The outrage community has done it again. First, it was Black Panther. Then, it was Anna Diop as Starfire. Now, Jurnee Smollett-Bell has come under fire for being cast as Gotham City Sirens‘ Black Canary, a traditionally white character in DC comic books.
“That’s not my Black Canary.” “Why can’t they leave white characters white?” “I guess I’ll give Gotham City Sirens a skip.” These are some of the silly comments already making the rounds on Twitter. Yes, we’ve heard it all before, but the problem is that we’ll continue to hear them for some time still. At least until people finally realise that the studio is simply trying to reflect their audience on the big screen.
Yes, non-white people watch superhero films too. And, yes, they deserve to be seen in big blockbuster films too.
Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn has now found her birds of a feather, Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been cast in the role of Huntress and Smollett-Bell, who is most famous for her roles in True Blood and Underground, will be expert martial artist Dinah Lance, aka Black Canary.
Despite her amazing track record as an actress, there are some people in the geek community that still feel that Smollett-Bell was incorrectly cast. Surely, it takes more than one’s skin colour to be considered for a role. Surely, fans are smart enough to know that the best candidate gets the role, regardless of their race.
The Warner Bros./DC film is set to open Feb. 7, 2020. Let’s hope fanboys and fangirls get over their prejudices by then.
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It’ll end the moment Hollywood stops changing already established and beloved characters for no reason other than to applease people who don’t read comics and are not even interested in these movies.
I’m all for diversity, so bring on some diverse characters – and DC has plenty of those, without pointlessly toying with tokenism. Give me Renee Montoya and Cassandra Cain, both also announced to be featured in Birds of Prey. Give me Rose Wilson, Lady Shiva, Bumblebee and Jessica Cruz, I’ll welcome each and every one of them with open hands. But enough with race bending. Either introduce other characters, or create brand new ones. The least you can do while making a movie based on something is not trying to reinvent it. That’s what doomed Star Wars – disrespect to the source material, and futile attempts to turn it into something it wasn’t, but what inspired generations of fans.
That’s also the reason Jared Leto’s Joker, Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor and Anna Diop’s Starfire were so poorly received, and comic fans hate them with passion.
#notmycanary
SMFH Seek help you beyond pathetic, laughably clueless loser twatwaffle
LOL you’re so f’n pathetic (and SCARY dumb levels of clueless) it’s not even funny you beyond tasteless, loser neckbeard. Go cry about the multi BILLION dollar new Star Wars movies you oblivious prick
Nothng proves someone’s point more than resorting to ad hominem attacks instead of providing actual counter arguments. So the only pathetic and clueless person here is you, spamming the comment section with hateful, vile messages – 4 I’ve counted so far (using the same broken grammar, and words like “oblivious” and “loser”). Very mature of you, but then again, what could one expect from a typical virtue signaling hypocrite?
They are not mad that a black person is in a comic movie you jackass. They are mad because they are changing characters we grew up on. You mention Black Panther at what point was that supposed to be a white film? The author is a moron. There are plenty of black characters that could be introduced and it’s not diversity if every character is changed to a black that is black washing. Where are the Hispanic superheroes where are the Asian superheroes where are the Native American superheroes where the Hindu superheroes? It’s either white or black
It’s like DC intentionally wants people not to watch their movies. If they don’t take the source material seriously, thus don’t appeal to comic fans, who are they making them for?
??? Seek help, loser neckbeard
Retard alert
The shooting didn’t even start, but there’s only one way to fix it. Recast Canary!
We have nothing against black people playing comic book characters. We have everything against black people playing WHITE comic book characters. You’d get bashed for making Black Panther a white guy so why there’s double standard? If you were really into comic books as you would want people to believe then you’d know that there’s already plenty of black, latinos, asian etc.. characters without need to take a character and twisting it. People have grow up attacked to Black Canary and obviously they are disappointed that the character is not going to be like they’d always knew her. You can’t pretend people to close their eyes and swallow it.
Black people make up only 20% of population in the USA so according to your logic there would already be too many black characters. How about doing a DC equivalent to Black Panther and leave characters as they are in the comics?
Fans will stop be disappointed when people will stop twisting their favorite characters. But you know nothing of it because you just pick up the argoment to raise flame and accuse comic book fans of being racist. Sure you could delete or not approve this comment but you’d only prove to be afraid
no one gives a shit – how often have white people played real life black people. how often have white people ripped off black music , style and culture. for more than decades and you people have a problem with a fucking comic book? you people are really idiots – get a life
Lol, people would be outraged at a white guy being black panther idiot. Hes from fucking Africa. Answer this question, what does race bending accomplish. If its nothing, why are you doing it?!?!?!?
Can’t stop laughing at the oblivious moron neckbeards in this comment section XD XD XD XD XD
Why not have her being played by, hmmh, an Asian woman aged somewhere between 50 and 70? Or a woman in a wheelchair? Or a little kid below the age of 10? I bet there are a larger part of the “audience” than women, who have a Russian-Jewish father and an African-American mother. “Reflecting the audience” has thus nothing to do with it. Then what? Does she have a buff bod and can seriously kick ass, like Black Canary in the movies? Does she have blond hair? Will she wear that leotard costume with fishnet tights? Not either? Is there ANYTHING at all so that fans can recognize her as the Black Canary they love from the comics, other than the name? Nothing? How about calling her Squarepants Spongebob in the movie instead … I mean, she wouldn’t resemble him either, but who cares, right? Main thing is, she somehow represents African Americans!
I’m glad people are mad about it. Characters shouldn’t be cast as a different race as the source material that they are included in. As well as just casting bad actors/actresses for the job. I also think that Scarlett Johansson shouldn’t have been cast as Motoko in the live action version of Ghost in the Shell. Already established characters shouldn’t be changed a ton.
Personally, I think the casting should’ve been switched. This chick looked more like Huntress and Mary Elizabeth Winstead looks more like Dinah and she’s got talents in music and singing, so she’d be perfect for Black Canary. My opinion though, I do hope both actresses kill it!
Y’all didn’t have a problem with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Or Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo. Or War Machine being re-casted, going from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle. Or Will Smith as Deadshot. Or Marlon Wayans as Ripcord (G.I Joe: Rise Of Cobra). Or Jessica Alba as Susan Storm. Or Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm in the remake of Fantastic Four. Or Kerry Washington as Alicia in Fantastic Four. You also didn’t have a problem with Angelina Jolie playing an Afro-Cuban woman. Or Ben Affleck played a Latino man. Or a white Brit playing Michael Jackson. Or Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese guy. Or Lawrence Olivier playing Othello. Or Natalie Wood playing Maria Nunez on West Side Story. Or Edward Frickin’ Scissorhands playing frickin’ TONTO on The Lone Ranger movie! And let’s not forget the great Elizabeth Taylor playing the Egyptian pharoah Cleopatra! Or John Wayne as Genghis Khan! And I’m pretty that Dastan, the Prince Of Persia didn’t look like Jake Gyllenhall! So why is it a problem NOW with Black Canary being played by a black woman? It’s about frickin’ time, honestly!
Lol, I dont give a fuck about those movies. I care about comic book movies. Micheal B Jordon as Human Torch was a failure. Jessica Alba looked close enough for Susan. Samuel L jackson is a A tier actor who is playing a character no one cared about before the MCU, but I agree they still made it work. Ill do you one better, Heimdall was okay, Deadshot was decent and Aquaman was great. But guess what, that was only four people that made race bending work. Johnny Storm was in the gutter. NO one likes Iris West. Everyone fucking despises Black Wally West in the comics and on screen. I didnt even know the asian in JL was Jimmy Olsen, jesus. No one cares about Alicia, Perry White, Loeb, or any of the bended characters in the Spiderman Series for MCU. Everyone just chose to forget about Catwoman cause that was a disaster. There have been so many failures in racebending that it doesnt really support the fact that race bending is good just from a objective view. If it serves no purpose about anything, unlike aquaman or Kingpin in Daredevil, then whats the point in doing it. Race bending forgettable characters doesn’t do crap for diversity and race bending popular ones insults both comic and colored fans. Apparently you can’t use the actual diverse characters for your movies cause you won’t make enough money off of them so you just race bend a beloved one to give the illusion that minorities ” are included “. It insults colored fans because you feel like actual colored comic book characters are not good enough, and you have to force a popular one to be in your image. It insults all comic fans because there is absolutely no point, reason or benefit in doing it… and you are basically using this character for your own personal reasons… Instead of racebending characters for no reason, just use actual diverse characters.
Lol, people would be outraged at a white guy being black panther idiot. Hes from fucking Africa. Answer this question, what does race bending accomplish. If its nothing, why are you doing it?!?!?!?
Point is we don’t really look for our reflection when we go to the movies, we’re actually looking for something that’s quite different, an engaging story a wonderful world, adventure or whatever.
“Yes, non-white people watch superhero films too. And, yes, they deserve to be seen in big blockbuster films too.” Yes, but they can have their own characters in them, not take over some that have already been made. Cause, after all, we do want it to be normal but we also want our favorite comic characters to be represented as close as possible as they’re featured in the comics.
So no it’s not about the colour or ethnicity, it’s about the fidelity of the representation.
This article is stupid af. Comic fans give no shite about race at all. They merely want to see an accurate version of their beloved characters instead of a visual rape. Comics are an artistic visual medium. As such the single most important thing when transferring them to film is an accurate visual portrayal of the character.
Sad, just sad.
It’s sad that the author has to resort to calling people racist because they don’t have a strong argument. People weren’t OUTRAGED, they were just confused by the casting, I’v always known Black Canary to be white and blonde, I had no problem with the actress, she actually fit the character well, and I really enjoyed her. It’s also kind of sad that the people in the comments have to resort to name-calling, it discredits your argument when you do that. Just have your opinion and don’t put other people down, don’t put the actress down, don’t even put the author down, however moronic and ludicrous their article is.