Ok, so apparently Mandarin, a blatantly Mongoloid villain who has always been Oriental is going to be portrayed by a Caucasoid actor of Indo-European descent.....and Marvel fanboys are somehow happy? First off, dear God are these Iron Man movies pissing over the villains to where they don't even act anything like they do in the comics, let alone resemble them. This is apparently some huge victory, but Marvelites will take every chance they get to complain about Bane, a villain who was white to begin with, being whitewashed. Bane in the comics is never shown with Mongoloid features(Native Amerindians are Mongoloid), where as comic Mandarin is always shown as Mongoloid. So with this blatant middle finger to source, I believe Black Panther or Luke Cage should be white or Asian in the movieverse. First off, I hate unnecessary race changes, as I was and am against the racebending in Thor, Man of Steel, Last Airbender, and Dragonball Evolution. And before someone says, "race is an important part of T'Challa and Cage", IT'S IMPORTANT WITH MANDARIN TOO! LOOK AT HIS NAME!!! Look at his MO of being unhappy with China's current state. That's just as integral as any part of Black Panther and Cage's back story. And before I hear the yellow peril crap, Luke Cage was/sometimes still is a blaxploitation character. He AS WELL as Falcon, who will be in Captain America 2, both have history with criminal activity. The yellow peril depiction of the Mandarin hasn't been used since the 60s, back when 'ol Shellhead "crush Commies" and the Crimson Dynamo was the baddest "Red" in comics. Falcon and Cage, however, still have all that crap as their back story . Also, there are characters like Black Lightning or Icon, who are upstanding Black heroes who try to fix the problems of the black community in Dakota and Suicide Slum, and are comparable in morals to say Superman, Captain America, and Spiderman, However, Cage, Marvel's most prolific black hero, has a criminal record, is a mercenary who only worked for hire, still lives on the streets and thrives in ghetto mentality instead of opposing it, and gets a woman knocked up out of wedlock. And yet Mandarin is apparently the bad stereotype.

The race of supporting cast characters is always fair game. 

The Indian Fire Nation still takes the cake.

I never liked ethical changes...It gets me angry.

I don't think it's that bad. Kingsley is a good actor, and Mandarin's mom is a British woman. Tom Hardy is a great actor, and Bane's dad is King Snake, who's also British. As long as these actors look more like their comic book counterparts than not, and they capture the feel of the character, I'm perfectly fine.

I say that they get whoever is the best actor for the part to play the part....the Kingpin in Daredevil is an excellent example...the changed him from white to black but I don't think there's a single white actor who could have played the part of the Kingpin

@SoA said:

man of steel? what lois will be played by beyonce?

Laurence Fishburne playing Perry White.

Keep him the same.

man of steel? what lois will be played by beyonce?

Sir Ben Kingsley is a fantastic actor. Don't fret - he will do Mandarin justice.

If being Mongolian weren't an integral part of the characters entire motivation for being a villain this wouldn't bug me but this is like casting a black guy as a white supremisist

If being Mongolian weren't an integral part of the characters entire motivation for being a villain this wouldn't bug me but this is like casting a black guy as a white supremisist

@gravitypress: Then why the hell did Marvel team up with China? Secondly, tell China to eff off, I mean Disney basically did Mandarin with Sao Feng in Pirates 3

@danhimself: So a white person should play a character like Luke Cage or Black Panther?

@jointron33: I didn't say that...I said that they should get the best actor for the part....I'm pretty sure there are tons of black actors who could play those parts

Remember when people freaked out about Heimdall? That was funny.

Are people seriously getting mad about this? Unbelievable.

Also, the Heimdall controversy was started by a white-supremacist group. Only thing I don't like about Idris Elba playing Heimdall is that he can't play T'Challa.

Ben Kingsley will be a fantastic Mandarin.

@Vance Astro said:

The race of supporting cast characters is always fair game.

nice avi

Seriously, I guaran freakin tee you if this was Luke Cage being white, you would be all "the white man is being racist" and whatnot. And let's see.....a character that is supposed to be Chinese because it TIES INTO HIS BACKSTORY AND IS MORE THAN JUST THE RACE HE HAPPENS TO BE! If you seriously think race is insignificant with a character like Mandarin, you are a freaking moron.

Seriously, I guaran freakin tee you if this was Luke Cage being white, you would be all "the white man is being racist" and whatnot. And let's see.....a character that is supposed to be Chinese because it TIES INTO HIS BACKSTORY AND IS MORE THAN JUST THE RACE HE HAPPENS TO BE! If you seriously think race is insignificant with a character like Mandarin, you are a freaking moron.

@RainEffect said:

Sir Ben Kingsley is a fantastic actor. Don't fret - he will do Mandarin justice.

ACTING DOESN'T MATTER!!!!

RACE MATTERS!!!

Sorry, I have to say it before the OP does.

@The_Tree said:

@SoA said:

man of steel? what lois will be played by beyonce?

Laurence Fishburne playing Perry White.

The difference is: you could blot out Perry's features and skintone and never know what race he is. Mandarin, Luke Cage, The Falcon, Black Manta, Black Lightning, and Vixen are all characterized by their heritage.

But to be honest, I have a slight bias. Any race change for no reason kind of bothers me, but I'm a little apathetic toward white, non-lead, side or supporting characters. Couldn't careless about Hiemdell or Perry, but Kingpin did erk me, despite the fact that I love when black men are badass villians. If Carmine Flacone, whose European decent is clearly established, was suddenly a Japanese man nicknamed "The Roman", I'd be fairly upset. I'd hate for Gordon to be black just like I'd hate for Lucius to be white.