Diversity In Thor The Movie

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When it comes to film adaptions of comic books, a ceaseless storm of controversy always seemed to follow the release date. Remarkably, Marvel’s Thor takes the cake for unconventional casting which resulted in fan uproars. Directed by Shakespearean devotee, Kenneth Branagh in 2011, Thor stars quite the internationally diverse cast of critically acclaimed actors including Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman but the one who managed to raise most eyebrows was the talented, HBOs The Wire Idris Elba, a British-African actor who portrayed the Norse god Heimdall. Now the deliberate casting of a minority actor in a white role could be the genuine act of inclusion to promote diversity in the film industry. However, judging by previous cases of non-traditional…show more content…
This upsets father Odin (Hopkins) who maroons Thor to New Mexico so that he can justify his worthiness. Thor does so by partnering with astrophysicist Dr. Jane Foster (Portman) who gives him a personality make-over and aids him in his clichéd quest of homecoming to defeat the real conspirator, his secretly-adopted brother Loki (Tom Hiddlestone). All of which is overseen by the puffed up character in question, Heimdall (Elba) the gatekeeper of the bridge which connects Earth to…show more content…
Tokenism is having a minority character or actor for no other reason than exactly that. (Parrinello-Cason) It does not necessarily solve the issue of underrepresentation but ostensibly pretends to create more diversity in the media of which it is being implemented. Traditionally in film adaptations of comic books, white characters that are being portrayed by minority actors are almost always sidekicks with as little screen time as possible. The adaptation of Fantastic Four gave the role of Alicia Masters to the multiple award winner, African-American actress Kerry Washington but barely allowed her any time on screen at all. A similar manifestation takes place in the Thor, Heimdall was barely shown either but to director’s Branagh’s credit, he was allocated one scene of ice-shattering glory where Elba delivers an unwaveringly tremendous performance.(Khouri) For that reason, many a critics would say that regardless of the fact that Branagh personally handpicked Elba for the role, the director did not rely on non-traditional casting to guise tokenism. “If you have a chance to have a great actor in the part” says Branagh,” everything else is irrelevant”. (Jones) Even Elba points out against critics of his selection by justly mocking how a pop-tart eating, cup-smashing God, can summon a giant hammer is believable but
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