Actually the movie I was thinking of when I wrote that. As annoying as throwing a load of Western characters into Japan is, I think it would've been much worse if they were all Japanese still but just speaking fluent English for the movie. Japanese people very rarely speak English, and certainly not when speaking to other Japanese people in Japan.

I’m encouraged to see so many in this thread who don’t give a fuck about skin colour, it gives me more hope in humanity :)

I feel like this is one of those fake culture war flashpoints that was invented for people to get angry about, but doesn’t really matter and doesn’t impact the quality of the film (usually… I think that cowboy actor playing Genghis Khan back in the 40s or 50s was dumb as shit). But before the Internet outrage culture, Xena Warrior Princess made Helen of Troy black, and no one batted an eyelash. When they made Boomer an Asian woman in Battlestar Galactica, no one gave a fuck. But the amount of manic offence and outrage that’s been taken over black Elves/Dwarves is hilarious, sad, and stupid as fuck. A flaming manic tantrum of virtue signalling over stuff that doesn’t matter.


On White Washing.
I think the main problem of white washing wasn’t so much that Matoko was played by Scarlett Johansson—that was a legitimately good casting choice and they were lucky to get her. White washing was a macro film industry problem where it was rare to see a person of a non-white skin colour or non-white ethnic background in American cinema or TV that wasn’t a stereotype, a foreigner, a token role, or cast in a category film/show (egregious examples include kung fu and blacksploitation).

I can empathize with people who feel they’re not a part of the culture because there was less than 3 of them on 9 seasons of Friends, despite New York City having 2 million of them (black, Latin American, or LGBT). I get that. A show like Friends is basically the main “this is New York” for a lot of the world for nearly a decade. But white men spinning on their heads in rage because a character in an adaptation/remake of some story written in the 1920s or 30s has been made into a black person… Nah! :D

On the positive side, it seems histrionic outrage culture in gaming fandom has gone down significantly from the GamerGate era. But the hissy fits are worse than ever among the dogmatic “true fans” of streaming shows and films. Some of them even threaten cast and crews with rape and murder—fanatical dogmatism exceeding the most extreme tactics of the Westboro Baptist church.

Don't care who is casted for a movie as long as the movie is good. People are too concerned about things that don't really matter. Global warming, US debt that is scary, Russia invasion, etc.. who plays little mermaid just isn't on the list of concerns.  

Historical figures represented in documentaries should be done as such, so to me this Cleopatra documentary was stupid and a racist thing to get a reaction. One of the people involved basically justified it by saying well she was in African so she probably was black rather then look at the facts. When you can upset Egyptians, you know you are trying to poke a bear.

Historical figures that made an impact in the real world should be played by the person of their colour, after all Hollywood isn't just white actors anymore so plenty of suitable actors to pick the right one. There also should be nothing wrong with having all white casts, all Asian casts all black casts etc.. if the story is written that way. Tom Cruise and Matt Damon in ancient time Asia was just weird to see lol.

Established characters should ideally remain the same in the same universe, so for example if someone is black in movie 1 and they get fired for whatever reason, another black person should replace them for movie 2. When doing a new spin/reboot/reimaging, then it shouldn't matter too much unless it was pivotal to the character's role.

Unforutnely Hollywood is bad at writing stories these days, and half the stuff that comes out now feels like they are token gestures to fill a quota. Every new show now seems to have a white, asian, black, latin, indian, muslin, gay and trans appearing more so now. In reality how many of us can say we all have met up with a group of people that covered all those scenarios in one catch up with friends? It is rare and feels forced and unrealistic because they make such a big deal out of it having everyone represented. Now I am sure most of us have friends that fit all those categories, but we don't get together in a big group of 10 people to show the world that we are tolerant and diverse. The reality is we have multiple circles of friends with different tastes and common interests and for such a big circle to cover everyone to exist is rare.

Someone used LOTRs as an example at what people get angry at, well that world is total fantasy and since the story is written well, you don't feel like any actor is forced into the series to meet a quotas.

James bond for example would feel weird if he was a different colour all of a sudden having such a long history, but the way that last one ended it is effectively signalling a reboot of the franchise, so anything is a possibility as it will create a new universe that doesn't tie to the existing one. If the last movie ended like an other bond, then yer I would be shocked if suddenly his skin colour changed. Personally I hope they don't kill the original universe, and the reset is from being called James Bond 007 to just 007, that way it opens up to 007 being any agent for future movies and ties it back to the original with perhaps reference to what happened to bond..
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I expected this to be a thread by Shikamaru…

All race swapping any which way is just plain stupid and unnecessary. At its worst, it takes you out of the intended experience because it just does not make any sense whatsoever. Even at best, it stands out as a deliberate act of some kind. Why go out of your way to do that? Because it's political, that's why. That's also why everything sucks nowadays. Get politics out of entertainment, there is a time and a place and this is not it. Let stories play out in their original form as intended.
There was a time when John Wayne played Genghis Khan, which is pretty much as stupid as it gets. It was a different time back then, it wasn't political but they thought nobody would come to see a film about some Mongolian warlord unless they had a big name star playing the role. But he looks so ridiculous, oh lord...

Sure, but its completely distracting and stupid.

Why? Because ham-fistedly diversifying the cast by dropping a small number of different races into each group (human, elf, dwarf) with no evidence of other people like them existing in those groups previously, is just lazy. It comes across as purely pushing a current social agenda and ticking boxes, rather than actually making any effort whatsoever to weave different races into the story.

My thoughts are any actor should be able to play any role. But the object of a movie is to draw you in and make it believable. The show writers of Rings of Power said the want to make the show 'Reflect the world we live in today'. And if that's the main driving force of a production, everything else takes a backseat. 

Race means very little to me, and in fact I find the current obsession with race pretty socially backward - so as you'd imagine I really don't care when it comes to films. It's really all about the character. Their race should mean virtually nothing. The only exceptions are: the off-chance race is absolutely CENTRAL to the character themselves, or it's based heavily on a historical figure (with the film's goal of showing an accurate portrayal rather than historical fiction). I can kinda, sorta see why there may be a bit of resistance of swapping a long-established character's race as well (which is often just for the sake of doing so), but as long as the new actor is hired for their merit and is a legit great choice for the role, I again couldn't care less. 

Otherwise it means nothing. These are ACTORS after all, and this is fiction. Their role is to act.. in fictional works. As far as I'm concerned, the best actor gets the role. Meritocracy and all.. baked-in traits like race be damned.

Perhaps I am just controlled by his shadow.

I really don’t think most people would care if the double standard didn’t exist. It’s okay for a black person to play Ariel but it wouldn’t be okay for a white, or any other ethnicity to play Tiana, or Mulan, or Nani from Lilo and Stitch.

If that double standard wasn’t there, it really wouldn’t be an issue.