I think for something that’s clearly not meant to be very historically accurate race swapping is fine. If we always have strict racial rules then vaguely historical movies are always going to be contributing to role inequalities for non-white people.
The first movie was historical fiction (if anything they toned down Commodus and his brutality in the movie) but once you do something like make the Emperor black, now it’s complete fiction. And it does matter, otherwise we wouldn’t have issues with white actors playing roles that should go to people of color.
It’s too jarring to my historian heart I think. Like a white as fuck John Wayne playing Genghis Khan
I think for something that’s clearly not meant to be very historically accurate race swapping is fine. If we always have strict racial rules then vaguely historical movies are always going to be contributing to role inequalities for non-white people.
The first movie was historical fiction (if anything they toned down Commodus and his brutality in the movie) but once you do something like make the Emperor black, now it’s complete fiction. And it does matter, otherwise we wouldn’t have issues with white actors playing roles that should go to people of color.
It’s too jarring to my historian heart I think. Like a white as fuck John Wayne playing Genghis Khan