Marvel Television Narrows Choices of Actors for Luke Cage, Jessica Jones

[Xonmalec]

I'm just not a fan of Krysten Ritter in general, so I wouldn't want her to play Jessica. I've never seen Palmer work, so let's put her in third. De Gouw was pretty good in Arrow, so we know she can act and she can handle action scenes, putting her in a strong second. But I just happen to love Alexandria Daddario, and with her work in the horribly written Percy Jackson series (for action) and he stuff from True Detective (as evidence of acting) I think she'd be a good fit. She looks a little young at times,but beyond that she's a good choice.

I've never seen anything that Lance Gross has been in, so I'm not going to comment on him. Mike Colter on the other hand is freaking awesome. He's awesome in the Good Wife as Lemond Bishop, so we know he can play the less than legal aspect of Luke. He's a little older than I imagine Luke being this early in the series, but he's a strong contender. That said, I will always have aspecial place in my heart for Isaiah Mustafa when it comes to casting Luke Cage, that little fan film he did was pretty cool, and he's got the passion so there ya go.

[Pharoahe22]

The producers ought to just screw with everyone's expectations. Have Luke be a white guy and make Jessica a Black woman. Or if certain people find that too offensive, make Luke a Native American or Asian-American.

Or is it only that "white" male characters the only ones who can be re-ethnicised without incurring outrage from folks who find the reverse to be "whitewashing?"

If it's REALLY only about "finding the right actor for the role" (as is so often used to rationalize changing characters--usually males--from white to non-white), then ANY non-white male actor should be acceptable for Luke Cage. If an Asian or Native American or Pacific Islander is considered "unacceptable" for Cage, you've proved you're JUST as racist as the folks who got upset at the casting of Black actors as Heimdall and Johnny Storm. A racist mindset, folks, is NOT limited to whites. (I do kind of wonder what kind of reaction would've resulted if a Black man had been considered for the role of Bruce Banner. I mean, there couldn't possibly be any problem with the idea of a Black man who suddenly becomes a somewhat mindless berseker creature, could there? Even if the creature itself is green. And why do I never remember hearing anyone suggest any Black--or other non-white, for that matter--actors for the role of Banner?)

Ummm not really sure what your agenda is here (since literally no one mentioned race besides you), but I think you're missing a major point. The reason why the race-swapping has happened in these translations is because of the lack of characters of other ethnicities present in the stories. The casts from these stories are usually overwhelmingly white (because of the time period when the characters were created), and so the companies try to insert more diversity to appeal to more of their audience. So if you already have an over-abundance of white characters and a diversity problem, why on Earth would you take one of the strongest representations of a black male superhero and turn him white? That doesn't even make sense...sorry. It also doesn't make sense to switch the races of minority heroes who already have small numbers. Its like (just as an example with made up numbers) "oh we have 450 white superheroes, 20 black superheroes, 7 Native Americans and 12 Asians. Now we'll race swap them so that there are 450 white superheroes, 19 black Superheroes, 8 Native Americans, and 12 Asians". Why would you subtract from a low number to add on to another low number when you have an overwhelmingly high number to subtract from available (If you are going to go the race-swapping route)? Sorry, there's no logic in that.

And for the record, I'm black, and I'm against the race swapping for a very simple reason which I'll explain in a bit (at least with major characters...I didn't give a crap about race-swapping Perry White, because who cares). I want the characters in the translations to look like their original counterparts. I've been reading the Fantastic Four since I learned how to read at age 2 or 3. So Johnny Storm has looked a certain way to me for 29 years. I LOVE Michael B. Jordan as an actor, but he's not Johnny Storm. Now if there was some alternate universe established in the comics first where Johnny Storm was black (like they did with Nick Fury), I'd be like "oh they're going with the _______ universe Johnny Storm for this translation". And that wouldn't take me out of the story. But as it stands, seeing MBJ play Johnny Storm is going to take me out of the story. But with me, that's not a race thing. It's more of a "not looking like the character that I like" thing. For example, X-Men DOFP had Sunspot. And technically the actor that they got to play Sunspot was Hispanic. But he looked NOTHING like Sunspot from the comics, so I was pissed off at that. And The Last Airbender was terrible. I wasn't AS MAD at the Ang casting because he actually looked like Ang even though the character was white-washed for the movie. But literally everyone else looked nothing like their cartoon counterparts...so I hated that.

Back on point though, my main point is that (like it or not) the race swapping happens to create more diversity. So race swapping black characters for white ones when there is already an over-abundance of white characters is stupid. And if you're going to race swap, it doesn't make sense to swap diversities where both sides have low numbers when you have a group that's extremely lop-sided and could afford a few changes here and there. Just saying. I'd prefer for them not to do that though. If you want more diversity in the stories, why not try building up some of the already established black characters? Why not make Night Thrasher, The Blue Marvel, and 3-D Man more important for example? Why not create some cool new characters? I wouldn't even mind a few legacy characters as long as it was established in the comics first. I personally think that the race-swapping is a little lazy. I did love Idris as Heimdall though. And I like the girl playing Iris West on The Flash a lot...she's stunning.

[Kalen O.]

The producers ought to just screw with everyone's expectations. Have Luke be a white guy and make Jessica a Black woman. Or if certain people find that too offensive, make Luke a Native American or Asian-American.

Or is it only that "white" male characters the only ones who can be re-ethnicised without incurring outrage from folks who find the reverse to be "whitewashing?"

If it's REALLY only about "finding the right actor for the role" (as is so often used to rationalize changing characters--usually males--from white to non-white), then ANY non-white male actor should be acceptable for Luke Cage. If an Asian or Native American or Pacific Islander is considered "unacceptable" for Cage, you've proved you're JUST as racist as the folks who got upset at the casting of Black actors as Heimdall and Johnny Storm. A racist mindset, folks, is NOT limited to whites. (I do kind of wonder what kind of reaction would've resulted if a Black man had been considered for the role of Bruce Banner. I mean, there couldn't possibly be any problem with the idea of a Black man who suddenly becomes a somewhat mindless berseker creature, could there? Even if the creature itself is green. And why do I never remember hearing anyone suggest any Black--or other non-white, for that matter--actors for the role of Banner?)

This simply isn't true because it overlooks the importance of representation. Johnny Storm is a significant character for a lot of reasons, but none of those reasons are 'being one of the only prominent white heroes in the Marvel universe.' Luke Cage, by contrast, IS significant for being one of the only prominent black heroes in the Marvel Universe. Changing his race takes away something that isn't taken away by changing the race of the Human Torch. Make the Human Torch black, and there's no measurable difference in white representation in the Marvel U. Make Luke Cage a race other than black and there IS a measurable difference in black representation in the Marvel U, because of how sparse black heroes are there to begin with. Even if you change Luke Cage to another minority like Latino or Asian, you're still 'taking away' one of the only instances of black representation among Marvel superheroes, which is why being true to the race/genders/sexualities of minority characters is more important than in the case of changing the makeup of straight white male heroes, who are each little more than a drop in the ocean in the Marvel U.

So sorry, I call bull on your accusation of racism, because you're misunderstanding the basis of complaints about whitewashing. Whitewashing isn't a problem because it changes the race of a character from 'what its supposed to be', whitewashing is a problem because it takes away already limited opportunities for characters of color.

[spacegoatpurrp]

I never seen Lance in anything other than Tyler Perry films so I cant see him as Luke Cage but idk who the other guys is so I would still pick him over Mike Colter. & btw are the shows stories gonna be separate or are they all gonna be tied in somehow?

[spacegoatpurrp]

Ummm not really sure what your agenda is here (since literally no one mentioned race besides you), but I think you're missing a major point. The reason why the race-swapping has happened in these translations is because of the lack of characters of other ethnicities present in the stories. The casts from these stories are usually overwhelmingly white (because of the time period when the characters were created), and so the companies try to insert more diversity to appeal to more of their audience. So if you already have an over-abundance of white characters and a diversity problem, why on Earth would you take one of the strongest representations of a black male superhero and turn him white? That doesn't even make sense...sorry. It also doesn't make sense to switch the races of minority heroes who already have small numbers. Its like (just as an example with made up numbers) "oh we have 450 white superheroes, 20 black superheroes, 7 Native Americans and 12 Asians. Now we'll race swap them so that there are 450 white superheroes, 19 black Superheroes, 8 Native Americans, and 12 Asians". Why would you subtract from a low number to add on to another low number when you have an overwhelmingly high number to subtract from available (If you are going to go the race-swapping route)? Sorry, there's no logic in that.

Well said, well said indeed.

[ZeoVGM]

The producers ought to just screw with everyone's expectations. Have Luke be a white guy and make Jessica a Black woman. Or if certain people find that too offensive, make Luke a Native American or Asian-American.

Or is it only that "white" male characters the only ones who can be re-ethnicised without incurring outrage from folks who find the reverse to be "whitewashing?"

If it's REALLY only about "finding the right actor for the role" (as is so often used to rationalize changing characters--usually males--from white to non-white), then ANY non-white male actor should be acceptable for Luke Cage. If an Asian or Native American or Pacific Islander is considered "unacceptable" for Cage, you've proved you're JUST as racist as the folks who got upset at the casting of Black actors as Heimdall and Johnny Storm.

I don't even know why you're bringing race into this topic in the first place but I'll bite: no, it is not the same thing.

Luke Cage's skin color is part of who the character is. It is part of his history. The color of Johnny Storm's skin is not remotely important to who he is as a character.

[UltimateTy]

I don't even know why you're bringing race into this topic in the first place but I'll bite: no, it is not the same thing.

Luke Cage's skin color is part of who the character is. It is part of his history. The color of Johnny Storm's skin is not remotely important to who he is as a character.

Someone always brings it up in the casting threads it was just a matter of time

[KurtW95]

Whatever happened to Terry Crews? He would be perfect and has repeatedly said he would be down to play Cage.

[KurtW95]

Luke Cage's skin color is part of who the character is. It is part of his history. The color of Johnny Storm's skin is not remotely important to who he is as a character.

Disagree. Skin color is important to both characters. Whether you like it or not,race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation are components that make up a character. Change one of those, you don't have the same character.

[Crimson Knight]

Disagree. Skin color is important to both characters. Whether you like it or not,race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation are components that make up a character. Change one of those, you don't have the same character.

Exactly. I wish some more peope, would see that, but there you go.

Skin colour never seemed important to Luke, why would it not be for Johnny?

It is what is for them, and its' importance is they were born that way, black, white, hispanic, or whatever else, and changing that for any reason, other than 'Y'know what, this IS the right actor' is not on at all.

Create diversity through hard work, like Ororo, T'Challa, Luke, Victor Stone, Monica Rambeau, passion and imagination.

Not through quicker, easier stuff, like a raceswap, for diversity, or its' sake.

[banky]

Disagree. Skin color is important to both characters. Whether you like it or not,race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation are components that make up a character. Change one of those, you don't have the same character.

I'll play devil's advocate here and offer this ; making Kingpin a black man in the 2004 movie Daredevil radically changed the character and effectively bastardized the character on film (no fault of the actor) and delegitimized the movie. Changing Luke Cage's race completely alters the character's origin, so unless the writers intend to completely redo the character from the ground up, it doesn't make sense.

I'm just not a fan of Krysten Ritter in general, so I wouldn't want her to play Jessica. I've never seen Palmer work, so let's put her in third. De Gouw was pretty good in Arrow, so we know she can act and she can handle action scenes, putting her in a strong second. But I just happen to love Alexandria Daddario, and with her work in the horribly written Percy Jackson series (for action) and he stuff from True Detective (as evidence of acting) I think she'd be a good fit. She looks a little young at times,but beyond that she's a good choice.

I think Krysten is a fine actress who could pull off the character of Jessica Jones in terms of her wit and spunkiness. De Gouw is an unproven quantity as none of her performances (incl her portrayal of the Huntress, which I actually liked) have shown much substance. Palmer is perhaps the most physically attractive of the three ( they are all gorgeous) but that may actually detract her as a believable JJ. Alesandra Daddario recently appeared on an episode of the New Girl. Her best performance was in True Detective. It would be a a shock if she were selected, imo.

[Confuzzled]

Whatever happened to Terry Crews? He would be perfect and has repeatedly said he would be down to play Cage.

Too old is what happened.

[RobertoDaCosta]

omg i love Krysten Ritter

[KurtW95]

Too old is what happened.

He's not any older than the main guys headlining the MCU.

[Ben_Miller]

No Terry Crews?
Of those listed I was choose Colter and Daddario. I think they are good actors and fit the characters.