I am perturbed. I would guess that most of us remember when The Colour of Magic was made into a show because a rich older man paid for it so he could play Rincewind despite being forty years too old for the role.
Another more horrible example is A Wizard of Earthsea. Ursula LeGuin wrote a book in which all the characters were people of color. The TV show hired the whitest blond available to play the lead. I've read that LeGuin felt betrayed.
Now it's happening to The Murderbot Diaries. A rich blond white man has bought the rights so that he can both direct and play the lead. Murderbot repeatedly describes himself as average looking, unnoticeable in a crowd. Almost everyone he encounters is a person of color. There are perhaps two white people in seven books, and the latest one describes a group as being average, ranging from dark brown to light tan. There is no doubt that Murderbot is a person of color.
There are a very few people who are not described clearly, who might be suitably played by a white male, and one, Gurathin, is important enough and appears often enough to appease the ego of most actors. If the buyer switched to playing Gurathin, I would cheer. But this buyer wants to play Murderbot. He is also too old; Martha Wells has been quoted as saying that Murderbot is in its twenties.
I am expecting a travesty even worse than Earthsea.
Whitewashing Murderbot inevitably turns a story of found family into Mighty Whitey Saves The Day.
I just hope it fails and disappears without a ripple, ideally without being completed.
Another more horrible example is A Wizard of Earthsea. Ursula LeGuin wrote a book in which all the characters were people of color. The TV show hired the whitest blond available to play the lead. I've read that LeGuin felt betrayed.
Now it's happening to The Murderbot Diaries. A rich blond white man has bought the rights so that he can both direct and play the lead. Murderbot repeatedly describes himself as average looking, unnoticeable in a crowd. Almost everyone he encounters is a person of color. There are perhaps two white people in seven books, and the latest one describes a group as being average, ranging from dark brown to light tan. There is no doubt that Murderbot is a person of color.
There are a very few people who are not described clearly, who might be suitably played by a white male, and one, Gurathin, is important enough and appears often enough to appease the ego of most actors. If the buyer switched to playing Gurathin, I would cheer. But this buyer wants to play Murderbot. He is also too old; Martha Wells has been quoted as saying that Murderbot is in its twenties.
I am expecting a travesty even worse than Earthsea.
Whitewashing Murderbot inevitably turns a story of found family into Mighty Whitey Saves The Day.
I just hope it fails and disappears without a ripple, ideally without being completed.
