Why do you care if a fictional character has a gender or race swap in an adaptation if the author who wrote it, even approves?

Question

People are quick to jump on the word "woke" when it comes to fictional pieces, but there are so many where the author who wrote the piece, who would be the most obviously invested in telling their story the way they wrote it, is perfectly fine with certain gender or race swaps in casting.

If the author is fine with it, why do you get so offended by it??? If the story is bad, or the actors are terrible, then you will let the studios know with your dollars staying in your pocket, but you can't just say every gender/race swap "ruins" a movie because we know that's not true otherwise studios would never try it. You can't know if a story will be bad until you actually see it and judge it for yourself.

I mean, it's fiction, so its not real in the first place, but just as with ANY actor choice for a role, they will prove whether they can bring that story to life or not, not just who they are or their race or gender.

MrOracle · Accepted Answer

Race and gender swaps have been happening for many years, and they were done for what we call "representation" today - but prior to about 2016, it was rare that these swaps happened at the expense of believability or the quality of the story-telling. For example, the reboot of Battlestar Galactica in the 2000s race and gender-swapped certain characters, but it was a future, non-Earth society and the writers still wrote good stories and good characterizations, so no one had a problem with it.

But 2016 caused Hollywood and really the entire Left to go insane, and to push absolutely everything to its limits. They started firing or driving away writers and directors with a history of successful projects by forcing DEI on them, and they were replacing them with unqualified DEI hires. And those people went on to write and direct and crew these woke projects that were just an endless string of disasters, starting with Ghostbusters 2016.

In that movie, the men weren't just gender-swapped to be women - that wasn't enough. They also had to make the characters take every possible opportunity to disrespect or talk down to men, or claim that "women are better", and the male characters were all written as stupid and inept. The story was terrible, the characters were terrible, but the people making the movie didn't care, because their priority was pushing The AGENDA.

Since then, we've had a black Queen of England (never happened), a black Cleopatra (never happened), the whole Marvel M-SHE-U that was a train wreck, and a complete brand destruction of Star Wars, all due to DEI. Let's not forget Indiana Jones or the up-coming disaster called Snow White - which is being reshot for the third time! Or Captain America which is being re-shot for the FOURTH time!

America has never had an issue with female characters or black/brown characters - both women and people of color have had starring roles in LOTS of movies and TV shows that have had incredible success, great box-office, great ratings, and plenty of awards. Just because someone doesn't want to see a Prussian king played by a black man or a Latino doesn't mean they're racist - that same person probably sees every Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman or Sam Jackson movie that comes out. They don't want to see that re-cast because THERE WERE NO BLACK KINGS IN PRUSSIA in the 1800s. And doing that kind of race swap makes as much sense as casting a red-headed Scotsman to play a Zulu warrior, or a Japanese Shogun. Those things also never happened in history, and wouldn't happen.

But if you are casting a cop show, or a lawyer show, or a sitcom in a modern American city, then of COURSE you should have a diverse cast, because if you look at an actual modern city, you'd have a diverse set of people holding all of the relevant positions.

What it really boils down to is what Poppy said: we all know these swaps are being done for political reasons, and NOT because it would improve the quality of the project (except that some people falsely believe that the mere presence of "diverse" people somehow AUTOMATICALLY improves the project - which real-world experience has proven false again and again.)

The good news is that DEI has literally caused Hollywood to go broke. Universal is the only major studio that isn't on the brink of financial collapse right now, and that's mostly because they absolutely out-witted Bob Eiger at Disney with the Fox deal and with the Hulu deal. Universal also mostly course-corrected away from DEI much earlier than the other studios, and have the best chance of surviving intact. We've already seen Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount disappear (swallowed up) in the last year, and more studios will either merge, be acquired, get broken up, or go bankrupt - and both Disney and Warners are high on that list.

Lynx122 · Accepted Answer

Because forcing an ideology into a story that is supposed to be for entertainment is not a popular thing. And the only way they can spread it is by using already popular stories and abusing them. Instead of writing stories for people who care about these issues and being content with a smaller audience or growing it organically through high quality content. They highjack an franchise that is popular and force low quality content down peoples' throats. Then they deflect any criticism by using the same idology they tried to spread, playing victim and calling people names. They have enough power to ruin Star Wars for everyone but they're still the victims and the fans are the villains.

And by the way George Lukas was not on board with any of the changes they made. He had 3 movies planned out and ready and they dumped them all in the garbage and went with their own plans which significantly decreased the fanbase, the public image and te popularity of the IP.

The question is why do you care what race or gender the character is when we're all supposed to be equal. Why are original stories with characters of those races or genders not enough for you? Why do you think it's necessary to change existing stories to fit todays politics? Why are these people not creatively gifted enough to create stories that make people care about what they want to express without using someone elses work?

For instance Miles Morales everybody loved the Amazing Spiderman movies. Why? Because he's an original character and the quality of the movies was very high. If they just made Peter Parker black it wouldn't be as good of a story because it would be fake.

SugarSugarplum · Accepted Answer

That's not how this works.
Disney race swaps everyone, and then the LEFT comes out and says how the RIGHT is making a fuss over it.
Nerdrotic and Critical Drinker laugh at it (but go see it anyways), and critique it based on it's story. They ridicule the 85 pound girls taking out 12 ninja warriors with only their fists and wearing high heels. The laugh at the high school drop out girl outsmarting a factory full of seasoned scientists at making a robot.
Then the studio sends the actroids out to claim they are victims of vicious right-wing attacks, to try and gin up left-wing interest.
The right doesn't really care other than the utter ridiculousness it brings to the story, making it not entertaining.

cxxrrxjxpk · Accepted Answer

Because its their sad attempt at “diversity” but at the same time not really trying at all. Like people have said, if they really want diversity, it should be something entirely new. If tiana from “princess and the frog”, the first black disney princess, was remade into a live action movie and they replace it with a blue eyed, blonde, white woman. People aren't gonna be happy, so theyd never do it. Yet they replace white characters with people of color and its supposed to be a good thing. No. Its pretty sad.

HawkPerception · Answer

If I write a book and take the time to describe the physical descriptions of my characters to vividly paint a picture in my readers heads, I would want them to be accurately portrayed in depictions of movies or shows. Not just using anyone to act the part.

This woke agenda really is going too far and getting ridiculous. Imagine Mulan was Indian, or Aladdin was Chinese, or Black Panther was white. Imagine a black Zeus or Harry Potter. Imagine an Indian Jack Sparrow.

The story of The Little Mermaid originates in Denmark and the original character was originally a blonde mermaid of Danish descent. The red hair adaptation in Disney was only to make her more iconic. Now they've gone ahead and made her black due to this inclusivity culture. That is an insult to the original story.

Might as well let white people act the part of black slaves in old times too and make them work the cotton fields.

I will never understand this pathetic inclusivity nonsense. If I was an actor, I wouldn't cry over the fact that I can't play Thor or Superman or Zeus. I wouldn't cry over not being able to play Harry Potter (a British character). I wouldn't cry over the fact that I can't play Mr. Miyagi.

Hell I wouldn't even be able to play Aladdin, because my facial structure and hair doesn't fit the role. And that's how it should be.

This inclusivity crap to make people feel like they can be anyone they want needs to end.

V_Injector · Answer

It's too forced and it breaks the reality immersion. Historically inaccurate and it's DEI agenda is just so fucking blatant. It fucks up the story... and usually fucks up the original story because these DEI fucks can't seem to come up with original stories.

Who can tell me the name of that video game that marketed itself as being historically accurate and then had a woman with a cybernetic arm killing Nazis as if it was nothing? oh yeah that's real believable. It's not like Russia and the United States had to join forces to take nazis out... women did it... with their cyber arms...100% real bros... believe me, because I have no proof.

Oh look at what they did to that Vikings show. They took a Viking leader who is well known, as a womanizer that steals other people's women and has a real history... and now he's a gay black woman. 100% real guys, believe me, I have no proof... Gay black woman was a leader of Vikings guys... totally believable, please believe me...

It's just more DEI bullshit and it shits all over reality and history. It rips you from immersion and the awe of it and slaps you in the face and starts bitching about the gender pay gap or that all white people are racist and black people can't be racist (which is pretty racist, but they don't think so).

It's fucking woke in the most retarded sense of the term. Not even the people that hold those politics dear, want to watch it.

They're trying to force an ideology more than tell a real and/or believable story... and it's shitting in everyone's face.

Skinhead-1979 · Answer

It's not that I mind, I am just wondering 'Why?'

To stick with the whole Woke-Accusation regarding Ariel the Mermaid... Why not just make a whole new story with a Black Mermaid?

It's my whole criticism against the movie industry nowadays: inspiration is gone.

Movie and story directors/ creators do not dare to be adventurous anymore and creative; they stick to repeating the same thing over and over but then in a new coat. All those remakes... waste of money, and in my opinion ruins it because a remake will never give you the same experience as the old, original version did.

There are some exception. Take James Bond; nowhere has it ever been said James Bond has to be White; James Bond itself has changed, the whole setting has changed, so the argument that during the Cold War British Spies were White no longer holds up and creates the possibly to use a Black Actor. Same as that 'M' could become a woman.
I feel Idris Elba is a very good candidate to play James Bon; so is Henry Cavill, but I think Idris is more suitable.

I firmly oppose the revisioning of Cleopatra VII; she was of Greek-Macedon Heritage, she was not Native Egyptian (She was the first Ptolemy ruler who could actually speak Egyptian...). I am so fed up with some Black Africans claiming she was Black and disregarding all historical records of her. It's good that 'Africa', as whole, is reclaiming her past and heritage... but there is such as a thing as going too far.

rgii55447 · Answer

Plane and simply, in some way the book is canon, right? So I understand it, some changes have to be made for runtime and convenience and stuff, but I ask myself, when I go to a movie, why is it suddenly so wrong to see what actually happened, why do things have to be altered and filtered just because it's not dramatic enough or because it doesn't meet a certain number of check boxes? Why can't I just see the story the way it happened, film is visual, but so is life, and sometimes life has tell don't show because sometimes we just need to speak. Yes, I've completely gotten off tangent, but as you can see, that's because the core of my issue is way deeper than just the casting of a character but by staying true to what actually happened. With fiction, a creator has more flexibility, and it can be understood as long as it's not presented as an attempt to "fix" canon, but rather to create an alternate canon to explore different ideas, but it gets especially annoying in "based off a true story"s.

Lliam · Answer

The problem is with mandatory diversity. There have to be black and gay characters no matter what. I have no problem at all with blacks or gays. But sometimes their inclusion doesn't fit.
For example, would a leading Viking warrior have been African? Would one of the Three Muscateers been black? Should Dolly Madison or Mary Queen of Scots be played by a black woman? Does it help the plot if gays are included gratuitously?

And why are there so many couples on TV, especially in ads, who are either black, mixed race or gay, in disproportion to the population?

On the other hand, diversity is one sided. It's always white characters being being replaced, which is fine as long as it's not historically implausible.

So yeah, forced diversity often serves no other purpose than wokeness. I think some of may be related to the WEF's environmental, social and governance (ESG) project, which rewards or punishes businesses.

Kaneki05 · Answer

I care a damn lot. As a writer you either make that not matter in the first place then it's fine but more often that not it's core to your character and does matter a lot.
It's not about it been fictional, it's about you as a writer stay accurate to your vision.

Luke cage is a very good example if we just change him to white or black panther it's literally a front to their whole character.
And if your vision for your story is historical it should be accurate to that.
It's how it works. Anything else is mockery of the worst kind and does a injustice. How about Roots but instead Kunta Kinte is white? Would that be okay by your mind? No it wouldn't so don't try to play this game of it don't matter.

Berethor · Answer

That fiction that based on real life, france was not full with blacks in the year 1766.

menina · Answer

That doesn't bother me at all. I suppose that bothers those who are racist or sexist. They only want to see their race and their gender represented. They don't want actors who are not their race or gender to succeed. They want to turn fiction into politics and erase everyone who's not like them.

They care about things that don't matter, it's ridiculous!

Chazmatazz269 · Answer

I haven’t personally come across a scenario in which it’s an issue for myself. But i can conceive of situations where it might be an issue and it’s understandable. I think that’s the prevailing issue with all of society these days. Everyone expects to be understood, but nobody wants to explain themselves. There’s literally only one way to be understood, people.

Anonymous · Answer

Because books are meant to be read to begin with, not viewed. Reading allows for the reader to expand on the authors train of though even well beyond the story. Fill in your own gaps, color outside the lines.
Then you get adaptations... you have no choice but to view it in a singular way. They get you to like it and then they remake it, badly.
It the author wants a massively different detail write a new story or a spin off. Hollywood really needs to stick to scripts and leave novels alone.

OlderAndWiser · Answer

Woke argument that misses the point. Why do others need to justify their objections to you? Did someone put you in charge of deciding whether other people can be upset?

strangeatcircleK · Answer

I think it's tricky. I think overall the character change should feel natural. I think all too often, they are trying too hard to push character demographics so much that instead of a thoughtful addition, it just feels forced. It should feel like a natural fit

Aiko_E_Lara · Answer

Why should we not care when it's something we've already used to that get changed to something else? It takes two tango. An originally black character changed to white can also cause an outbreak and get called "white washing" it's like going to your favorite restaurant to order your favorite food but they change some of the ingredients there which put you off.

dragoblack · Answer

When we are intoduced to a reality we find enjoyable, mesmerizing, and immersive, with enjoyable characters we put time into getting to know... it's jarring to take a character you love and moke them look nothing like thay were or changing up their character entirely. We like the world we fel in love with, not some version that seems like someones fanfiction of it

patois · Answer

If you want to attack culture and rewrite history everyone will instinctively see it as an act of war, which it is. When you pick a fight, don't be surprised when you get completely annihilated.

purplepoppy · Answer

Because it's done to make a political statement and not to improve the storyline.

AviatorTom · Answer

If it's a historical piece, it's not believable. Medical science didn't support gender changes until the 1950s. Anything before that is pure fiction.

LiamJHayden · Answer

Don't care unless it makes no sense historically. Like Liam Neeson playing a Tutsi warrior or Denzel playing a Swedish prince.

OfDeath · Answer

Are they doing a remake of Interview with the Vampire?  Anyway to answer the question, I don’t care. I wouldn’t watch the movie anyway. Most of these remakes never actually replace the original.

Account · Answer

I dont care, it doesn't matter to matter to me, it doesn't bother me, it doesn't annoy me etc etc.

StudyingAuthor · Answer

YES! If they're white in the book they're white in the movie... if they're black in the book, they're black in the movie.

FreyaRed · Answer

It's fictional, it only annoys me when it happens with real historical figures.

Dargil · Answer

Don't have a problem with Denzel's Equalizer. It is a re-imagining. If they do new Equalizer series, they should cast Daniel Craig.

paledreams · Answer

I guess some people don't mind if they appreciate art 🎭 🎨

Anonymous · Answer

It depends on the execution and if it makes sense. Also it probably wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't just one race being replaced.

Pohjolan · Answer

It means that they are likely not taking the story/history seriously so I'm just going to skip it.

Anonymous · Answer

yeah perhaps we need Harry Styles to play Black Panther and have Seth Rogan play Mulan

Nifrayu · Answer

People get attached to the original content. People will complain about every little change.

handsomelad70 · Answer

I don't, but I'm not a busybody with no life.

Anonymous · Answer

Because 1) It's done for one reason only, which is to push a woke agenda, and 2) it makes a joke of the original story.

WhitneySnow · Answer

It doesn’t bother me

MrGSpotHer · Answer

It is what it is, not what you want it to be?

Theodora1983 · Answer

Not really. Especially if it fictional.

Dongie · Answer

I don't.

Julian7312 · Answer

I did like that show

Why do you care if a fictional character has a gender or race swap in an adaptation if the author who wrote it, even approves?

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Is a racially/ethnically diverse cast obligatory in a fictional setting?

Why do you care if a fictional character has a gender or race swap in an adaptation if the author who wrote it, even approves?

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Is a racially/ethnically diverse cast obligatory in a fictional setting?

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