an idea for "guardians of the galaxy":

an idea for “guardians of the galaxy”:

Why not put a woman or a non-white person in one or more of the two principal human male roles?

While Marvel (or the respective rights-holding studios) would likely never deviate from basic canon for characters like Wolverine, Spider-man, or Captain America, there are very very very very few major Marvel characters whose sex, race, and/or ethnicity are an integral part of their identity in any way*.

And while plenty of folks (myself included) are amped for Guardians because of how bizarrely fun it could be (especially if James Gunn is involved), I don’t think anyone would be upset if those involved in this film (which will have the smallest built-in audience of any Marvel film since Elektra, I’d imagine) made some production decisions that reflected the larger audience to whom they are hoping to appeal. I mean, Marvel is clearly open to being progressive in how they translate their lesser-known characters into live-action, right? With Idris Elba as Heimdall, Tadanobu Asano as Hogun, and Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin (Daredevil wasn’t Marvel Studios but presumably some of their people signed off on Duncan in that role)? So why not utilize that approach when it comes to the leads for a film that most people won’t even know about/care about/understand?

My point: there’s no good reason Drax couldn’t be played by someone like Chiwetel Ejiofor or Noomi Rapace. And why not have (say) Michael K. Williams or Gina Torres be Star-Lord? If the actors can make the characters memorable and believable… let’s do it! Who wouldn’t be into that? I’m sure someone somewhere would complain but let’s be real: the number of people who would boycott the film if Drax wasn’t originally a white American man probably couldn’t fill a single theater, anyway. And screw those people in the first place because THERE’S A TALKING RACCOON WHO SHOOTS GUNS ON THIS TEAM OF SPACE RANGERS. WE CAN BEND THE RULES A BIT.

That being said, I expect them to make the standard move of casting two white guys as Drax and Star-Lord** and then putting vaguely ethnic people behind make-up and effects to play Groot and Gamora. Wamp wah.

* I think you could honestly swap out character details for just about all major heroes and villains without difficulty. The only characters I can really think of whose backstories sort of require them to be a certain race are Storm and Black Panther. But even with them: swap their sexes and it still works.

** I can’t lie: the fan-wishes for Nathan Fillion as Star-Lord are excellent. Provided he can make himself look like this again.