DC just dropped a bunch of trailers for upcoming movies (Batman, Black Adam, recut Justice League, new Suicide Squad). Kind of interesting to watch them and see the faces that pop out.
Amber Heard - Domestic abuser
Ezra Miller - Recently choke-slammed a girl
James Gunn - sketchy pedophilia comment history
I fully understand they can't cut Flash, and Gunn is a desperate, last-ditch effort to inject GotG style fun into their moribund universe. But surely in a movie that was being made specifically for recut scenes they could have ditched ones with the sociopathic abuser?
Maybe DC are just taking a "fuck cancel culture, we'll use anyone that we want" stance, in which case, more power to them, even if their choice is assholes. I'm not going to be too surprised though if it simply ends up with them being massive hypocrites.
I was going to edit the above post to say that at least 'The Batman' looks good but Catwoman and Gordon are both now black. 13% of the population doesn't need every other supporting character be made black. How many Asian characters are in the film, any DC film for that matter? Not that I'm saying there should be. People still buy new characters and being a minority is no barrier to popularity, e.g. 'Scalped' was a great comic series about an Amerindian cop (that would make a good tv show). If you want more minorities in play write better stories for them and adapt those.
Eartha Kitt was catwoman from the 66 TV show, so I mean, you can't really get mad about a quarter black girl playing catwoman these days. At least I can't.
And the guy playing Gordon is a great actor. He's black, sure, but in terms of personality and capability I think he'll nail it.
Maybe it's because Batman has gone through so many incarnations in movies that I don't really see this as anything but yet another interpretation of the mythos and characters. Also the movie looks like Batman meets Se7en and I cannot get mad about that.
You're right, I shouldn't be jumping to conclusions simply based on the race of the actors and there are a bunch of black actors who I'd love to see pop up in this or other superhero movies. I think it's just these two specific actors that set me on edge. Kravitz has a history of bitching about how black actresses don't get offered good roles and how there isn't enough diversity ("Why do stories happen to white people and everyone else is a punchline?"). Jeffrey Wright, meanwhile, has been a rabid TDS sufferer from way back ("May the election of Trump bring forth the fiercest, smartest, toughest generation of ass-kicking women this country could possibly imagine." - you can see why he was happy to play such a milquetoast character on Westworld)
Recasting and reinventing characters isn't a problem, it just becomes a little played out when it only goes in one direction.