Marvel's Iron Fist (Netflix Series)

[Luminous]

Originally Posted by Saturnyne

Hollywood does have a pretty gross track record when it comes to portraying Asian characters, so I get the desire for respectful representation. That said, casting an Asian actor as this particular character makes no sense unless they intend to totally change his origin.

Agreed. This scenario however is just not the right instance to make a case for a change.

[wktf]

Good lord...Rand is white and blond. I think a Netflix show for Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu also would be awesome. At this point Shang-Chi, who is Asian, has worked with Captain America as part of The Avengers and also has partnered with Iron Fist. If there's a desire for the martial arts character to be Asian then Netflix also can consider Master of Kung Fu. But Iron Fist is a blond, white character.

[joefixit2]

people who have no clue just wanting to make some noise, that's about it. The less we pay attention, the quicker they will go away.

[Meteor Man]

Originally Posted by wktf

Good lord...Rand is white and blond. I think a Netflix show for Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu also would be awesome. At this point Shang-Chi, who is Asian, has worked with Captain America as part of The Avengers and also has partnered with Iron Fist. If there's a desire for the martial arts character to be Asian then Netflix also can consider Master of Kung Fu. But Iron Fist is a blond, white character.

Agreed, but Arthur Curry is a blond white guy too.

[Demona]

I think this actor will be a nice choice, I like his work on GoT. He is clearly going to be busy because I think his GoT character has some more time to give on there.

[ParisDean]

Writer Marjorie Liu (X23, Astonishing X-Men) is one of the people against casting Iron Fist as a Caucasian: https://twitter.com/marjoriemliu/sta...62092303892480

[Luminous]

Originally Posted by ParisDean

Writer Marjorie Liu (X23, Astonishing X-Men) is one of the people against casting Iron Fist as a Caucasian: https://twitter.com/marjoriemliu/sta...62092303892480

[Hanky Panky]

Originally Posted by Saturnyne

Hollywood does have a pretty gross track record when it comes to portraying Asian characters, so I get the desire for respectful representation.

That said, casting an Asian actor as this particular character makes no sense unless they intend to totally change his origin.

Hollywood has broken away from comic book material before though...case in point: Kingpin in the Daredevil movie was played by a black actor.

More recently, Nick Fury in MCU films played by black actor.

There's argument here to consider an Asian actor based off those prior examples.

[Luminous]

Originally Posted by Hanky Panky

Hollywood has broken away from comic book material before though...case in point: Kingpin in the Daredevil movie was played by a black actor.

More recently, Nick Fury in MCU films played by black actor.

There's argument here to consider an Asian actor based off those prior examples.

First, the decision to have Michael Clarke Duncan play Kingpin was done by FOX and not the company that created the character. Second, let's not kid ourselves into thinking that FOX made that decision for the sake of diversity. Mr. Duncan was a large and imposing looking person with a very deep voice who had quite the resume in Hollywood before landing the part.

Most importantly, the key difference in this scenario is that one of the appealing things about Danny Rand was that he was an identifiable Westerner for Western readers who could imagine learning the ways of martial arts taught in a foreign land. It is a part of his persona. Changing his race would be counter productive to his origin.

As for the Samuel L. Jackson example; that idea came to fruition thanks to the portrayal of Nick Fury in the The Ultimates comic. Mark Millar and Brian Hitch changed Fury's ethnicity for the Ultimate alternate universe, where his design was heavily inspired by Samuel L. Jackson's likeness. With how popular that look had become among readers, the star power an actor like that demands, it only made sense for Marvel to approach Mr. Jackson for the role. Again, nothing to do with the sake of "diversity".

[Matches Malone]

Originally Posted by Luminous

As for the Samuel L. Jackson example; that idea came to fruition thanks to the portrayal of Nick Fury in the The Ultimates comic. Mark Millar and Brian Hitch changed Fury's ethnicity for the Ultimate alternate universe, where his design was heavily inspired by Samuel L. Jackson's likeness. With how popular that look had become among readers, the star power an actor like that demands, it only made sense for Marvel to approach Mr. Jackson for the role. Again, nothing to do with the sake of "diversity".

As it relates solely to this part of your argument, the entire Avengers half of the MCU initially leaned pretty hard on the Ultimates material. Jackson's Fury, for all intents and purposes, was indeed "being faithful to the source material".