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The Geek Beat: Color Blind

by Elisabeth Rappe Nov 24th 2009 // 9:33PM

Filed under: The Geek Beat


Less than a week ago, Kenneth Branagh's Thor took a surprising turn with its casting. Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall, the all-seeing and knowing god who guards the city gates of Asgard. A mere week earlier, Tadanobu Asano was cast as Hogun the Grim, one of the steadfast Warriors Three. Both choices caused a bit of stunned silence among the great geek forums, and some verbally protested the casting as being heavy handed and politically correct. Asgard is a Nordic pantheon, after all, and everyone residing in it should be white. Very white.

Now, I can understand the reaction. Casting other ethnicities can often be a token and misguided effort, less about the role than about a director wanting to prove they don't recognize a man or woman by their race. That's commendable, but it's often so clumsily done that it's clear that they saw it very, very well. I've argued strenously against that kind of casting. I still remember the shocked looks I earned in a college class when I didn't see anything wrong with the fact that the Lord of the Rings cast was white. I pointed out that Middle Earth was supposed to be a prehistoric England where, unfortunately, no other ethnicites would have existed. Everyone looked at me as though I had started talking about Aryans and the superior race instead of feebly defending the history of Hobbiton. I still stand by my argument, but though I'm willing to defend the "whiteness" of a prehistoric England, its hobbits, and its elves, I don't believe there's any reason to have Asgard be populated only by white Europeans. Fans are confusing Nordic and Marvel mythology, and it's to the detriment of really fantastic casting.




Yes, Marvel's pantheon are ostensibly Norse gods. They have Nordic names, they're fond of horned helmets and axes, and they love a night in the mead hall. But they are not ethnically Nordic or Scandinavian. Marvel has fudged them into a category of "extra-dimensional aliens" who possess technology so powerful and advanced that humans classify it as magic. One could get into a headache of an argument wondering why they favor the look of the early medieval, but hey, whatever rocks their world. They're gods / extra -dimensional aliens. We may not even be perceiving them accurately, but in whatever way our feeble human brains can comprehend their awesomeness.

So, why can't that be Idris Elba? I find it rather remarkable that comic book fans can accept all the craziness inherent in our brightly colored pages, but they are unwilling to accept a black man as Heimdall. This is a character that we barely see the face of. Why does it matter? Why not give an utterly kick-ass role to an actor who can knock it out of the park, regardless of his skin color? I think it's far more important to showcase the talent of a man like Elba than to remain loyal to the panel illustration, and to show that race really doesn't matter when it comes to giving Thor or Loki a beatdown.

Remember, this kind of game-chancer (as overblown as that sounds) isn't exactly new when it comes to Marvel continuity.
For decades, Nick Fury was a white man. Then came the Ultimate Nick Fury who was modeled after Samuel L. Jackson, a change that proved so successful that Ultimate Fury became the cinematic Nick Fury. I'm on record as being dissatisfied with that change, but it was more to do with the ubiquitousness of Jackson (and a vague wish to see George Clooney in an eyepatch) than a matter of race. I've come around. I think it's great, and it's an important move to make. As Jackson himself said, "It's so amazing that he morphed into something I could relate to. You too can grow up to be a black man!"

I can hear a lot of fans saying that a black Nick Fury is acceptable because he was part of Marvel mythology, which brings me to a factor many seem to have missed when Asano was cast as Hogun the Grim. Hogun isn't Nordic. Anyone who ever paid attention to a panel of the Warriors Three should have noticed that he was clearly modeled on Ghengis Khan.

Those who are really familiar with the really fine points of Thor mythology know that Hogun isn't even one of the Aesir, but came from an unknown country that was wiped out by Mogul of the Mystic Mountain. He's the least Scandinavian of any Thor castmember, but many fans seemed unable to accept a Japanese actor in the role. It's a sad fact that when compiling fantasy cast lists, no one even thought of picking an Asian actor. Type "Hogun the Grim" into Google Images. No fantasy cast list that pops up features a non-European. Clearly, no one learned anything from playing Age of Empires.

That little fact is why I feel very strongly that Kenneth Branagh has done the right thing, and casted outside the European lists for Heimdall and Hogun. I admit, if it was anyone but Branagh I might suspect motives that saw color and ethnicity as an issue to pander to. But Branagh has a history of picking the right actor for any given role, regardless of their race or accent. The diverse cast of Much Ado About Nothing proved just how beautifully it can work, and how quickly race disappears once an audience is lost in a fantastic world. This outmoded notion that we can only identify with actors of our own race is foolish and harmful, and I'd like to think a few Asgardians can help kick down those final barriers, proving that it color doesn't matter once the credits roll.



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