"Guardians of the Galaxy," and Chasing The Diversity Unicorn

[Rochedalaix]

Eren was modeled after this guy

Attachment 7639

Doesn't matter he isn't asian, it is a plot point that Mikasa's mother was the last full blooded asian.

[Milton Fine]

Doesn't matter he isn't asian, it is a plot point that Mikasa's mother was the last full blooded asian.

We're getting a little off track...lets just say if they made a movie about this character, I don't think the creator pictured a white male in the role, but I think if Hollywood made it, that's who the character would be.

The more important question is if the character was Asian in a Hollywood movie by a miracle, would you complain about it? And say that it was PC as a lot of people do when a minority is cast in a prominent role in a movie.

Or would you keep the stance that it doesn't matter?

[Rochedalaix]

We're getting a little off track...lets just say if they made a movie about this character, I don't think the creator pictured a white male in the role, but I think if Hollywood made it, that's who the character would be.

The more important question is if the character was Asian in a Hollywood movie by a miracle, would you complain about it? And say that it was PC as a lot of people do when a minority is cast in a prominent role in a movie.

Or would you keep the stance that it doesn't matter?

It doesn't matter, like I said earlier the race of characters do not change the quality of the movie.

[Teek]

What's interesting to me, and this is kind of off-topic, but the whole movie itself was very pro-diversity.

The Xandarian Empire is the "good-guy" civilization and they make it pretty clear that they celebrate diversity. Without getting too political, Xandar is basically portrayed as a Liberal PC Utopia.
Their enemy are the Kree, who are notoriously xenophobic and pretty racist in general.
This is emphasized by Ronan, who straight up says that he hates Xandarian culture and everything it stands for.
But Ronan is stopped not only due to a union between five (I'm counting Groot's twigs) different races, but because Star Lord himself is the product of a mixed-race union.

[CSTowle]

It doesn't matter, like I said earlier the race of characters do not change the quality of the movie.

It wouldn't change the quality of the movie, but it might change the level of enjoyment for a group of viewers of the movie. And with no extra cost or to the detriment of anyone else's level of enjoyment (outside of members of the KKK perhaps). Seems like a no-brainer.

[Rochedalaix]

What's interesting to me, and this is kind of off-topic, but the whole movie itself was very pro-diversity.

The Xandarian Empire is the "good-guy" civilization and they make it pretty clear that they celebrate diversity. Without getting too political, Xandar is basically portrayed as a Liberal PC Utopia.
Their enemy are the Kree, who are notoriously xenophobic and pretty racist in general.
This is emphasized by Ronan, who straight up says that he hates Xandarian culture and everything it stands for.
But Ronan is stopped not only due to a union between five (I'm counting Groot's twigs) different races, but because Star Lord himself is the product of a mixed-race union.

Well he hates Xandar because they killed his father and grandfather, and than had the audacity to sign a peace treaty.

[Blind Otto]

You can't please all the people all the time.
If they'd made Quill oriental, someone, somewhere, would be offended because he wasn't played by a Hispanic actor.
If they'd turned him into Patricia Quill, a eunuch somewhere would have felt alienated. Which is ironic, because.

I still feel, if a character was created in a specific way, it's not creative to adapt that to your specific subset of society. Creativity is more than that - far more. Changes to colour, gender or even hair colour is not creative - it says that the person responsible has run out of original ideas.

Arrow's Diggle is a good example of what CAN be done. Oliver Queen has had many associates over the years. They could have used any of them, and turned them black, green, or pure. They chose to create a new character instead. Black Canary, on the other hand is now bi, but even that's been done in a new, creative way, with hints that she's not the comics BC, she's her predecessor. Very nicely done.

[Pinsir]

What's interesting to me, and this is kind of off-topic, but the whole movie itself was very pro-diversity.

The Xandarian Empire is the "good-guy" civilization and they make it pretty clear that they celebrate diversity. Without getting too political, Xandar is basically portrayed as a Liberal PC Utopia.
Their enemy are the Kree, who are notoriously xenophobic and pretty racist in general.
This is emphasized by Ronan, who straight up says that he hates Xandarian culture and everything it stands for.
But Ronan is stopped not only due to a union between five (I'm counting Groot's twigs) different races, but because Star Lord himself is the product of a mixed-race union.

The Nova Corps and their leadership were overtly white though. Not only that but the red skinned people (I dont know what they are called) were mostly shown in subservant positions. In fact they brought back recollections of Orion slave women from Star Trek and those Twileks from Star Wars. A highly sexualized, exotic race of foreigners.

[Pinsir]

You can't please all the people all the time.
If they'd made Quill oriental, someone, somewhere, would be offended because he wasn't played by a Hispanic actor.
If they'd turned him into Patricia Quill, a eunuch somewhere would have felt alienated. Which is ironic, because.

Which is why you do get people on tumblr who do take it to extremes. However saying "We can't please everyone." is not an excuse for not doing it. The reason why African Americans were the first major minority to get representation is because they were a large block of the American population. Now the same is happening with Hispanics and homosexuals.

[Rochedalaix]

Which is why you do get people on tumblr who do take it to extremes. However saying "We can't please everyone." is not an excuse for not doing it. The reason why African Americans were the first major minority to get representation is because they were a large block of the American population. Now the same is happening with Hispanics and homosexuals.

"We can't please everyone." Is a great excuse for not doing it.

[Teek]

The Nova Corps and their leadership were overtly white though. Not only that but the red skinned people (I dont know what they are called) were mostly shown in subservant positions. In fact they brought back recollections of Orion slave women from Star Trek and those Twileks from Star Wars. A highly sexualized, exotic race of foreigners.

Which is where the disconnect comes, because different people seem to be getting very different things out of the film.

Some people see a movie that actively celebrates racial diversity with its story and happens to, at the whim of James Gunn, feature several minority actors in major parts. Including a full out race-change for Korath the Pursuer.

Other people see a movie about a white guy in space, saving a society run by other white people, from villains that are 3/4 played by white actors.


Both are accurate descriptions of the movie. I guess it just depends on what the individual wants to focus on. Personally, I think it's pretty clear that race was not much of a factor, one way or the other, when Gunn was casting this film. He cast the most awesome people he could get for each role, and I'm okay with that.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Uh reality check Blade 1,2 were not failures by any means, neither was Hancock. In fact Hancock made more money than Superman Returns, Batman Begins and many other movies featuring white superheroes.

Spawn was no failure, either. It made twice it's budget back worldwide. And Blade was actually the first relatively faithful, non-crap Marvel movie. If not for it's success in proving it could be done we probably would not be talking about a Guardians of the Galaxy movie today.

[CliffHanger2]

Spawn was no failure, either. It made twice it's budget back worldwide. And Blade was actually the first relatively faithful, non-crap Marvel movie. If not for it's success in proving it could be done we probably would not be talking about a Guardians of the Galaxy movie today.

Truth. Even Ari Arad has said that many times. It's not that different types of heroes won't sell its just they aren't being used.

[Rambaldi]

'"We can't please everyone." Is a great excuse for not doing it.'

It's really not, actually.

[lancerman]

You know what the difference is? The highest grossing Blade film (the second) made only $155 million. X-Men which came out roughly two years before that made 300 mill. Spider-Man which came out the same year as that Blade film grossed roughly $820 million. And the insanely white washed Avengers and Nolan Batman films all were hitting a billion (sans Begins).

Even Green Lantern made more money than any film in the Blade series or Spawn.