MOVIE NEWS – A casting call for Guardians of the Galaxy Part 3 has forced James Gunn to respond directly to social media complaints about the MCU’s swan song.

Casting a black actor in a role that was previously portrayed as a white character in source material is a sure way to piss off some on social media. The most recent such incident occurred after the first glimpse of the High Evolutionary, played by Chukwudi Iwuji, arrived in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3. After some fans directly questioned the casting on the director’s Twitter account, James Gunn gave an equally straightforward response to those who claimed the character was “unnecessarily species-swapped”.

The High Evolutionist is a character who originally appeared as British scientist Herbert Edgar in Marvel Comics. The casting of Iwuji, portrayed as a white male from the north of England, brings a change to the MCU that we’ve seen many times before, be it race or gender swap, and this one has received the same grumbling response online. One of the comments led to James Gunn being asked why Mark Hamill didn’t get the role, and why he didn’t become “another race-swapping villain”. Gunn simply replied:

“Because Chuck is the best actor I’ve ever worked with, that’s why. It has nothing to do with race.”

One more time with feeling. The teaser trailer for for the finale of the Guardians Trilogy. #GuardiansoftheGalaxyVol3 #VOL3 pic.twitter.com/F0rNn5LYdT

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) December 1, 2022

Perhaps the only reason to give for any casting is to make sure the best person gets the job. However, there are still some people who are not entirely satisfied that the right person got the role because they either want the ideal fan casting or an exact replica of the source iteration. Because it is an adaptation of the Marvel comic book world, changes are often made in the process of translating it to the screen, and although some people believe this should not happen, it can mean changes in race, gender or orientation.

Has Marvel now done enough to address diversity?

Marvel Comics, like DC Comics, has been around for a long time, so long that it’s hard to find diversity in most of their publications. Based on the time they were written, almost all the characters are white, and the vast majority of the main characters are straight men. While the early phases of the MCU retained a large number of white heroes, from Captain America and Iron Man to Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, more modern Marvel stars have recently been introduced to the franchise, including the likes of Ms Marvel, Iron Heart and many others.

Marvel has been criticised before, for example when Tilda Swinton was cast as the Ancient Ones in Doctor Strange. As Kevin Feige has previously explained, the choice was made to stick to the original comic book iteration in an attempt to avoid playing on Asian stereotypes, but the decision backfired. He said:

“We thought we were so clever and modern. We’re not going to do the cliché of playing the wise old Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait, is there another way to figure it out? Is there another way to not fall into the clichés and get an Asian actor? And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”

As for Iwudi’s Guardians 3 casting, James Gunn is happy that he found the right man for the job, and that should be enough to get anyone to go along with the choice. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters on May 5, 2023.

Source: MovieWeb