It’s kind of hard to believe it’s 2015 and we are still having conversations about the lack of non-white characters in film and television. Last I checked a large fraction of the United States population is composed of non-white men and women. And yet black, Hispanic, Asian, and other racially diverse characters — and women, too — are largely shunted to minor roles, a practice that becomes strikingly obvious almost every time a major studio blockbuster hits the big screen. Yes, when it comes to comic books I think we all probably understand a lot of these characters are white men and women in their source material, that’s wonderful, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change when their stories are adapted to the big screen.
One such change was made for Fox‘s reboot of Fantastic Four, which sees Michael B. Jordan cast as Johnny Storm — a.k.a. The Human Torch — a character who is blonde-haired and blue-eyed in the comics and was played by Chris Evans in the 2005 adaptation and its sequel. Jordan knew not to take too close a look at what people were saying when he was first cast, but after shooting the film he decided he “wanted to check the pulse out there” on the internet. Suffice to say, what the actor found was a whole lot of ignorance.
“Turns out this is what they were saying: ‘A black guy? I don’t like it. They must be doing it because Obama’s president’,” Jordan wrote in an op-ed published over on Entertainment Weekly. He goes on mentioning other findings, such as, “‘It’s not true to the comic.’ Or even, ‘They’ve destroyed it!'” Reading those words must have been disheartening, but then so is a lot of what’s out there on the web and social media.
From the sounds of it, Jordan has gotten used to hearing those criticisms, which sucks to hear. No one should have to get used to racially driven criticism. Why can’t a black man play Johnny Storm? Or Batman or Iron Man or James Bond, for that matter? Sure, Don Cheadle and Anthony Mackie will continue to find work in upcoming Marvel films, and Chadwick Boseman is taking on the titular role in that studio’s Black Panther project, all steps in the right direction. However, it feels like we’re past the point of just taking steps. We need leaps, preferably over tall buildings in a single bound.
Back when it was announced Sony would re-reboot its Spider-Man franchise with the help of Marvel, there was some hope the studios would opt for the Miles Morales version of the character instead of the twice-used Peter Parker iteration. In the comics, Morales is a teenager of African-American and Puerto Rican descent who becomes the famed web-slinger. Tyler James Williams (Dear White People), Keith Stanfield (Short Term 12), RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), I could have seen any of those three taking on the role. But then the studios announced they’d stick with Parker and subsequently cast Asa Butterfield as their guy.
“I can see everybody’s perspective,” Jordan writes, “and I know I can’t ask the audience to forget 50 years of comic books. But the world is a little more diverse in 2015 than when the ‘Fantastic Four’ comic first came out in 1961.” It certainly is, and frankly we would be stupid not to acknowledge that, which is why it’s upsetting to see that so little diversity exists today in the world of film and television, especially when it comes to the most popular shows and the highest-grossing movies. Jordan continues:
Some people may look at my casting [in Fantastic Four] as political correctness or an attempt to meet a racial quota, or as part of the year of “Black Film.” Or they could look at it as a creative choice by the director, Josh Trank, who is in an interracial relationship himself — a reflection of what a modern family looks like today.
Trying to put up with the things Jordan has put up with, I can hardly even begin to understand. I’m a white male, part of the majority; as a human being I can sympathize, but I will never fully “get it.” I can however try to highlight what I see as a massive issue in mainstream media and culture, a situation I hope will truly change in my lifetime considering I keep seeing people say racial issues are dead in America and yet, given what I see across the Internet and on the news, I beg to differ. I’ll let Jordan close this one out, I’m not sure what more I can say that he doesn’t absolutely knock out of the park in his last two paragraphs.
Sometimes you have to be the person who stands up and says, “I’ll be the one to shoulder all this hate. I’ll take the brunt for the next couple of generations.” I put that responsibility on myself. People are always going to see each other in terms of race, but maybe in the future we won’t talk about it as much. Maybe, if I set an example, Hollywood will start considering more people of color in other prominent roles, and maybe we can reach the people who are stuck in the mindset that “it has to be true to the comic book.” Or maybe we have to reach past them.
To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends’ friends and who they’re interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It’s okay to like it.
