Jeffrey Wright IS Commissioner Gordon

[samsnee]

They made Perry White a black guy, and he was one of the few good things about that movie.

I never for once thought during the movie, that’s not how Perry White would act. Wish I could have said the same for their take on Clark Kent.

 

[Jekecy]

Eh, I doubt Reeves went at this point in the script and said gotta go PC, he went with talent first. Wright is going to knock it out of the park.Hell, I would even say his casting is too on the nose, since I can already tell how he is going to play Jim.

If we're to believe Reeves courted Mahershala first, I think it's a good indication he was looking for a black actor.

I'm glad Blade worked out, both DC and Marvel benefited from that casting.

 

[Astro13Zombie]

Gordon and Bruce Wayne around the time of the Wayne murders

Gordon and Bruce Wayne now

 

[Invader Joker]

Gordon and Bruce Wayne around the time of the Wayne murders

Gordon and Bruce Wayne now

Pattinson as a kid looked like he could've been a member of the Addams family. Actually, he still looks like he could

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Perfect casting. Wright has that tired, haggard, put-upon dad vibe Gordon needs along with presence and authority.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Indifferent about the casting. I barely remember anything from the actor.

 

[fan4stic]

They made Perry White a black guy, and he was one of the few good things about that movie.

I never for once thought during the movie, that’s not how Perry White would act. Wish I could have said the same for their take on Clark Kent.

I didn't think he gave that strong of a performance in MOS.

 

[Greenlite]

I don't wanna sound racist but I'll have a problem if Wright is a redhead in this film, but obviously he's not and he sounds like a solid actor so looking forward to see what he can offer, I'm more concerned about if they're gonna go with a bald Gordon or not.

Btw I just don't find African American ladies to fit red hair well at all, maybe Jade Smith with her short hair, and Rihanna, but the rest on film are just not my type, Asians don't fit well neither (I'm Asian), but Latino looks good with it, just my humble opinion for Barbara, if they wanna go African American then maybe change up the hair color to fit the actress =P

 

[Mani-Man]

Oh man, this all reminds me off the huge backlash Nolan got when he had a Asian and American/irish/british guy pose as a man who originally is from the middle east and called Ra's al Ghul.
Or remember the huge internet backlash when he cast a White american to play a latino character from south america named Bane.

Man do you all remember how people were so upset about that because it was whitewashing and stuff...oh right, i forgot...didnt happen at all.

That was fine to the *******s because its fine if a white person plays a POC character, but turn it around and its ****ing the worst "buhu sjw, Political correctness ruins everything" bull****.

We can thank our lucky star for the cast we have so far...those are incredible talented people and ****ing give Wright a mustache and glasses and he is fine.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Even if Reeves leaves him with a beard or a clean shave, I won't mind. I don't think it's critical. Complexion is already a huge departure from the iconic look, so stache won't make it any closer, imo.

Moustache or not, he will probably look like Morgan Freeman in Se7en.

 

[TheGuy]

 

[TheGuy]

I'm not fond of the race bending debate, but more interested of the consequences of having the top cop in Gotham being black, how it is perceived and to what extent any subdued racism is affecting the working relationship of Gordon and GCPD as a whole. Will Reeves add this dimension to his Batman?

 

[thebatfan5194]

Oh man, this all reminds me off the huge backlash Nolan got when he had a Asian and American/irish/british guy pose as a man who originally is from the middle east and called Ra's al Ghul.
Or remember the huge internet backlash when he cast a White american to play a latino character from south america named Bane.

Man do you all remember how people were so upset about that because it was whitewashing and stuff...oh right, i forgot...didnt happen at all.

That was fine to the *******s because its fine if a white person plays a POC character, but turn it around and its ****ing the worst "buhu sjw, Political correctness ruins everything" bull****.

We can thank our lucky star for the cast we have so far...those are incredible talented people and ****ing give Wright a mustache and glasses and he is fine.

Tbf the issue wasn’t as front and center as it is now, if that had happened today, you can bet that there would be backlash. In fact, Ed Skrein backed out of a role in the Hellboy reboot because the character he was playing was a Asian character and the backlash was there.

 

[thebatfan5194]

I'm not fond of the race bending debate, but more interested of the consequences of having the top cop in Gotham being black, how it is perceived and to what extent any subdued racism is affecting the working relationship of Gordon and GCPD as a whole. Will Reeves add this dimension to his Batman?

It’s not like we don’t have black Police commissioners working in America today...

 

[TheGuy]

It’s not like we don’t have black Police commissioners working in America today...

I know. But it would be very interesting if a racism dynamic is added to this Gordon.

 

[BatLobster]

I mean I knew it was inevitable, but I'm kind of surprised that this is even an issue for some. As has already been pointed out, we've already had a black Harvey Dent, a black Perry White, etc.

And to be fair, I'm a proud freaking SHILL for the Nolan films, but he did whitewash a couple of villains. I was happy with the results, but I understand why some were upset about it. At the same time though, given that Ra's and Bane were essentially terrorists in his film, portraying them as overtly ethnic may have also angered people, so there was no winning there.

Gordon though? It really doesn't matter what color his skin is. He's a cop with a heart of gold in a corrupt city. There's nothing really controversial about it unless you want to make it controversial.

I'm not fond of the race bending debate, but more interested of the consequences of having the top cop in Gotham being black, how it is perceived and to what extent any subdued racism is affecting the working relationship of Gordon and GCPD as a whole. Will Reeves add this dimension to his Batman?

Well to be fair, even in the Nolan films Commissioner Loeb was black. And that didn't really have any bearing on the narrative, it's just something that was there to make the city feel like a more of a real, diverse city. There was also a Hispanic mayor, etc. Because that's simply a reflection of our world. I could easily see that applying to Gordon in this film.

 

[TheGuy]

Well to be fair, even in the Nolan films Commissioner Loeb was black. And that didn't really have any bearing on the narrative, it's just something that was there to make the city feel like a more of a real, diverse city. There was also a Hispanic mayor, etc. Because that's simply a reflection of our world. I could easily see that applying to Gordon in this film.

Yes, but Loeb in Nolan doesn't really count much because he is a minor player. The best way would definitely be to ignore all hints of racism and just play Gordon straight up as he really is.

 

[Blind Bat]

Oh man, this all reminds me off the huge backlash Nolan got when he had a Asian and American/irish/british guy pose as a man who originally is from the middle east and called Ra's al Ghul.
Or remember the huge internet backlash when he cast a White american to play a latino character from south america named Bane.

Man do you all remember how people were so upset about that because it was whitewashing and stuff...oh right, i forgot...didnt happen at all.

That was fine to the *******s because its fine if a white person plays a POC character, but turn it around and its ****ing the worst "buhu sjw, Political correctness ruins everything" bull****.

We can thank our lucky star for the cast we have so far...those are incredible talented people and ****ing give Wright a mustache and glasses and he is fine.

I've already stated my annoyance with demands of race/gender swapping and that I like this casting and think Jeffrey is Wright for Gordon but for the record, I didn't like Tom Hardy as Bane when it was announced back then (and honestly still don't)

 

[Boom]

AAt the same time though, given that Ra's and Bane were essentially terrorists in his film, portraying them as overtly ethnic may have also angered people, so there was no winning there.

That's really the only reason I didn't make much of a stink over Neeson as Ra's. We were just a couple of years removed from 9/11 at the time, and the optics of having yet another Middle Eastern terrorist wouldn't have been great. It's probably a sensitive subject even now.

Still, it's worth considering that Ra's al Ghul is an eco-terrorist driven by a desire to preserve the natural Earth. His enemies aren't politically, racially, or religiously motivated. He'd wipe out the United States and the Middle East alike if it meant saving the world. He's not exactly a perpetuation of the "Death to infidels!" stereotype. He's very much one of those villains where you could almost see his point of view, were he not willing to kill millions of people for it.

 

[Schlosser85]

There's certain characters where changing their race affects things about the character and others where it doesn't.

I don't want a black or Indian James Bond, because there's things about Bond's character that are inherent to his backstory as a white old money Englishman of a certain generational/cultural mentality that would be different if he was black or an immigrant. I wouldn't want an American Bond either, for that matter, because it's just not Bond.

Same as it'd fundamentally change their characters to make Shaft or T'Challa white.

But it doesn't matter when a character like the Hannibal Lecter franchise's Jack Crawford is played by Scott Glenn, Harvey Keitel, and Laurence Fishburne, because Crawford's race has nothing to do with the story. He's the same basic character whether he's played by Scott Glenn or Laurence Fishburne.

Same with Laurence Fishburne playing Perry White.

Same as it didn't matter when Morgan Freeman played Red in The Shawshank Redemption even though Red is white (and Irish) in the novella. Because again, it's irrelevant to the story and doesn't change anything.

I have no issue with casting Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon because there's nothing about Gordon's character that says he has to be white to be the same character. If it affects anything, then casting Gordon with a black man could subconsciously further accentuate his outsider status among Gotham's other cops.

 

[COCOS]

perfect casting,for gordon, he's a phenomenal actor,

 

[Blade Hoarder]

The characters from the era of comics that Gordon first appeared in weren't white because it was integral to their character, they were white because you could either be a hideously stereotypical caricature... or you could be white. That's why I haven't cared that a modern take on Archie would make Veronica Latina or Reggie Asian, that's why I haven't cared that Momoa is Aquaman and that's why I don't care now that Gordon will be black and Catwoman will be a woman of color

Danke!

This isn't hard to get. Throughout Hollywood's racist and sexist history, any character that was neutral, as in, any character that was not defined by race or sex, was played by white males. Because they were seen as the default. If you were a woman or POC, you had to justify your role. Your role could only be defined by your sex and race. But if you were a white Male, you could play any generic character.

Society has rightfully pressured Hollywood in not just seeing the default as white males. They are after all, a minority in America. Hollywood is now finally casting many of these generic roles with women and POC.

 

[FunkMiller]

Indifferent about the casting. I barely remember anything from the actor.

He’s phenomenal in Westworld. Bernard is such a nuanced performance. Wright has the ability to do an awful lot without doing all that much. He’s very definitely a ‘quiet’ actor who lends a high degree of gravitas and presence.

He’s pretty much perfect for Gordon.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Kane52630]

The race swapping stuff is PC nonsense that I expect from Hollywood these days but it’s actually not my main gripe. I want characters to look like themselves because it break the illusion for me otherwise. The example I like to use are cosplayers. I’ve seen European girls dressed up as Storm from X-men, everything about their costume says ‘Storm’, but none of them actually look like Storm. Same if a Brunette is dressed as Supergirl. So the issue for me is that a characters visuals do matter, which is why I brought up Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn because the design within those films looks nothing like the character. I’m not asking for things to look 100% as they are in comics, that’s unreasonable, what I’m asking for is something resembling the character.