https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battling_Siki
This guy’s life story is insane.
1st. He’s born in Senegal, technically part of France at the time, brought to Europe and then abandoned. I feel like that’s already more story arc than most movies these days.
2nd. Becomes a teenage boxer. Mediocre boxer.
3rd. Joins France in WWI. France wins the war. He’s a decorated hero, but still black and something of a 2nd class citizen.
4th. Becomes a championship boxer. Shockingly defeating the white French national hero in a huge fight (that may have been fixed) in front of 55,000 people. Also Ernest Hemingway was there front row and he wrote a story about it.
5th. Moves to New York. Refuses to throw fights. Becomes alcoholic and bitter.
6th. Gets assassinated. Dead at age 28.
Tell me this isn’t some sort of Oscar bait fiction?
I’d also love to get some examples, seeing as it’s apparently such a scourge. I know that it sometimes happens but I’m struggling to think of enough examples for it to actually be this big issue like these people try and make it out to be.
Personally, I think that people who cry about the “historical accuracy” of an Ancient Greek myth, and the casting of a demi-god that hatched from an egg, need to fuck off.
As a Greek person, it would have been cool to see more actual Greek representation in a Greek story of all things. Same thing happened to Egyptians in their Cleopatra Netflix thing. Would have been cool to see some real Egyptian actors, y’know?
For most affected people, it’s not so much about hating on certain groups, but on feeling left out of the one thing that they really shouldn’t have been. There’s also the historical aspect of course, but I mean, it’s a tv show, not a documentary.
I can only think of those two off the top of my head, but I think there was at least one other series that got a lot of attention for a similar reason I can’t remember right now.
For the most part, I don’t care about ethnicity swaps. Annie being changed from a redhead was a real blow to my ginger wife who basically had Annie, Pippy Longstocking, Stawberry Shortcake, and Ariel the Little Mermaid. Half of those have been recast.