Heimdall and Nick Fury are not nearly as popular as Spiderman or Captain America. Not only that, but Elba and Jackson performed their roles excellently.

It is unfortunate, however, that Marvel movies continue to have problems with representation. Marvel does have plenty of Asian characters to choose from, however. For example, Mantis from  the Guardians of the Galaxy comics, the current Hulk in Marvel comics,  Amadeus Cho, the recently created Synapse, and Shang Ci are several awesome Asian superheroes that Marvel could use in their movies. Hopefully Marvel will be able to remedy this problem with future movies and all people can be represented within their films and TV shows.