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Dante9 on 15 February 2021
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Hiku said:
Dante9 said:

But race does impact things. The character doesn't look like what he was created to be originally

That will pretty much always happen when you go from fiction to live action.
Neither Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland look like what Peter Parker was created to be originally, and they're all white.

Dante9 said:
there could even be cultural differences and whatnot.

If he's written to be the same Joel, then I don't see why that would be the case.

Dante9 said:
Also, they'd then have to change the race of that character's relatives as well for it to make sense.

Not really. Adoption is a thing. And in the TLOU universe, being related by blood didn't really impact anything. Joel's relationship with Elly showed the importance of the exact opposite.

Dante9 said:
Should they then have to switch some black characters to white in order to balance things out?

If the purpose was to even things out in the first place, then that would be redundant. And if they were cast because they were the best suited for the role, then if the same thing happened to other characters, why not.

Dante9 said:
At what point does all this just become too convoluted, when the alternative is simply to just stay faithful to the source material?

It's better to go with who you think is best suited for the role, than prioritizing about an aspect (their race) that was never significant in the first place.

Surely you're not suggesting that an actor should look like a hand drawn cartoon character? Just kidding, but obviously an actor can never match a fictional character face for face, that's not the point or even possible. It's not too much to ask to keep the character's general appearance, race and background intact, though. Stylistic choices are a different matter, there's leeway there because changing a haircut or a look is not nearly the same thing as changing a race. Sometimes what works on the pages of a comic doesn't work in live action, so stylistic tweaks are ok. After all, that character himself would be able to make such changes in his world, should he choose to do so.

I don't think there's a shortage of white actors compared to black actors, so there should be no problems finding a suitable match without changing the basics.

Also, there's just a different vibe to different races, you know? There's no story reason why Marvel's Blade, for example, couldn't be changed to be white, but that would be kind of lame, don't you think? Wouldn't be the same. Or the Bad Boys movies with a couple of white dudes instead of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence? Just not the same, if you know what I mean.