A Black Human Torch?

Hot on the heels of the gay Spidey talk there is now talk of having a Black Human Torch (a.k.a Johnny Storm) in the Fantastic Four reboot. You know that reboot everyone totally wanted to happen after the last Oscar worthy films? Yep, that's actually happening with actor Michael B. Jordan in consideration for the role of Johnny Storm. I'm not going to judge him and tell you whether he would be good or bad for the role because I know nothing about him, I don't ever recall watching him in anything so I'm not the most qualified person to discuss that. What I will discuss is the headlines, it doesn't point Jordan out as a front runner for the role but instead says things like "Black actor in contention for the role of the Human Torch". I understand the irony of me bringing that up seeing as though my headline addresses the race of the actor being mentioned.



After the last Fox Fantastic Four effort they really needed to do a complete re-imagining of the series to try and remove the stain of the original series from the Comic book from the World, just remove it from the World. The first Fantastic Four film was ok when it was released, but then again I was like 12 and i can tell you now that it did not age well. I can't remember a time when Silver Surfer was good. Let's stop talking about those films now. Like I said before, the franchise needs a complete re-imaging for the reboot but having a Black Johnny Storm is the wrong way to go. I'm not saying I wouldn't like to see a Black actor in a leading role of a comic book movie because I would, it's more rare than I had realised, but the race of that actor or character doesn't change the movie. It has to be well written, well acted and well directed to be a success in my eyes, whether Johnny is Black or not doesn't really matter.

I doubt they will actually cast a Black actor to play Johnny as it would offend too many purists, Fox and the director are probably just headline grabbing to make sure audiences don't forget the reboot exists and it's a nice bit of PR for Michael B. Jordan. If they do follow through I don't think I should congratulate them because, as I said in my Spidey post, it's 2013 so diversify. All im asking Fox to do is don't latch onto this as your USP, and have it in our faces during your marketing. Please, it doesn't matter about the surface, I care about the substance. Make it a good movie. Make me happy to hand over my money to you, because right now you're not getting a penny.

Live Long and Blog.