JameyMar 27
I don't ever want to make it seem like I care about the casting Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape in regards to accuracy to the source material. But I will say it presents a problem: Namely the fact that James Potter bullied Snape as a child, hanging him upside down from a tree, because "the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean" doesn't read so well when the victim of bullying is black.
Show threadRusty Corgi ➡️ FurcationlandMar 27
@stoneth And the fact that Harry distrusts Snape immediately for basically no reason in the first book/movie, so now Harry is just going to come across like a massive racist. ​
Show threadJamey

@Rusty This. I am fine with re-imagining some characters as different races in stories if it serves the narrative. Having Elphaba played by a black actress in the Wicked film adaptation served the narrative since Elphaba was always a stand-in for marginalized people. The problem I see with race-swapping Harry Potter characters is that they tend to be very loaded, so race-swapping leads to a lot of complications that didn't exist before.

I remember when Cursed Child had a black actress playing Hermione Granger which I didn't have a problem with at face value, but suggesting that Hermione Granger is black presented a problem in the larger narrative. In Goblet of Fire, Hermione was advocating for House Elves only to be be told she was in the wrong. Imagine telling a black girl she's wrong for wanting to stop the subjugation of a sentient race and to be told that they are happier being slaves!

Mar 27 at 4:16amWeb