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OK, I can see where you’re coming from with some of those points and I’m not familiar enough with King’s books to say how much of an effect it would have on the larger story. But theoretically, do you think it’s impossible they could rewrite the racial themes to suit the character changes? And would it be impossible for Stephen King’s father to be portrayed as black, or simply leave out the similarity?
And on a side note, would it matter in any real way if Roland was female? Or how about any leading male character in a story – most are white males but could easily be swapped out for women or other races.
I can see what you mean and I agree to an extent, but comparing women and ethnic groups to fantasy races doesn’t quite add up – for one thing, women and ethnic groups do make up a large proportion of humanity, and their inclusion in a story doesn’t have to be as a separate group as elves or dwarves would be; for another, you’re never going to have a cinema audience of elves or dwarves looking to see themselves represented in fiction, but real-world minority groups do get fed up of seeing white people all over fiction.
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It absolutely could be changed, there's no argument there. I suppose the argument would be more akin to whether it
should it be changed. I'm not too caught up about Elba's casting, but I would like to hear some kind of press release to explain the change in a thematic sense, and how this will affect the story. I still eagerly anticipate the adaption.
Also, yeah, that was my attempt to segue the debate back toward the core subject. A little awkward, and not an exact correlation. Not really much else I can add to the conversation though. You are right, I'd just challenge writers and directors to make the inclusion of a diverse cast have a deeper meaning; to give the characters purpose and reason, as opposed to just slapping them in for the sake of avoiding criticism.
Oddworld. Odd is Against All Odds.
