>>120641374Anon, that's a completely fair position. I wouldn't dare say you're wrong. Admittedly, I wasn't versed in BP-lore before his part in Hickman's Avengers run. What I would say is that as someone who has been influenced by fictional characters over my life, I'm willing to acknowledge when others are as well. Whether you agree with it or not Black Panther was a cultural moment regardless of whether or not it was for you or me. In that respect it was something special for a particular group of people. If the belief is that recasting might be disrespectful to that group, well yeah it might be making a mountain out of a fictional character molehill, but at the same time it's nice to see a company not make a easy choice that benefits their short term bank accounts.
At the same time, I think we are well past the point of suggesting that at a meta level the MCU is functioning similarly to how WB did when Michael Keaton was Batman, until Val Kilmer was now Batman, until George Clooney was now Batman. Clearly the MCU is operating with an SOP closer to Manga than actual Comics. Characters have a story. They are introduced, age, have experiences, and eventually their story comes to an end. Yes, Edward Norton was Hulk until Mark Ruffalo was now Hulk, but contextually, not only was the MCU a different animal then than it is now, but there is also a difference between creative differences and actual death.
I don't know if you're familiar with Gundam at all, but there was something like this that happened with it as well. A voice actor for a secondary character died after the end of the first series and Production was unwilling to recast the character out of respect to the voice actor, and stopped using the character. God only knows how different the entire franchise might be if they hadn't, because the character had massive potential, but it's a real life choice that can be made.
How about we talking about how the Cassie Lang recast is absolute horseshit instead?
