So Eli didn't get to do much in TFATWS again and I don't expect him to at this point, tbh. I think this show is more of a set up than anything relevant for the character, and I guess that's ok as long as they plan on giving him a bigger role later on.
One interesting thing we learned from the episode was that
spoilers:
Isaiah's first wife was established to be dead. It's not clear if she is Faith or someone else, but that could mean Eli's grandma is dead in the MCU and he wouldn't get to interact with her like in the comics, which is kinda sad. |
end of spoilers
I'm interested in seeing more of the Bradley family dynamic in the future. Like, who are his parents? Does he have siblings? Young Avengers was so bad at exploring this in the comics. It's so insane that Eli has existed for 16 years and not ONCE he shared a SINGLE panel with his parents or siblings. I hope this is something the MCU rectifies.
Anthony Oliveira actually talked about how Billy's judaism influenced the way he wrote him in ''My Drag Brunch With Loki'', and I thought that was pretty cool. Hopefully more writers do things like that with him in the future. I don't expect him to ever be a Daredevil or Ms. Marvel kind of character when it comes to his religion heavily influencing his story, but it would be nice to at least get something more substantial.
That's because whitewashing is essentially different from ''religionwashing'' in the sense that once you whitewash a character, you can't really make them be POC within the story. They couldn't make Wanda suddenly be romani when Elizabeth is not. But they could've, and still can, make her jewish if they want to. So the hate towards the whitewashing ends up being instinctively connected to Olsen because they know the reason the character can never be a POC is because of the actress not being a POC. It's definitely not that they're mad at just the actress and not the character, because trust me, they ARE mad about that too. I see people expressing clearly their disappointment with MCU Wanda every single fucking day. They just take that out on the actress more often than not for the reasons I mentioned. A non-jewish actor playing a jewish character wouldn't get this level of backlash simply because his religious beliefs would not affect the character.
As for your X-Men reasoning... that still doesn't explain the Moon Knight example I also gave. Oscar Isaac doesn't seem to identify as jewish at all, and no one is hating him the way they hate Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda. But if they cast a white man to play Doctor Doom, you can bet the same Wanda outrage will happen again. Actors having a different religion is definitely more accepted than actors having a different ethnicity from their characters. That's the reason why Marvel was able to get away with multiple actors on Ms. Marvel not being muslim, but they would never cast any fully caucasian person for those roles.
And if they cast a jewish actor to play Billy I'm sure people will be thrilled... unless they realize the character is not jewish himself. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that chaos would ensue, and yes, I absolutely think the poor actor would be caught in the crossfire of hate, because he would likely be put in a position where he has to praise and defend his work ('cause let's be real, no Marvel actor talks **** about their role), and when that happens, I can see those same stans turning on him, calling him an apologist, saying he is a disappointment for ''defending jewish erasure'', maybe even calling him a ''jew traitor'' (because I don't doubt the gall of this fandom) and all that ****. I really don't see any scenario where Billy not being jewish won't result into a big freaking mess in the fandom, honestly.