'Thor' fans protest black actor

[Nomad]

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Seems a little bit of a departure from the source material to cast a black actor as a Norse God... kind of like casting Mark Wahlburg as Mohammed Ali.

Fumed one fan in an online foum: "This PC crap has gone too far! Norse deities are not of an African ethnicity! ... It's the principle of the matter. It's about respecting the integrity of the source material, both comics and Norse mythologies

From the actor in question:

"We have a man (Thor) who has a flying hammer and wears horns on his head. And yet me being an actor of African descent playing a Norse god is unbelievable?" he went on. "I mean, Cleopatra was played by Elizabeth Taylor, and Gandhi was played by Ben Kingsley." (Kingsley's father was of Indian descent.)

For that matter, I've always been curious as to why Roman and Greek Heroes inevitably have British accents?

Thoughts?

 

[Blindside]

It is a comic book interpretation of a mythology, so does the apparent race of Heimdall really impact your ability to suspend your disbelief?

 

[Ken Morgan]

Well you wouldn’t have a man play a woman, or an old person play a teenager, but how do we know the Thor wasn’t black? He/she is a god, they can appear however they chose to be.

Years from now when I get to Valhalla, I’ll let you all know the truth.

 

[Omar B]

I like people getting worked up over one actor. Marvel's Thor was never the Thor of myth, only inspired by him. Makes me wonder why people have not objected to a "Hun," "Englishman" and "German" fit in since The Warriors 3 are part of Thor's crew and they are not what the sticklers would say is accurate since they are not Norse by any means ... but they work in the story.

 

[Nomad]

It is a comic book interpretation of a mythology, so does the apparent race of Heimdall really impact your ability to suspend your disbelief?

Actually, I'm a bit on the fence in this one. I think valid arguments can be made on both sides. It won't impact my enjoyment of the movie, but does seem like a very strange casting choice.

 

[LuckyKBoxer]

I have the vast majority of comics featuring Thor going back close to the beginning.
I am a huge fan of Thor and the entire Comicbook take on Asgard.
I was also a huge fan of Stargate and their take on Thor and the Asgardians being aliens who could manipulate their appearance through science.
I am sure I will watch the movie, and as long as Heimdall is a bad *** I wont give a crap that hes not the traditional Norse look.
I mean the warriors three will be in the movie as well and I am pretty sure they are not going to nail Volstaggs girth at all in anyway shape or form..
also if I remember right Hogun is going to be playing by a Japanese actor.
I guess if Heimdall was my favorite character, and I thought of him as a main guy I might be pissed if they changed him like this, but hes not and it doenst bother me..
I actually like the new Nick Fury better then the old... and let me tell you Samuel Jackson beats out David Hasselhoff every day of the week as the man!
if Thor was changed.. I wouldnt watch it...
If Captain America had been cast as Will Smith... I wouldnt watch that either..
If the Black Panther, Falcon, Blade, Luke Cage, or Storm was cast as anyone other then the traditional race I would be pissed.
You grow up reading the comics, and the main characters and you develop a great imagination of them in action, its great to see casting that brings that imagination to life, and nothing is worse then when your entire childhood imagination of a character is crushed by bad acting, or a major change...

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I think it is all very silly.

 

[Bruno@MT]

I can see both sides. On one hand it shouldn't matter. Just like having Samuel L Jackson as a jedi was not an issue. On the other hand, Thor is a Norse guy. Not black. You can argue that that doesn't matter, but would people have accepted a white guy being cast as Malcolm X or Mohammed Ali? or Shaft? Some things just don't make sense.

 

[LuckyKBoxer]

I can see both sides. On one hand it shouldn't matter. Just like having Samuel L Jackson as a jedi was not an issue. On the other hand, Thor is a Norse guy. Not black. You can argue that that doesn't matter, but would people have accepted a white guy being cast as Malcolm X or Mohammed Ali? or Shaft? Some things just don't make sense.

why would there have been a problem with Samuel Jacksom being a Jedi?
I dont remember anything ever that said only white humans could be Jedi...
I dont think thats a good comparison at all.
the rest of your comment I agree with though.

 

[CoryKS]

Come on now, we have to make sure the Thor movie retains the level of historical accuracy that has been the hallmark of the comic book series.

 

[Steve]

Just not an issue for me. It's all make believe, and comic book authors have never been overly concerned with historical accuracy.

 

[Blindside]

Just not an issue for me. It's all make believe, and comic book authors have never been overly concerned with historical accuracy.

You mean like having helmets with horns (and wings) when that would be ahistoric and martially stupid, sort of like a cape for a guy who is going to get involved in hand to hand fights with some regularity.

 

[Xue Sheng]

:viking3: Heimdall

Beyond that :shrug:

 

[Empty Hands]

Hint: the Norse Gods in this movie aren't Norse, nor are they Gods. They are super-advanced aliens using the Norse Gods as inspiration. Something to keep in mind for any complainers about "historical accuracy".

 

[MA-Caver]

SIGH... it's hollywood okay?

 

[oaktree]

Well there were Black vikings...

A prominent Viking of the eleventh century was Thorhall, who was aboard the ship that carried the early Vikings to the shores of North America. Thorhall was "the huntsman in summer, and in winter the steward of Eric the Red. He was, it is said, a large man, and strong, black, and like a giant, silent, and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged on Eric to the worst; he was a bad Christian."

http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/british.html

So if there were black vikings it stands that there should be Black Norse myths.

Besides Norse Myths can get weird:

In addition, some of the Norse gods were capable of changing gender at will, for example Loki, the trickster god, frequently disguised himself as a woman and gave birth to a foal while in the form of a white mare, after a sexual encounter with the stallion Svaðilfari. Comparison of a man to a child-bearing woman was a common insult in Scandinavia, and the implication that Loki may be bisexual could have been considered an insult.[30]

So not only did Loki become a Female horse he had sex with a stallion(maybe he was Italian) but also gave birth. I wonder if Tom Hiddleston will do this too.

 

[Xue Sheng]

funny...no one seemed to care when Angelina Jolie was kind of sorta cast as Grendel's Mother :uhyeah:

 

[granfire]

Years from now when I get to Valhalla, I’ll let you all know the truth.

I doubt you'll find the time between raising he** and feasting....


Considering that Thor is the master of thunder...he might have stood too close to a lightning bolt...


(Nerd Rage, is all that it is...)

 

[ATACX GYM]

I have the vast majority of comics featuring Thor going back close to the beginning.
I am a huge fan of Thor and the entire Comicbook take on Asgard.
I was also a huge fan of Stargate and their take on Thor and the Asgardians being aliens who could manipulate their appearance through science.
I am sure I will watch the movie, and as long as Heimdall is a bad *** I wont give a crap that hes not the traditional Norse look.
I mean the warriors three will be in the movie as well and I am pretty sure they are not going to nail Volstaggs girth at all in anyway shape or form..
also if I remember right Hogun is going to be playing by a Japanese actor.
I guess if Heimdall was my favorite character, and I thought of him as a main guy I might be pissed if they changed him like this, but hes not and it doenst bother me..
I actually like the new Nick Fury better then the old... and let me tell you Samuel Jackson beats out David Hasselhoff every day of the week as the man!
if Thor was changed.. I wouldnt watch it...
If Captain America had been cast as Will Smith... I wouldnt watch that either..
If the Black Panther, Falcon, Blade, Luke Cage, or Storm was cast as anyone other then the traditional race I would be pissed.
You grow up reading the comics, and the main characters and you develop a great imagination of them in action, its great to see casting that brings that imagination to life, and nothing is worse then when your entire childhood imagination of a character is crushed by bad acting, or a major change...

I am a total comic geek and I'm Black.I'm very much in favor of most of what Lucky posted here,but I'm also a bit impacted by the decision to flip Thor into a African-American.It's true that Thor's archetype can be traced back to the African Gods so we can say historically that the "original" Thor was indeed African,just as the "original" Captain America was Black (JUSTICE,RED WHITE AND BLACK) although Steve Rogers is the first fully functional SSS warrior without any form of mental degradation,sooo...it CAN work.

But truthfully it's no more of a stretch than making The Prince of Persia White and most of the old skool Egyptians anything other than Black.All the old skool "Egyptians" and Pharoahs are Black but you can't tell it by how Hollywood portrays them,sooo...at worst this is Hollywood continuing their wholesale screwup of history and changing it to make them more money.Now if King Arthur was Black and TChalla The Black Panther became White? Yeah...problem.Oh,wait...lolol

And curses for beating me to the Thorhall punch.Lololol.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

Interesting note:

The Prose Edda (sort of like Genesis for Norse Mythology) has - in the translation I have on hand - Thor coming north out of a great civilization out of an area described as around Persia/Turkey.

Lot of black folks in Persia and Turkey....