Finn Jones. Yup, the role of Danny Rand will be played by Loras Tyrell himself, which means that Jones's role on Game Of Thrones is clearly coming to an end, which might not be a bad thing in some respects. Needless to say, thanks to social media reaction, the casting for the role unlike the castings for Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter and Mike Colter has seemingly gone down like a lead balloon. My own thoughts on this are as follows ....
1: From the limited knowledge I have of the character, I do know that Danny Rand is white in the comics, so casting a white male actor isn't the crime of the century that some social media types are trying to claim it is.
2: Had they cast an Asian-American actor, that would've been fine and maybe they did miss an opportunity by not doing so but saying that, wouldn't Marvel/Netflix have been accused of stereotyping as well had they done so?
3: I like the actor from previous things I've seen him in and I'm willing to give him a chance and given past casting for Marvel shows on Netflix, I'm willing to bet Jones will be fine in the role.
4: I'm bored of social media outrage and this is all this is amounting to - people complaining for the sake of it rather than there being an actual problem.
5: Diversity matters - of course it does and I want more of it on television as much as the next person but Jones's casting shouldn't be seen as some kind of slight either.
What are your thoughts on the casting? Right choice, too safe a choice or a missed opportunity?
Press Release: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/25/finn-jones-iron-fist
Filming for Iron Fist will begin shortly for Netflix.
6 comments:
This a very reasonable blog, I have been reading Iron Fist for 40 years, and been keeping an eye on this "controversy" since day one. I would argue one point though, I've been watching social media all day since the announcement. I think it's 75% positive, not really a lead balloon and the only people upset are the SJW's who got riled up by the Keith Chow blog. The same Keith Chow who declared he did not care about Iron Fist he just wanted an Asian in a Marvel role. The whole identity of this one character whose ethnicity really matters is the one Chow wanted to change.
I like Finn Jones, so I'm not as disappointed as I might have been, but I have qualms about a white guy being the best student in Kun Lun and the only one worthy to challenge the dragon Shou-Lao and gain the power of the Iron Fist. It should go without saying that Asian culture is best represented by Asian people, rather than by white people dressed up in the trappings of it.
If he were just a martial artist, it would be no big deal, because there are plenty of white martial arts masters, but Iron Fist also draws on mystical powers based in Asian culture (educated in the hidden, mystical city of K'un L'un in Asia, received the Iron Fist by defeating the aforementioned dragon, etc.). I think he should have been Asian to begin with in the comics, but wasn't because of the era, and there was an opportunity to fix that on TV, given that other Marvel Cinematic Universe characters have already had their ethnicity changed.
Todd - Maybe I jumped the gun a little with the "lead balloon" comment, I just saw a lot of negatively but I do agree with your comment about SJWs making it into a race issue where there isn't one. To be honest, I would've been perfectly fine with any actor in the role, so I'm sure Finn will be fine in it.
Noybusiness - I get where you're coming from and you make some fair points but the comics themselves did seem to have a point about Danny being white as well in them. There's also the possibility that Marvel will add more Asian-American characters into their respective television and cinema universes as well.
Well, many fans find the comics themselves problematic; the character was created in 1974 and smacks of cultural appropriation, and so these fans were hoping the show would fix what's wrong with the comic rather than follow it faithfully (I mean, if they can change Hogarth's sex no problem, which was well received). Even the showrunners made a nod to that by saying they were looking at Asian actors for a while (and I always find it dubious when we're told they couldn't find a minority actor who was good enough).
I've never read them myself so I can't judge them on that. The casting for me is fine, I get where you're coming from but I'd rather just give the show a fair chance before writing it off though.
Well, of course, I may be disappointed, but I always try to enjoy something as much as I can for what it is (except Twilight).
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