When Fantastic Four cast Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, a role Chris Evans played in the 2005 and 2007 film, we were super excited. However, there were some voices upset that Jordan wasn’t the traditional blond and white Johnny Storm.
Jordan has been handling the backlash with admirable patience and grace, and Stan Lee recently responded to the criticism in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
I thought it was a great idea. They [the critical fans] are outraged not because of any personal prejudice… They’re outraged because they hate to see any change made on a series and characters they had gotten familiar with. In Spider-Man, when they got a new actor, that bothered them, even though it was a white actor. I don’t think it had to do with racial prejudice as much as they don’t like things changed.
Ok, mixed feelings. It’s great that Stan Lee’s vocally all for the casting, but arguing that the reaction isn’t racial is less great. Yes, lots of fans aren’t always comfortable with changes to series they like, but the protest against Jordan was basically “Human Torch can’t be black.” The Spider-Man analogy isn’t very good either, since you didn’t see nearly the same amount of backlash towards Miles Teller, Kate Mara, or Jamie Bell. People disproportionately angry about Miles Morales would probably be a more appropriate comparison.
It’s important to point out that even though Stan Lee’s intentions here are positive, misdiagnosing the reaction erases the representation issue within the comic/film industry. To work towards fixing those issues, we need to acknowledge that the outrage is racial. Lee also praised the character and diverse representation:
But I think they’re gonna get to love this character. So I’m not the least bit worried about it. I always tried to pepper these groups with as much racial diversity as possible because that’s the way the world is.
Again, while Lee awesomely acknowledges the importance of racial diversity, “pepper” probably isn’t the best word choice here. People of color aren’t seasoning for white casts, and this makes them sound like an afterthought. It’s also just some weird mental imagery. He’s right that I’ll probably love the new Johnny Storm though, just look at him!
What did you think of Stan Lee’s statement?
(via Comic Book Resources)
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