Peter David on the Iron Fist casting

[The S0/\/\@7ic Si/\/\[]Dl370n]

The fact that Iron Fist is Danny Rand, a white guy, is integral to the character. As I recall, he even gets push back from Asians because it’s felt that a white man has no business acquiring the fist in the first place. To cast an Asian as Danny Rand 100% changes the character. He’s no longer Iron Fist, at least how he was created.

Basically, let’s look at it this way: We have had in more recent years another story about someone who seems incredibly unlikely to become a kung fu master who winds up mastering the traits and becomes a mighty warrior. It’s called “Kung Fu Panda.” To declare that an Asian should portray Danny Rand is like saying, “We should have a tiger portray Po.” Any reasonable individual would say, “But wait…if you cast a tiger, it’s no longer Kung Fu Panda. It’s Kung Fu Tiger.”

Exactly.

Now you can chalk up his origins to white imperialism or privilege or whatever you want. But ultimately he’s been around for nearly forty years; he is what he is. To take modern day sensibilities and layer it onto a character created in the 1970s in order to completely change the character is ridiculous. Especially when those sensibilities are so narrowly curtailed along racial cliches that the thought is, “He knows kung fu; therefore he must be Asian!” Why did no one protest when Ant-Man or Peter Quill or Doctor Strange was not cast with an Asian actor? And for the record, my sifu is Greek.

Personally, I’m hoping Iron Fist runs into Shang Chi. How cool would THAT be?

PAD

http://www.peterdavid.net/2016/02/27...ith-iron-fist/

He also made a tweet on it:

So fans go nuts when Iron Fist is cast true to comics, and go nuts when Johnny Storm is cast contrary to comics. That's consistent.

https://twitter.com/PeterDavid_PAD/s...81468551942144

Speaking of tweets, some fair points:

Again, as an Asian, I also find it a bit cringey that people want an Asian Iron Fist just because he's a martial artist ...

https://twitter.com/fixflick/status/703709805286805504

Re: Iron Fist casting. Wanting an Asian man cast "because martial arts are involved" is racist stereotyping. How silly.

https://twitter.com/slimebeast/statu...03925694849027

[cc008]

I like PAD

[NexusTenebrare]

I find it sad that all of the above isn't common sense to people.

[t hedge coke]

I appreciate what he means, and where he's coming from, but that's not only dumb, it's side-stepping the issue by trying to shift it over to tigers and pandas like that even...

I hate to do it, but "Thank you, Mister White Man, for setting the record straight." (And reminding us that no Asian is an outsider in a foreign Asian nation, especially magic downed spacecraft dragony one.)

[Smoov-E]

The Kung-Fu Panda analogy is dumb

[OBrianTallent]

Not trying to fan a flame per se, but how is it sude-stepping the issue? Danny Rand, the Iron Fist is a blond haired, blue eyed white man. It's how he has been since his creation. To cast an Asian actor would be just the same as casting an African American actor to play Johnny Storm...not true to the character in any way shape or form.

[Tiamatty]

I disagree with him. First: I don't think Danny being white is integral to the character. Danny being American is integral. Second: People aren't saying he should be Asian-American because he does martial arts. They're saying he should be Asian-American because the character adopts, as his own, a culture he does not belong to. It's the cultural appropriation element, and hey! There's more to Asian culture than martial arts! If he was a white guy who grew up in LA and learned kung fu at a local dojo, that would be one thing. But he's a white guy who travels to Magic Tibet and becomes the Best Magic Tibetan because white people are better at foreign cultures than the people who actually come from those cultures are.

Third, I don't buy the "this is how it has to be because that's how it's always been" line of thought. I find it to be, in truth, intellectually lazy. It's shrugging and saying, "Maybe there's a problem, but eh, whaddayagonnado?" Iron Fist is a character who is Problematic. The correct way of dealing with the problem is not to pretend it doesn't exist. I don't think it's unfair at all to apply contemporary sensibilities to older stories and characters. I think it actually serves a valuable purpose, by allowing us to see where things were done wrong in the past, so we can try to do them better going forward. And when adapting a story to another medium, it's valuable to examine the story for elements that modern sensibilities may not appreciate. (Not to mention elements that a broader audience may not appreciate - let's be honest, the number of people who will watch the Iron Fist show is vastly greater than the number of people who read Iron Fist comics, or who actually give half a shit about the character outside the show. Most of the people who watch it will only know he's white in the comics because they're told he's white in the comics. And I would bet good money that almost everybody who will watch Iron Fist still would have watched it with an Asian-American lead.)

And by the way, people DID call for Dr. Strange to be Asian-American (or, at the very least, a person of colour). A lot of people were disappointed that Dr. Strange was cast as Yet Another White Guy. People got downright pissed when the Ancient One was also cast as Yet Another White Person. Because that's the world we live in: Whitewashing still goddamn exists. That shit still goes down! And how many of the people defending a white Danny Rand objected to a white Ancient One? I would guess probably not that many, and not very passionately. If they cast a white woman as Colleen Wing, you think most of the people defending a white Danny would be up in arms? Shit, no. The most cynical side of me almost hopes they do cast a white woman as Colleen Wing, just to see how many of the people insisting Danny has to be white would actually say anything about it.

So, yeah, all due respect to PAD, I think he's just straight-up wrong here.

[QBall]

Sorry to bring it up again but comics <> films/TV shows.

Whatever you hold dear in regards to continuity or characters from comics means pretty much nothing to the guys in charge of the moving pictures.

We are a niche market, we do not control the cross media expansion.

[Kuwagaton]

1. Nothing about Danny's father necessitates being white.

2. Amadeus is a math prodigy, Chen Lu is a villain. The rest of virtually all Asian characters are owned by Fox, martial artists, or martial artists owned by Fox. So the idea of a reverse racism argument falls apart to me.

[adameastment]

I don't have any real problem with the casting, only that to me, he doesn't look old enough. But then again I've only seen casting photos.

[XPac]

Are people seriously complaining that marvel cast a white actor to play a white character?

I wouldn't entirely agree that Danny HAS to be white... but there's certainly nothing wrong with him being white in the movie if that's what he actually is in the source material.

[XPac]

I don't have any real problem with the casting, only that to me, he doesn't look old enough. But then again I've only seen casting photos.

I'm starting to think younger is the way to go with marvel casting in general. It doesn't look like the marvel cinematic universe is going away anytime soon, and we're already getting to the point where a few of the actors are starting to get up there in age.

Obviously you want to get the best person possible for the role regardless of age... but on an even playing field if you can get someone who can stick around a bit longer, thats a plus.

[t hedge coke]

I wouldn't entirely agree that Danny HAS to be white... but there's certainly nothing wrong with him being white in the movie if that's what he actually is in the source material.

I'm more or less of this mindset except that the "he has to be white" people make the dumbest and sometimes most awkward defenses that I'd almost rather see him not white just to shake them up. "He has to be white because he's American," isn't just dumb, it's dumb and racist. Not maliciously racist, perhaps, but racist. And, dumb.

Of course, Marvel's not in the business of trolling and/or educating, they're in the business of making money and joke-kick-splode. And, that's that.

[adameastment]

I'm starting to think younger is the way to go with marvel casting in general. It doesn't look like the marvel cinematic universe is going away anytime soon, and we're already getting to the point where a few of the actors are starting to get up there in age.

Obviously you want to get the best person possible for the role regardless of age... but on an even playing field if you can get someone who can stick around a bit longer, thats a plus.

Oh yeah definitely, but Mike Colter is nearly 40 and this guy is what in his mid/late 20's? I guess I just always imagined them at the same age. Granted I haven't read a huge amount into either of the characters, so I haven't really seen much clarification on any of their ages

[dragonmp93]

The Kung-Fu Panda analogy is dumb

I dont think that it's totally dumb, it has some truth on it; before that movie, how many people would thought of pandas when talking about animals doing martial arts, besides of people that would connect it with the fact that the pandas are from china ?.

I disagree with him. First: I don't think Danny being white is integral to the character. Danny being American is integral. Second: People aren't saying he should be Asian-American because he does martial arts. They're saying he should be Asian-American because the character adopts, as his own, a culture he does not belong to. It's the cultural appropriation element, and hey! There's more to Asian culture than martial arts! If he was a white guy who grew up in LA and learned kung fu at a local dojo, that would be one thing. But he's a white guy who travels to Magic Tibet and becomes the Best Magic Tibetan because white people are better at foreign cultures than the people who actually come from those cultures are.

Third, I don't buy the "this is how it has to be because that's how it's always been" line of thought. I find it to be, in truth, intellectually lazy. It's shrugging and saying, "Maybe there's a problem, but eh, whaddayagonnado?" Iron Fist is a character who is Problematic. The correct way of dealing with the problem is not to pretend it doesn't exist. I don't think it's unfair at all to apply contemporary sensibilities to older stories and characters. I think it actually serves a valuable purpose, by allowing us to see where things were done wrong in the past, so we can try to do them better going forward. And when adapting a story to another medium, it's valuable to examine the story for elements that modern sensibilities may not appreciate. (Not to mention elements that a broader audience may not appreciate - let's be honest, the number of people who will watch the Iron Fist show is vastly greater than the number of people who read Iron Fist comics, or who actually give half a shit about the character outside the show. Most of the people who watch it will only know he's white in the comics because they're told he's white in the comics. And I would bet good money that almost everybody who will watch Iron Fist still would have watched it with an Asian-American lead.)

And by the way, people DID call for Dr. Strange to be Asian-American (or, at the very least, a person of colour). A lot of people were disappointed that Dr. Strange was cast as Yet Another White Guy. People got downright pissed when the Ancient One was also cast as Yet Another White Person. Because that's the world we live in: Whitewashing still goddamn exists. That shit still goes down! And how many of the people defending a white Danny Rand objected to a white Ancient One? I would guess probably not that many, and not very passionately. If they cast a white woman as Colleen Wing, you think most of the people defending a white Danny would be up in arms? Shit, no. The most cynical side of me almost hopes they do cast a white woman as Colleen Wing, just to see how many of the people insisting Danny has to be white would actually say anything about it.

So, yeah, all due respect to PAD, I think he's just straight-up wrong here.

Im going to disagree with you, the point of most of the people that i have seen complaining about this IS that given Iron Fist is a expert martial artist then he should be asian.

And from what i understood from AvX, anyone can become the Iron Fist how long they defeat a dragon that lives in a pocket dimension.