Update: Latest rumor shows casting for a white Ciri | Original: Netflix looking for non-white actress to play Ciri in the Witcher tv series

[DonFerrari]

Runa216 said:
Why is this even a discussion? What harm comes from wanting to inject a little bit of diversity into a fantasy story? You don't know how it'll affect the story, you can't know for sure what their plan is until it's made clear, I've read that the author of the books is fine with it, and there's nothing wrong with diversity.

You can go on and on and on about how she was described as white in the books or how Ciri was portrayed as white in the games, but that doesn't mean that's literally the only way she can be portrayed or described. I agree with some of the other users here that if she's not based on a real person or her skin tone isn't relevant to the plot it shouldn't matter. Like, at all. We don't know if her people are all going to be people of color, we don't know if her change in skin tone is going to be a plot point, and we don't know what the reasoning is behind the decision to not go with a white actress for the role.

And you know what? Even if it IS just to inject diversity or just to give a minority a more prominent role, I don't see how that's a bad thing. I get that some people are incredibly insecure and hate the idea that change might happen that isn't in their favour, but the perceived slight against white people because a once-white character is being portrayed as not-white is kind of sad and pathetic.

Whine about the SJW agenda, Whine about the loss for white roles, whine about the politics, or whine about the forced diversity all you want. If you actually cared about The Witcher and its story, you'd wait to see how it turns out before making a judgment. Whining about a white role being played by a non-white actor before knowing or understand the context behind the decision shows you don't actually care about the material, you just want an excuse to push your agenda or bitch about 'the libs' or whatever.

Adaptations will make changes to the source material. That's the reason we have adaptations. I could go to the previously discussed Heimdall example or the Ancient One - both of which were given a new ethnicity and both of which were played perfectly by their black and caucasian actors - but I'd like to use a more subtle example of something being changed. Thanos. In the comics he had the hots for death and wanted to kill people to appease death. In the movie, he wanted to cut half of the universe's life to ensure that there was enough food and resources to go around. I've yet to see a single person say that the movie Thanos was thematically inferior to comic Thanos. That adaptation made significant changes to the character's motivations and that made the movie arguably better.

Civil War went from an all-out war to a more intimate story and I think the themes present in Captain America: Civil War were far better realized in the movie than the comic.

Spider-Man got his high tech suit from tony Stark instead of making it himself, which makes a lot more sense to me than a poor kid managing a perfectly fit unitard.

The Joker in The Dark Knight cared more about chaos and showing how all a person needed was the right push to throw order out the window, which was notably different from the many prior adaptations wherein he was mostly doing it for fun and to fuck with Batman.

and then there's Heimdall, who was regularly one of the best parts of Thor despite the rest of that culture being pretty damn pasty. and there's The ancient One, who was one of the best parts of doctor Strange despite being the only person in a heavily asian part of the world.

The point is, Adaptations almost never remain 100% faithful to the original. Themes change. The world changes. Even super-faithful stuff like Watchmen make changes to the plot that frankly made more sense than the original. Hell, even comics and movies and TV shows retcon themselves or make AU renditions of their own lore over time. Making changes to a piece of art is part of the process. If you honestly think that deliberately giving a once-white character a non-white portrayal is somehow an insult to the source material, then you're completely missing the point.

If you have a problem with an adaptation not being a 100% accurate recreation of its source material, then that's on you, not the creators. If you are upset at a casting decision before you even know the rationale behind the casting or the decision, then that's your problem, not the creators. If you care more about the color of their skin than the quality of the end result, you miiiiight be racist. you know, by definition.

And if you have a problem with 'the SJW agenda', then you might want to take a step back and reevaluate what's important in this world, because you're completely missing the point.

I really wish I didn't have to explain this.

And I really hate that I know that there's absolutely zero chance that I'll change anyone's mind despite being 100% correct. Well, 95% correct. I'm not sure I agree with the idea that they should exclusively seek non-white actors for the role, but at the same time I have no idea what the intention is, be it just for forced diversity or if it'll be thematic somehow. I will wait and see the end result before deciding. You should, too.

From all you said there I can only get that you are judgmental, think are better than everyone else and have 0 understanding of the universe you are talking about.

sundin13 said:

DonFerrari said:
A good point raised and I'm still waiting to see is people demanding white/black/asian actors on Bolywood. White and black on japanese shows, etc.
I love all black comedies even if they don't seem to represent demographics (although I believe there are some neighborhoods that are almost all black in USA, and also some families that all members and friends are black) also don't remember people complaining about the lack of white people or the social criticism they make on the show. So these accusations that whoever doesn't like the tokenism and forced changes to be more diverse is racist is outrageous.

How many black actors are there in Japan who can speak fluent Japanese? I'd wager not many.  How many black actors are there in America who can speak fluent English? Likely dozens of thousands.

This isn't a good point until you can show that there is an underserved population of actors willing to serve in those theoretical positions. From a quick google search showing one African American who became famous in Japanese commercials and a second showing another African American comedian who became a TV regular, it actually seems like Japan would welcome diversity if they had more of it available.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/7xwa99/meet-the-black-comedian-who-has-become-japans-most-unlikely-star

So we aren't going to demand them that they do shows that could have a white person talking another language and redub him (Arnold and Jackie Chan were redubbed for a long time)? Or demand that they make content that someone talking another language would be natural? Or that talking another language and the difficulty to adapt?

WolfpackN64 said:

Just going to throw my two cents in.

I know why people get upset when they do these kind of things. And most people are not upset because of some "SJW" stuff (although that seems to be present, but that's beside the point). People's backgrounds matter, and so does the color of your skin.

You don't cast a white woman to play Mulan, you don't pick an east-asian man to play Black Panther, you don't cast a black woman as Hermoine and you don't cast someone from a minority as Ciri just because.

Why? Because if creators have so little regard for one of the most basic parts of a fictional characters identity, namely, how the character looks, it feels like they don't care for the character at all. People cosy up in a fantasy world, just for someone to pull the rug from under our feet because something is going to be changed that didn't need to be.

And this is not a call against diversity because there supposedly where no minority people in a medieval European setting. For the Witcher does have people of color who travel from distant lands, just like we had minority groups in medieval Europe (like the Turkopoles). This just feels like they want an empowering character for minorities, which is totally fine, but these characters already exist in the Witcher universe or if you want to be creative, just make a totally new character.

All this would do is create a needless media storm and I don't want to see that happen to the Witcher.

And we do know that the power people inside netflix are as progressive as it gets and loves some spotlight on their decisions.

Runa216 said:

Faelco said:

And why do you care so much about diversity in a TV series made from a video game? 

Did you write so many and so long comments when The Witcher 3 was released to ask for more black characters in it? No. Nobody really cares about diversity in cultural products, it doesn't change anything in the society. Did the black situation become better thanks to Black Panther? I don't think so.

It's entertainment. Seeing a black Ciri will do nothing for minorities, except help a few Hollywood executives and Internet warriors feel good about themselves. "Today, I defended a black character in a TV show, I can go to bed proud". It's nice and all, but it doesn't change a thing. Considering minorities like inferior races needing saving like this is ridiculous. Most minorities don't care about that anyway. Help them get education, security, jobs. "Representation in the TV adaptation of a video game" is very far in the list, and the most useless one. I'm a minority where I live, and I couldn't care less about seeing someone like me in TV shows (quite the opposite actually, it feels too forced, I'm not a quota), I have way bigger issues than that and representation in TV shows won't help at all. 

 

The racist ones here are not the people complaining about the move, but the people doing and supporting the move. "Poor black people, they can't do anything without our help, so I feel good that I supported a diverse cast" is just another discrimination against them used to feel better about oneself without actually doing anything to help minorities.

If they want to have black characters on screen, just adapt an IP with black characters in it already, and everyone will be happy. But even when they got an IP full of "minorities" (Death Note), they decided that it wasn't good enough to feel good and changed everyone's color anyway, just to be able to say "We support diversities, look at us, we're so diverse and superior". They don't care about the result, they just want to talk about how diverse they are. It's all that matters, the World needs to know how much they love the poor minorities who couldn't do anything with their help. 

Netflix are the real racists here.

The TV show is based off the books, not off the games. (Games were also inspired by the book.) 

And no, I didn't care because it wasn't a big deal. It made sense for them all to be white in the game given the book's inspiration in slavic history. However, the issue here is that it could make just as much sense if one race was black, or another race was furries. The themes and the story and the characters are not and will not be altered by a change in skin tone. Having an all white cast or a diverse cast makes equal amount of sense in the context that it's a fantasy story set in a fantasy world. 

I wouldn't protest either decision. 

I will, however, argue against your points that a diverse cast is somehow wrong or unfaithful to the material because there's plenty of precedent for changes like this to happen in similar adaptations. It's dumb no matter what direction it takes, whether it's people bitching about Tilda Swinton being The ancient One or Idris Elba being Heimdall or James Bond being Blonde or Goku being that obnoxious white kid. The issue isn't diversity or lack thereof, it's that people are always looking for things to complain about and will use this as an excuse to jump in and the whole race thing is just another excuse to act tribalistic. 

DragonBall Evolution wasn't terrible because Justin Chatwin is white. that movie was terrible because the filmmakers fundamentally misunderstood DragonBall. 

Furthermore, you seem to fundamentally misunderstand, just EVERYTHING about injecting diversity into a cast. It's not about some manifest destiny or reverse racism or anything, it's the studio saying 'hey, we could really use some color in this story', or (and bare with me), "Maybe we could get more people to watch from more demographics if ciri was black." Both are entirely valid reasons to do what they're doing, and until we see the final product we have no idea if making this decision somehow sacrificed the heart and soul of the story. 

If the show comes out and it turns out whoever they cast was wrong for the role or they fundamentally missed the point of The Witcher, I'll be just as critical as anyone else. However, if it does turn out that the show doesn't work, I highly doubt it will be because of a little skin pigmentation. 

So let me get it. We are racist for wanting the material to keep as is, but someone that would only watch a program if it have actors of his skin colors are the not racist? Great logic.