An Uncomfortable Silence: Why Is Geek Media Keeping Quiet About The AKIRA Remake?
By Arturo R. García
In the post-Airbender era, it’s more important than ever to talk about questionable casting decisions, and outright white-washings like the Akira remake is shaping up to be.
But it’s also important to keep an eye on who’s not talking about it.
With time running out ’til filming starts – GeekTyrant says shooting is due to begin in August – it’s becoming increasingly hard to decide if the project is just laughable, just offensive, or both. As if it this project wasn’t cringe-worthy enough when Zac Efron was reportedly up for the role of Kaneda, Racebending and other sites revealed more FAIL-worthy details this week:
The story, to be adapted from the original manga, as opposed to the anime, will now take place in “Neo-Manhattan.”In spite of this, the lead characters in the remake will retain the original character names, Tetsuo, and Kaneda – which would have been a reason for optimism, if it wasn’t for the list of actors being mentioned in connection with each part:
Tetsuo
- Robert Pattinson
- Andrew Garfield
- James McAvoy
Average Estimated Age: 27
Character age: 15
Kaneda
- Garrett Hedlund
- Michael Fassbender
- Chris Pine
- Justin Timberlake
- Joaquin Phoenix
Average Estimated Age: 30
Character age: 16
On top of that, the characters are reportedly still supposed to be members of a biker gang in this new incarnation. So, the selling points as of now include a cast whitewashing with people who are way too old for these characters, making for potentially the most awkward-looking bikers since Wild Hogs.
Our friends at Racebending.com, of course, made the case for diversity:
Last year, a Racebending.com volunteer ran a count of the 241 Warner Bros movies from 2000 to 2009 and found that only 2% had an Asian first-billed lead. Aside from The Matrix trilogy starring Keanu Reeves, the majority of films with Asian leads starred Asian nationals like Jet Li and Rain.
Although Asian American actors are sometimes cast as supporting actors in films like this month’s Sucker Punch, they still struggle for representation in leading roles in Warner Bros. films. If not in a film called Akira, for characters named Kaneda and Tetsuo, when will Asian Americans get to star in a Warner Bros film?
In contrast, even though 40% of movie tickets are purchased by people of color, 90% of the films released by Warner Bros between 2000 and 2009 featured a white lead.
Because one out of every 10 modern-day Manhattanites are Asian American (Lower Manhattan is 41% Asian,) it would make just as much sense–if not more sense, given the names “Kaneda” and “Tetsuo”–for the leads to be Asian American as it would for the leads to be white. Tetsuo and Kaneda should be cast with Asian American leads.
Besides this sound argument, Racebending has also created a Facebook petition to show Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures that there is an audience out there who wants to see some semblance of respect for the original work.
Warner Brothers isn’t talking about it yet, of course. The studio did not return a Thursday call from Racialicious seeking comment. But what’s really sticking out at this point is the relative lack of discussion on the matter from the geek community’s bigger outlets.
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