I’m sure the movie blogosphere will be on fire for the next day or two over the rumor that Will Smith has been cast as Captain America in the upcoming Marvel superhero movie.
If you’re freaking out about this, don’t get your panties in a bunch.
If you think it’s the coolest idea ever, don’t get too excited.
During an interview with MTV news for the film Miracle at St. Anna (which looks pretty great based on the trailer), actor Derek Luke mentioned Will Smith and Captain America as being connected:
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“I heard they offered Will Smith ‘Captain America’”
He added that it “shows how times have changed.”
As pointed out in the article over at MTV, Marvel has not shied away from re-casting roles different from type. The original Nick Fury was a grizzly old white guy – a cigar-chomping tough guy. In the Ultimate Universe version of The Avengers (as well as in the cameo in the Iron Man movie) he was re-cast as Samuel L. Jackson, and fans haven’t had an issue with it.
This, however, would be one hell of a stretch – and the only reason it might have a snowball’s chance of succeeding is because it is Will “everybody on the planet loves me” Smith. I mean if he could make Hancock a huge success this summer, that shows people will show up to see him in a movie no matter what.
He can certainly fit the role physically – he buffed up to big proportions for his performance in Ali, and he’s been pretty big and muscular ever since. We’ve also seen that he is capable of leaving the “Aw, hell no” style behind as he did in I Am Legend.
But Captain America? Just how much are they planning on changing the character and his origin? I mean IF this turns out to be true (which I’m not buying at this point), one thing they had better NOT do is turn Steve Rogers into some snarky, bad attitude guy instead of the well known weakling who wanted to do all he could to help his country.
As far as I’m concerned this sounds to me like B.S. The equivalent of “my sister’s best friend’s third cousin heard from his next door neighbor” that such and such is true.
Source: MTV
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72 Comments
That would be an interesting movie if he was Captain America
Come on people. You are beating a dead cat. This has nothing to do with racism or the sort. Choosing Will Smith for the roll as Captain America is as relavant as choosing, let’s say; John Goodman, Jet Li or Carrot Top. Now that WB and Marvel are deciding to make super hero movies as they were intended, don’you think that they would choose actor that ressembles the original story?
Yah I agree. It comes down to the fact that we want the actor to LOOK like the character in the comics. Not wanting a black actor for the role is not racist, it’s just due to the fact that the character wasn’t black. Same thing if the comic character was black, we wouldn’t want a white person to play the role in the live action film.
What if they were to cast a white person as Al Simmons of Spawn, I’m sure people will be against that. I know I would. Would that be racist to not want a white person?
Or if there was an Asian comic book hero (I’m almost 100% sure there isn’t any in American comics) we wouldn’t want anyone but an Asian playing the role. Pretty simple logic.
To be fair look at Dragon Ball Z
Yah, while I’m not a fan of any anime, I think most people have an issue that they got a white person playing Goku instead of an asian kid. So SIN, are they racist for not wanting a white person?
Um, less we forget Dean Cain is 1/4 Japanese and played Superman on “Lois and Clark” for years. I think he did a good job too.
The idea could be done and if done right be successful. However in the end none of us here control the purse strings. As my next door neighbor is fond of saying “it’s all about the money.”
I don’t think he played AS an Asian Clark Kent though. Even though the actor might have been, they probably picked him because he could pass for a “white” person with a baby face. If they would have went with someone that was full Japanese, meaning that’s what he was and there wasn’t a way to disguise it, and people were fine with it, then I would see the argument. But I wouldn’t be fine with it, not that it would matter much since I’m not a huge fan of Superman or that Lois and Clark show anyhow, but I would have thought it to be quite weird if they had done that.
LOL
you guys make me laugh. point blank I DONT GIVE **** about who is where and replaced. Fact of the matter is SOME people want things to be a certain way and unfortunately that involves a character’s race. KEN J who are they?? Why are u even asking me some stupidness like that. My issue with DB is that it will suck because it looks like some Laguna Beach garbage.
@SIN187UM
Must you be so abrasive in your replies? I had my mouse hovering over the delete button on your comment but let it slide.
Vic
Sin, there’s something called sticking to the source material. If you’re going to make a movie based on a book or comic, you don’t go changing everything around, unless you want it to fail. You’re quick to pull the race card, something tells me this applies to more than just with this specific issue, but it applies to ALL races, not just one. And that’s the point you just keep missing.
And the fact that you cannot carry a logical disagreement without turning to personal attacks really says a lot. You’re quick to point the fingers and accuse everyone around you of racism, but when is the last time you looked on yourself?
Will you bent like wheat in the wind or having bent lay in the mud till you rot?
I have to say no to Will Smith. I love his movies and he is a great actor but Cap is white and thats all there is to it. Also no Brad Pitt and hell no to Tom Curise
its late but i say my choice for cap is matt damon, look at him in bourne he looks like a home grown boy and he can pull off the ass kicker when he needs too thats who my money is on but i doubt itll happen, but please please please keep cap as steve not isaiah
It’s too bad he’ll probably rather play Cpt. Anti-America.
OK I’m kidding… kind of…
-ken j
ya lol, well i dunno hes just a thought but in all honesty they will probably bring in a new guy with not much of a history to the table see how it goes.who would be your first choice for cap?
The only actor I know that I think looks like him is Thomas Jane, the guy that looked so awkward as Punisher a few years back…
Im a huge comic fan, Im also black…I dont have a problem with a white actor playing a black superhero or a black superhero playing a white superhero…the only ones race matters to in comics are the geeks and comic con nerds. As long as the movie turns out good I dont have a problem with a few minor changes. I think heath ledger proved without a doubt that you dont have to look exactly like a character in order to play them.
Well, personally I think it would be a bad idea to have a white person play Spawn, a white person play James Rhodes, etc. etc. Not matching the appearance is one thing, changing everything about the character is another. Where would you draw the line? Should they get a woman to play Captain America?
True Ken J. well i honestly think thats up to the comic writers or head of staff to decide. As much as comics have changed over the years, I dont think change is always a bad thing…why would it be a bad thing to have a white guy play spawn or jim rhodes? if the actor is good enough they can pull it off. We all know that no comic movie will ever be 100% true to the comic…its almost impossible…Almost everyone wrote off heath ledger in the dark knight but he was dynamite. so all Im saying is its good to have an open mind.
Well, it’s just that they already have a fan base. Those fans want to see what they already love on another medium. So I think a good comic book movie should try to look as much like the comic as it can without being cheesey or campy. Obviously not everything in comics can be directly translated to the screen like costumes, giant characters, etc. but if it’s easily done, it should be attempted. Like getting a black actor to play a black character, that’s very easy to do, there are plenty of good black actors that can do it, so why not. And in this case, there are plenty of good white actors that can play Captain America, so why not?
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