Thursday, April 14, 2016

The First Doctor Strange Trailer Is Here!



By now you guys already know I'm a huge Doctor Strange fan, have been since I was a wee little tyke. He's been my avatar on Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Disqus, Pinterest, and about every other social media website I've been a part of, even GetGlue.

I was a little worried when I heard Benedict Cumberbatch was going to be playing him in the movie, the movie I've been waiting for my whole life.  They released the first trailer on the 12th, and now that I've seen the trailer, it's not his casting that has my concerned.  I'm still not sure what I think of him, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt still.  Instead it's the casting choice of the Ancient One that I'm overly confused by.

I'm used to Marvel changing the race of classic characters in order to make a cast more diverse.  They cast Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, a character that was a traditionally a cigar chomping, grey streaked white guy.  Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall, the guardian of Asgard, and the movie version of Doctor Strange has another casting change, Chiwetel Ejiofo will be playing Baron Mordo, another traditionally white character.

What I'm puzzled by, is the casting of Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One.  It's not the idea of this character becoming a woman that bothers me, though I do think it's a rather odd choice to begin with.  Rather, it's changing the character from a really old Asian guy, into a bald white woman, that I find to be perplexing.  I get changing the race of a character to make a movie more diverse, I don't get changing a minority character into a white character though.  I really don't get changing a character who is supposed to teach Doctor Strange the mysteries of Asian mysticism, to someone who isn't Asian. Makes no sense.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still super excited for this movie, and it will be one that I will see on opening day.  To put things in perspective, I have never felt that I HAVE to see a movie on opening day.  I'm just hoping the casting doesn't distract me from what I'm hoping will be a terrific origin story.


6 comments:

Blodeuedd said...

I can not wait to see it :D

Bookfool said...

Oooooh, I always wondered who that superhero in your avatar was! Nice to know. I'm excited because I'm a Cumberbatch fan (have been since long before Sherlock) but I understand how you feel about the changes to characters, particularly the white-washing of an Asian character. That needs to stop.

carol said...

I actually don't know much about Doctor Strange, but the movie looks cool.

TracyK said...

I will be interested in your reaction to the movie. I don't know much about Dr. Strange either.

Lisa said...

What is it that makes movie makers think that making major changes to a story will fly well with the story's fans? And, particularly in light of the recent uproar about racism in Hollywood, would they choose to do away with a minority character? There is no accounting for their choices sometimes.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Ryan, I'm not very familiar with Doctor Strange, in terms of reading. I have read a couple of comics at best.