For any of you who don't know, Michael B. Jordan is in talks to play the new Human Torch in the new Fantastic Four reboot. What is the problem about this is that he is a black actor.
Now I am perfectly fine when people change the race of an actor, I don't mind it at all, I just feel that it can only work with characters who don't have an iconic appearance to the public.
What's wrong with changing Johnny Storm to be black then? Well, making him black will affect the story and relationships with the other characters. They are actually considering Sue Storm/Invisible Woman to be white as well which is another iconic looking character.
Many have defended this decision with valid reasons but subjective ones too. There are other character there to be able to change the race. It just always seems that studios want to change a character's caucasian appearance to be an African-American. Sometimes it works and I do like it but it just doesn't seem necessary with Johnny Storm. Sure there are more caucasian characters than black characters, but there are more popular black characters than some of other types of characters.
When they were casting Kingpin for Daredevil, they wanted a white actor to look the part of Kingpin. But Michael Clarke Duncan was cast because he felt right for the character at that time and was just a good actor. It stayed as the same character and did work out. Them changing the race was for a reason, not because they wanted a black actor, but because he was just the better actor for Kingpin. The race did not affect the story or the characters around them.
Johnny Storm does on the other hand, his sister is Sue Storm and they do have a relationship together. Many have said adoption, but it would still change their relationship and may also (if they wanted to) make a story arc for Johnny which I don't think would work out the best. They could either make it so emotional where it is just too clique, make it as a joke where they will continuously fight about being adopted or just ignore it which would make the audience confused about them being siblings.
Them changing the race just seems unnecessary, if they wanted to, they could always do it for other characters. They could make Green Lantern African-American as John Stewart and not Hal Jordan. He is also popular enough to be black because he was in the Justice League television series. Even when seeing Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern, I was shocked. I thought they changed his character's race just so Ryan Reynolds could get them more money, or something like that.
Other characters they can change is Iron Fist, I think it would be great to make him Asian which isn't much seen as lead characters. There are a lot of black lead characters, but just not as much. But when they are on screen, they are memorable and often out shine many caucasian actors. Characters that are black and popular leads are Black Panther, Luke Cage, Blade and many others as well. There are also characters who aren't but iconic as well like Storm, Nick Fury and War Machine. Green Lantern is also popular as a black character which he can be both a lead or a team member.
There are lots of characters who could work as a black character, but if it is a change, it should be necessary and not affect the relationship of other characters because Johnny is a part of family, and the Fantastic Four are known to be the family team. Having him adopted would just feel out of place. Though Ben Grimm/The Thing isn't a family member, he did always seem the one left out of the family. I hope they do something like that. Maybe making him Reed or Sue and Johnny's cousin.
If you have any comments, please comment and tell me your thoughts on this.