No one cared that Will Smith was Agent Jay

Okay, so the title may seem random at first but allow me to elaborate.

Will Smith played Agent Jay in the Men in Black movies that were adapted from the comic series of the same name. For those who don’t know, Will Smith is a dark haired black dude … Agent Jay in the comics was neither dark haired or a black dude, he was a blonde haired white guy … and no one cared.

Now, sure the Men in Black comics were kinda obscure and it’s the movies that put them on most people’s radar, so maybe people didn’t know about the change.

But a comic character that people probably did know about before his big screen debut is The Kingpin. A tall bald white guy … famously played by Michael Clarke Duncan who, whilst being tall and bald, is most certainly not a white guy. Now, that Daredevil movie might not be great, but MCD is generally considered the best part of it.

I have more examples but you’re likely done with your dump and need to wipe and go and so, for the sake of brevity, I won’t go on much longer.

Maybe it’s just because both of those came out over 20 years ago, but why all of the sudden do we care? Why is it 20 years ago you could cast Will Smith and Jim West in a reboot of Wild Wild West with no one blinking an eye … but now you can’t draw Aragorn as black on a trading card or cast Halle Bailey as a mermaid without half the idiots online from going mental?

No one cared that they made Kingpin black because they kept what was important about the character … not the colour of his skin but his lack of hair … also his intimidating presence as a crime boss.

Submitted September 25, 2023 at 03:46AM by nameg0e5here https://ift.tt/b8aQd2p