[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by kirklancaster

I detest all those ridiculous 'classical' paintings by early artists which depict Jesus as a Ginger haired white man for the same reason.

Should Keanu Reeves have played 'Shaft'? Or Robert Redford played Virgil Tibbs in 'The Heat of The Night'? How ridiculous would it have been for Daniel Radcliffe to have played Martin Luther King instead of David Oyelowo in 'Selma'?

Surely they're entirely separate issues though? That includes real people and race centred storylines.

Of course a white guy can't play MLK because he was a real person and was black.
The same as a white actor couldn't play Tibbs because as far as I remember, the story relied on him being black?

Whereas Bond is a fictional character in a setting/story that does not rely on him being specifically black or white.

Not to mention the films over the last 50 years have strayed so far from the original source material that "stick to the novel" no longer makes sense as a reason.