Racists boycott Thor movie because of Idris Elba playing a god

[Prabalus]

The United States a European country?not in this life time.
um..CCC...that's the reason we became a separate country. To NOT be European
and what's all the crap about how the United States should be Christian?
racist white supremacist idiots

Uhm, no. The reason you separated was to not be a colony of the United Kingdom, seeing as colonies had no political power in Britain, and were by and large subordinated the British government. Also religious persecution.

For Odin's sake, read a book.

Oh, and for the record, you're about the most christian nation in the world. You just don't organize under one church.

 

[Danish rage]

It seems out of place for a black man in nordic mytholigy. And some people up here still pratice worship of those Gods, they might take offence. In general it´s a bad idea to stray from the original material.

Actually having read alot of Norse Mytholigy, im NOT gonna see this movie. And only because i know it will NEVER honor it´s roots.

AND Thank you Marvel for the mass rape
of my culture and roots.

I'm actually going to go with you on this one.

This isn't some "reincarnation" of Heimdal we're talking about. Thor in the movie is "Thor the god placed into a human body" but Heimdal isn't Heimdal is supposed to be THE guardian of Bifrost, the bridge between Midgard and Åsgard.

And because of that, because we're talking about the son of Odin himself, the guy whose horn will mark the end of days, Ragnarok, I find it offensive that they pulled the "politically correct"-lever and went with a black actor. Ironically, had they casted Thor reincarnate as a black guy, an indian, a chinaman or anything else, I'd have no real problem, since it's known that the gods took on many shapes.

Stop being so stuck up american, guys. The CCC-people are bigoted bastards, granted, but that doesn't mean it's racist to ask questions concerning historical and religious precision.

My religion matters too.

True, a black dude as Thor could have been explained in some way. In some twisted ironic way Heimdal is actually reffered to as The white god in some ancient song lyrics.

Heimdal was born out of seven mothers/sisters, maybe both. Most of him is made of gold and so is his horse, so much i know.
Im not quite sure ODIN is the father though, but that would be the most likely option i guess. Must say a lot has been lost since my school years in the late eighties and the Danish comic VALHALLA has somewhat ruined what was left even thoug it´s fairly accurate to it´s source material.

 

[Prabalus]

[snipsnipsnip]

 

[Darkauthor81]

I want this man [http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTGhljeii5z-Rm8qyuKXXEaiM0WYgNlYfON_xppG0PXAsBwqVNk] to set them straight.

Does the race of a God matter? Hell no, not to me.

[sub][sub]I fucking hate racists.[/sub][/sub]

Oh yeah! They must have just about exploded when they saw a black man cast as God.

 

[Zyxx]

"Look, class, look! It's a hive of Ignorant Racist Netwarblers! Watch them focus on completely irrelevant things! Listen to their calls as they beg for attention from other passing creatures! Note that of the other animals, only a few pay attention, and only briefly to mock the nest before returning to more worthy pursuits. These brief glimmers of interest are all that sustains the entire hive."

"Aww, they look so pitiful, and they sound so sad, and they're so misinformed. Can't we help them?"

"Absolutely not! Remember, class, we're here to observe nature, not interfere. Netwarbler hives thrive briefly under attention, and even attempting to destroy a hive will just make it stronger, but when they are ignored and forgotten (as these eventually will be) they soon starve to death. It's simply nature's way. Strangely, the species seems to be in no danger of extinction..."

 

[Nocturnal Gentleman]

Now that I think of it, I don't understand why it's necessary to get the ethnicity of the gods right when it's been ignored for other religions in the past. For example Egyptian gods. Someone name one movie to me where the Egyptian god represented had an actor that looked Egyptian or had Egyptian looking followers. One Marvel movie isn't going to ruin anything.

Besides, I like to think that all illustrations of gods are incorrect. Ever seen ancient pictures of real animals that were redesigned to the point where they looked nothing like the actual animal? Heck, some of them even look a little human. That's what I like to think the gods are like. People WANT them to resemble themselves, but they actually barely look like humans at all.

 

[Prabalus]

I want this man [http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTGhljeii5z-Rm8qyuKXXEaiM0WYgNlYfON_xppG0PXAsBwqVNk] to set them straight.

Does the race of a God matter? Hell no, not to me.

[sub][sub]I fucking hate racists.[/sub][/sub]

Oh yeah! They must have just about exploded when they saw a black man cast as God.

Again, I doubt they really care. It's not like Marvel is making the authorized biography of Tor.

But instead of doing what the large majority of posters in this thread have done, take a minute and think about it. WHY do they do this? Does it add to the film? The cost of religious and historical precision is a great one. Do you suppose the tea party "christians" would have let it slide lightly if their god was portrayed as a pedophile? Or if Moses was a woman?

Understand this: the gods in Norse religion have clear images, faces. Jehova does not. Therefore, it's easier to take liberties in portraying the christian god (woman in Dogma, black in Bruce Almighty etc) because the god's appearance is mostly based on habit and folklore, not religious texts and consistent depiction.
And again, had Heimdal been "Heimdal reincarnate" as Samuel Jackson is playing an avatar of god, not GOD himself, things would have been different. Heimdal was white. It's that simple. It's not racism. It's tradition.

 

[Enigma6667]

I totally want a black god to show up now, just to see the look on the faces of people like this...

[small]Racist fucks.[/small]

*Cough* *Cough* *Bruce Almighty Cough* *Cough* *Evan Almighty Coughity Cough Cough*

But seriously though, this news is fucking retarded. Why must there still be idiots in the world?

 

[lokiduck]

XD Makes me think of this one American Manga Pantheon High where the daughter of Ra, Egyptian god had a blond white daughter, course her human mother was a blond white californian woman and though Ra had a bird for a head, she was all human looking while other egyptian kids had some sort of animal trait :/ Course that chick was a fricking Mary Sue..

 

[stonethered]

...Didn't we already have Morgan Freeman play god in a movie once? I don't see the big deal.

I'm throwing my vote behind this one. Morgan Freeman certainly did the best portrayal of God I've ever seen. Not perfect of course, but damn good.


I'll admit that the Norse gods probably ought to be all blonde hair, blue eyed, except in a few particular cases, in which they are gingers(Loki for instance). But we aren't the Norse, so our depictions of pagan gods have a slightly larger and more diverse field of skin tones then theirs did. If the casting director decided that a black man could play the part of a norse god, then I am more interested in seeing how well the actor can do the part then in whether or not he looks it.




Of course it goes both ways; if someone ever goes and makes movies out of Sub-Saharan mythologies, I want to see white and Asian actors given equal chances as black ones. Equal rights does go both ways after all.

 

[lokiduck]

Aem...
While I've never read these comics, it still goes to reason that the gods of the Norse mythology, basically part of my heritage since I'm Scandinavian, are white. Why? Because we are. We're all pale-ass motherfuckers 'cause we live in the far north. It's kinda like portraying Ra of Egyptian mythology as asian. There's nothing racist in it, and it's a pity that racists have taken this cause, but it's a pretty valid point that norse gods are, well, norse.

All this "no mixed races" bullshit can fuck right off, though.

LOL too late kind of XD

The blond one is the Daughter of Ra and all though he has a bird head, she has so bird qualities while the other egyptian kids are all animal people. Also the black haired boy is completely Japanese. The Brunette Girl is Tir's daughter and I am for the most part okay with that, while the grey head is Hades' kid, but it's the daughter of Ra that bugs me. And I kind of liked the series D:

 

[Jonluw]

If this was a movie about the Norse gods, I would be rather annoyed with them casting a black actor, but this is a movie about Marvel super heroes, so I couldn't care less. Stupid CCC.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, to be entirely honest while I think the fundemental issue of having a black guy playing Heimdall is right on the money, I don't agree with all of the other stuff being said about it.

Understand that we're dealing with Asgard, which is nordic in general theme, it's about Asgard and it's culture, not multi-culturalism. Arguements about european and american cultural purity have very little to do with the situation either, and it seems like the guys making the complaints are jumping off the deep end with all the baggage they are tying to what is otherwise a very common sense arguement.

I'm of the belief that when your doing movies with established characters, and in an established universe, you should try and find actors who at least look the part. If you start ignoring that and trying to say put black guys in Asgard for the sake of political correctness, that's not a good thing. What's more it's generally failed, I look towards "Daredevil" which was one of Marvel's less successful attempts to launch a comic movie, where one of the major problems with that movie was casting a black guy as The Kingpin. I can't remember the actor's name who did it ( he was in "The Green Mile", "The Scorpian King", and "Sin City"), he's pretty decent, but was just wrong for the role. Your dealing with a character classically referred to as "Cue Ball" by Spider-Man during fights. This kind of casting is like say doing a movie about the life of Hulk Hogan with the role of Hulk Hogan played by Jada Pinkett Smith.

When it comes to Thor himself, it's noteworthy that the only reason why Thor doesn't match the proper vision of Thor from mythology is because he's actually the spirit of Thor inhabiting a mortal's body... Originally Donald Blake. They even had a few situations where they had Thor Vs. Thor with other people wielding the same or similar powers, including a fight with the "real" red haired Thor, Beta Ray Thor, and some alternaverse stories with a woman possesed by the spirit of Thor. This is why he doesn't match the mythological version and most of the other deities do, I have seen no evidence that the same thing can happen with other gods that are present, and if it did, it would be a major plotline. I point this out mostly to head off arguements about "well Thor wasn't Blonde, so why can't Heimdall be Black". In theory Thor *could* be Black if his host died, and a worthy guy of that ethnicity found the hammer and became the new host of Thor. It couldn't happen with The Enchantress, Heimdall, Sif, Hogan, Volstagg, Fandral, Baldur or others however. Loki, Odin, and Karnilla have all demonstrated shapeshifting on the other hand and could pretty much assume any form they wanted.

If they really *HAD* to have a politically correct undertone in this entire thing, it's noteworthy that there is a native American who was serving as a Valkyrie at one point, and Storm briefly had the role of "Goddess Of Thunder" during Thor's absence and with Odin out of the picture, she was abducted and transformed by Loki using a hammer counterfeited by the dwarves. This did not last long, but it comes up once in a while, and has gotten Storm some respect fromt he Asgardians, if they wanted to book Halle Berry you could put that character into Asgard in some capacity and keep (more or less) with Marvel Canon.

One final point I'll make is that Asgard is *NOT* politically correct. The gods of Asgard are incredibly bigoted against Dwarves, Elves, Trolls, and Giants. In some of the stories they have made it pretty clear that the enemies of those races being fought actually have some legitimate gripes when you go back far enough. The fact that the Asgardians like to pretty much enslave anyone they want something from and force them to make weapons, artifacts, and similar things has a lot to do with it. You don't exactly see Baldur and Sif wandering around with bullwhips, forcing trolls or dwarves to do things, but when you consider the backstory of some of those Thor mcguffins includes "forged by this race, under extreme duress" the writing on the wall is pretty obvious. As is what you see in things like the above "X-men in Asgard" stories where the Dwarves make it clear they hate Asgard because of the general tendency for gods like Odin or Loki to pretty much walk in and say "do this, or I'll kill you".

Thor winds up being constantly conflicted between human morality, and that of the gods. Since he operates on earth, and has a human host, you can guess what usually wins out. However he tends to wind up on Odin's "bad boys" list as often as Loki does, albiet for the opposite reasons. A lot of storylines like Warren Ellis' "World Engine" pretty much start with Thor getting exiled yet again for irritating Odin.

Now, I'm not going to yell "boycot" here, but I will say this this bit of information makes me less likely to want to see the movie. Despite what people might want to think, it has nothing to do with a black guy being in the film in general, but the role being played and the obvious gesture to political correctness, and the disrespect towards the source material. If they're doing something like this, then you have to seriously wonder what else they're going to be cocking up in a similar vein.

Once, I'd have been saying "meh, it's no big deal" as it's a minor character, but I find that it's these little details that are a sign of what is going on with the overall production and the attitude of the producers and writers. I look at movies like "Daredevil" as an example, and how I can't think of a single situation where something like this has been a good sign. This kind of casting usually means that they don't want to make a good translation of "Thor" to the movies, rather they want to use the "Thor" name to sell something largely differant, and politically correct to the broadest range of people possible.

The contrast between Asgard and Earth is one of the central themes of the stories, and has a lot to do with the character. People should find Asgard a bit offensive, even when dealing witht he good guys, and looking at Thor's nobility wonder what he sees in it, the same way Asgardians wonder what Thor sees in earth. Again I referance the whole "X-men in Asgard" thing which showed it from an outsider's perspective. Cypher pretty much wound up being turned into a slave within 5 minutes of arriving. Sunspot (who had super strength) wound up getting respect simply because he could fight, and it didn't matter if he wound up being a total douchebag.

Enough rambling, I'm tired, and not sure if I'm conveying this right. The bottom line is that the guys who are voicing this complaint seem to be idiots. The central issue involved here, viewed purely from a Thor-centric/comic-centric viewpoint here is relevent, as this does seem to imply that this is going to be a really bad version of Thor, if they are doing this I'd imagine it's only the tip of the iceberg.

 

[feather240]

...but aren't the Norse gods white? :/

Then again it seems a little extreme to need historical accuracy for something by Marvel.

Oh, and the confederate flag is a heritage thing...

 

[NickCooley]

Thor is Norse in name only. In the comics they're not gods they're aliens. But I hardly expect these mouth breathing wastes of skin bothered to look that up, there's a blackie on the screen it's clearly their ***** fit time.

 

[captaincabbage]

lol what a bunch of racist dickholes. Go ahead and boycott it then, we don't care! just don't try and force your bullshit ideals on the rest of us.
We'll just go and see the movie like normal, accepting non-mideval people.

 

[II2]

On the flip side, I'd reckon people would call racism just as quick if an established black character was played by a white actor.

Maybe johnny black was a perfect fit for the role, but even for someone who doesn't give a toss about the series at all, the lurching crack in the stretched canon is easy to understand as a point that would upset people invested in this character.

I don't really know much about Marvel's take on Thor, but the root character in Scandinavian mythology is pretty damn white. Wouldn't it seem weird to cast a white man as a Voodoo Loa?

$0.02

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

while i can understand wanting to be accurate, if the man plays best in the directors eyes for the part, then give him the damn part, thats fucked up if you tell a man he wont have the part because of the color of his skin he was born with.

ever seen bruce almighty? morgan freeman is now what i imagine god as, he owned that part.

this is marvel after all, people, if your that offended by it then dont see the damn movie, they aren't claiming to be historically or religiously correct, they are making a damn movie about thor who is a marvel hero, so just fucking drop the racist bullshit about it already.

 

[DanielBrown]

Well man has always created God in his image, ancient Northern mythology surely was no exception.

And to be honest the only reason I can imagine why they'd pick a mixed cast is obsessive political correctness. It's like that fuss about black Hobbits. It has nothing to do with racism, it's just about the industry being terrified of the rage of a pathetic group of misinformed people who are blindly obsessed with being discriminated.

Since we share the same opinion I'll use your post!
There was a discussion in another thread a while back about them putting black people to play otherwise white characters roles. My opinion was that if they do their part and fit the role, like Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, it doesn't matter that much... but to replace Heimdall like this doesn't make sense to me. The norse gods were white since the people in Scandinavia were white. It isn't racism or discrimination, just facts.

Though, to be honest, these Marvel movies never were much for following the comics. Why should they care about mythology?

 

[noble cookie]

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