Originally published March 21, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
Ever since Game of Thrones actor Finn Jones was cast as Marvel hero Danny Rand in Netflix’s Iron Fist, the series has faced some backlash for not casting an Asian actor in the title role.
Iron Fist was created in 1974 by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane during the pop culture trend of martial arts heroes and movies. With the release of the show, Iron Fist continues to face criticism from elements of fandom for white-washing (despite the fact Rand was created as a Caucasian man) and cultural appropriation.
Thomas was recently interviewed by Inverse and gave his thoughts on the controversy, pushing back on the claims of white-washing and cultural appropriation by stating its “just and adventure story”.
“I try not to think about it too much,” Thomas said. “I have so little patience for some of the feelings that some people have. I mean, I understand where it’s coming from. You know, cultural appropriation, my god. It’s just an adventure story. Don’t these people have something better to do than to worry about the fact that Iron Fist isn’t Oriental, or whatever word? I know Oriental isn’t the right word now, either.”
“It’s very easy to second-guess anything,” he continued. “You can argue about Tarzan, you can argue about almost any character who came up then is bound to be not quite PC by some later standard or other. Okay, so you can make some adjustments. If they wanted to kill off white Iron Fist and come up with one who wasn’t Caucasian, that wouldn’t have bothered me, but neither am I ashamed for having made up one who was. He wasn’t intended to stand for any race. He was just a man who was indoctrinated into a certain thing.”
SEE ALSO: Iron Fist star Jessica Henwick praises Finn Jones, dismisses whitewashing criticisms
Thomas continued, saying he thinks the controversy is overblown by a segment of fandom that gets upset over very little: “I just think some people have too much time on their hands, I guess. They have an infinite capacity for righteous indignation. By and large, that tends to be misplaced quite often because if you’re becoming all upset over things that are just stories, and if you don’t like it, instead of trying to change somebody else’s story, go out and make up your own character and do a good job of it. That’s just fine, but why waste time trying to run down other people’s characters simply because they weren’t created with your standards in mind? Now if something is really racist or degrading to a sex or race, an ethnic group or something like that, that’s something else, but Iron Fist isn’t that and never has been. It’s all about a fictitious race, a fictitious place like a Shangri-La, and one person who happens to be its emissary. There’s no reason why he can’t be Caucasian.”
SEE ALSO: Critical Thinking: Iron Fist and the broad strokes of whitewashing
What do you think of Thomas’ comments? Do you think Marvel and Netflix should have casted an Asian American actor or is Thomas right with his thoughts on the angry segments of fandom? Let us know below…
