Jason Statham as Luke Cage. His Luke Cage will not be very accurate and the movie will most likely suck, but lets hope the action will be top notch.

So what I'm gathering from this thread, white washing is only bad if its making a black guy white and as far as most of you are concerned all other races are interchangeable. Seems hypocritical to me, but oh well

Personally I wish comic book movies would be as accurate to the comics as possible, but I think you just have to shrug and say 'It is what it is.' I think it's just Hollywood politics, nothing we can do but gripe. And when I say Hollywood politics, I don't just mean race politics, I mean sometimes directors want to work with certain actors or agents fight so hard for their actors to get a role in a movie that directors will just change the race of a character just so they have a role for that actor. Like I say, Hollywood politics. Hollitics?

You all do realize that Mandarin's father was Chinese and his mother was English, so he wasn't strictly Asian. Also his apperance has changed throughout the years from a very Oriental look to a more mixed asian european look. I am just curious if Ben Kingsley never changed his name would you still be up in arms?

Great actor though. The supporting cat always get changes to it somehow unfortunately.

Why is everyone freaking out? Kingsley is a spectacular actor and has pulled off more excellent performances, most notably as Ghandi. I wouldn't fret.

Kingsley is too small and nerdy to play The Mandarin. The Mandarin is a powerfully built martial artist.

Nah

@Geno said:

The thing is, actual Asian characters in comics seem to be a rarity as it is. Sure, you would probably need more than just two hands to count all of them in the Marvel U, but they're usually shoved into minor roles and are far from mainstream. What they are doing here is denying the one opportunity for Marvel's most (in)famous East Asian villain to appear on the big screen as who he is. And ironically, it's probably to appease the audience and censors in China. Don't get me wrong though, I think as an actor, Kingsley should be able to pull off the Mandarin quite well (except perhaps in the field of martial arts). Also, being Indian is still technically Asian, so it's not the worst travesty out there. But let's be honest, the producers had plenty of opportunity to pick a more fitting actor for the role, and Kingsley is far from being the first to come to mind. Here are just a few actual East Asian actors that could have fit the role much better: John Lone, Ken Watanabe, Chow Yun-Fat, and Collin Chou. This is a short list of people that came to my mind at least, and it doesn't include a plethora of oversees actors who haven't had much presence in western cinema yet.

So bottom line, I don't think Kingsley is the worst person for the role. In fact, I'd say as an actor he's overqualified (though he's been overqualified for a lot of stuff lately). However, it's blatantly obvious that the move to change the Mandarin's depiction from being half-Mongolian (or Chinese) to being another ethnicity entirely is both deliberate and lazy. Kingsley is far from the ideal actor for this role, and while not something to get upset over, it's a stupid move on behalf of the studio(s) involved. Here's hoping that we'll see a more suitable actor play Chen Lu, assuming they're still keeping his character in the film - and that he actually does something substantial.

Collin Chou would have been dead-on perfect.

And I agree totally. Also, to me, it kind of reminds me of an underlying Charlie Chan-ism that I would have thought Hollywood would have evolved from by now.

@Tem Borjigin said:

Kingsley is too small and nerdy to play The Mandarin. The Mandarin is a powerfully built martial artist.

It likely has a lot to do with our tenuous relationship with China as well as insidious social engineering.

I think they should at least have an Asian-American playing a Chinese or Mongolian character though.

because HOLLYWOOD IS A POLITICAL TOOL,they are afraid it might give the wrong message to CHINA

He should be gay aswel