Emob78: Demographics. It's a fine art to the sales department. Every time a woman, a man, a minority, a child, anyone shows up in a film or tv series, much thought has gone into the hows and whys of that character. Action figures, Nielsen ratings, video games, posters, shirts, bathtub toys, it's a well oiled machine. And with a monolithic company like Disney, NOTHING happens by accident.
Breja: And all that, all of which I am well aware of by the way, does not answer my question. Why should I care? How does that matter to me? He is not an established character they have recast with a black actor. He is a new character, who happens to be black. Why should I care?
In a perfect world you shouldn't. As far stereotypes go in real life, we're just talking about skin tone. But in terms of marketing and cultural saturation, it matters quite a bit to the bean counters.
Hey, I had no problem at all with Lando. He was a cool dude. He was like the black, slightly more sleazy version of Han Solo. He even got some nookie time with Leia. Cool deal. But social conditioning has gotten a lot more overt and direct in the last few years, especially with changing cultural beliefs. So be ok with it... take it or reject it, either way. Just don't deny it. Remember that when Disney remakes a classic, and replaces the white male or female with a handicapped gay Latino, just know that it's for a reason.
