In case you missed the requisite drama and outrage, comic book fans freaked when “Fruitvale Station” actor Michael B. Jordan landed the part of the Human Torch because the original character, Johnny Storm, is Caucasian and Jordan is African American. In the comics he is also the brother of Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, and so how does that work? It doesn’t really matter, fans were just angered that 20th Century Fox and director Josh Trank changed the race of the original character.
Jordan has stayed mostly silent about the backlash until now in an Entertainment Weekly article where he’s basically said to the haters, come at me, bro.
"You’re not supposed to go on the Internet when you’re cast as a superhero,” he said in his open later. “But after taking on Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four—a character originally written with blond hair and blue eyes—I wanted to check the pulse out there. I didn’t want to be ignorant about what people were saying. Turns out this is what they were saying: ‘A black guy? I don’t like it. They must be doing it because Obama’s president’ and ‘It’s not true to the comic.’ Or even, ‘They’ve destroyed it!’"
READ MORE: Doom Is Coming In New ‘Fantastic Four’ Trailer
In his long response, which you should read in full, Jordan essentially said, bring on the hate, I’ll bear that burden. Here’s a longer excerpt.
"Sometimes you have to be the person who stands up and says, “I’ll be the one to shoulder all this hate. I’ll take the brunt for the next couple of generations.” I put that responsibility on myself. People are always going to see each other in terms of race, but maybe in the future we won’t talk about it as much. Maybe, if I set an example, Hollywood will start considering more people of color in other prominent roles, and maybe we can reach the people who are stuck in the mindset that “it has to be true to the comic book.” Or maybe we have to reach past them.
To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends’ friends and who they’re interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It’s okay to like it."
Good on’ em. Meanwhile new “Fantastic Four” materials have arrived. We’ve got a few new promo images and posters, a promo reel that shows off the characters powers, and a new international trailer that features fresh footage. “Fantastic Four” lands in theaters August 7. Watch the new clips below.
Just to correct myself up there from the last comment (before someone else comes along to do so), Sue\’s the adopted sibling – I don\’t know why I keep forgetting that (certainly no fault of Reg E. Cathey being cast as Franklin Storm). Either way, Johnny being not a white guy is still among the few things that don\’t bother me about this film.
Yeah, Johnny Storm is a white guy. Yeah, he\’s Sue Storm\’s biological brother. Bleh bleh bleh. I hate this film on a few levels, for more than a few reasons but making the Human Torch an adoptive Storm sibling who just happens to not be white is one of the few things this film has going for it that DOESN\’T bother me, not even slightly so. A lot of talent is getting squandered on this thing and even though it\’ll rake in the cash, I still hope it fails to generate any lasting franchise in hope that we might get a movie featuring these characters (I don\’t care if they\’re all of Asian descent and dressed in Sentai-styled gear for that matter) that does them justice. Grimdark re-dos for Marvel properties just aren\’t the thing(s) I want to see (DC execs should start backing up trucks full of women, coke and cash to Trank\’s doorstep – he should be their go-to guy for directing over Snyder). Except for possibly Blade Kills the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Something tells me that would be over the top.
Movie\’s gonna be great. And Michael Jordan(tee hee) is gonna kill it as Johnny
you are a troll now for stating a simple fact.