White God Black!
Heimdall was known as the White God. So why did the film makers chose to portray him with the only non-white actor in the entire film? A (racist) joke, or out of contempt for the audience and the subject matter?
shareBecause he's a good actor, probably. You do realise that this is based on a comic book that is only loosely inspired by Norse mythology, right? Are you anywhere nearly as upset at the extreme changes made to the characters of Thor, Odin, Loki etc compared to their mythological counterparts, which are far more significant than mere skin colour?
shareThe point is, that the Asgardians are "Norse" gods. That is how they are depicted in the comics being adapted. In the Marvel Comics earth, there are also Greek gods, and Japanese, etc. etc.
If someone took Asians or black or etc. characters, and cast them as white actors, people would throw *beep* fits. But somehow race-bending to throw in a couple of "minority" actors to be Norse gods, that's ok and somehow makes sense. They're totally not nonsensical token Hollywood castings at all.
Yes, the actors they picked to play Heimdall and Hogun ARE very good actors. But the issue is the ridiculous lengths people will go to, to defend miscasting in certain circumstances, but condemn it in others.
What if they are "Norse" gods only inasmuch as that was the only point of contact they made with the Earth? Everyone on Earth at that location would be of the same race, but who says that everyone from Asgard has to be? Do we know if Heimdall ever came down to earth? And, how good were the records of the time? Most likely the stories were passed down by word of mouth before ever written down, so they would have been very inaccurate.
Also, in Thor 2 they showed that Thor went to Hogun's world - it wasn't Asgard. So, even if everyone on Asgard, with the exception of Loki, is "Norse", then why would Hogun have to be?
Which leads to the question of where is Heimdall from?
I fully understand your point about PC bullsh!t and how most would have a cow for casting a white actor in a black character's role. But, since I'm not PC, I don't let that stuff bother me when it comes to how I view a movie/show.
They're Norse, yet they all have English accents. That doesn't bother you, but a black Norseman does?
shareThe ancient one isn't a real person, just as Heimdall, who was always depicted as white and was suddenly played by Idris Elba. The people who were against the heimdall casting were called out for being racist trolls, so what do we call the people who are against the tilda swinton casting?
share