7 Times Hollywood Whitewashed (And Straightwashed) Comic Book Characters
1. John Constantine: Straightwashed
As opposed to Deadpool, whose creators willingly approached the idea of having a same-sex relationship depicted on the big screen in the future, bisexual Liverpudlian John Constantine has received no such luxury on either film or TV.
Created by Alan Moore as a guest character in a 1984 issue of Swamp Thing, England's premier occult detective has received not one, but two live action adaptations over the years. The 2005 Keanu Reeves feature was, while passable, just not a Constantine story in any sense of the word; never mind the fact they americanised the anti-hero and his pronunciation (it's Constan-tyne, guys), they totally erased any semblance of the character's canonical bisexuality too.
And then came NBC's much maligned though wholly enjoyable TV show, which starred Matt Ryan as the eponymous character. Produced by David S. Goyer, calls for the series to acknowledge some of the character's most iconic traits - including his chainsmoking and, y'know, the whole bi-thing - fell on deaf ears. Worse yet, Goyer (who's no stranger to unfaithful comic book adaptations, let's face it) straight up condescended fans who'd rallied behind the #BiBlazer hashtag, as did Daniel Cerone, who said that they'd maybe - potentially - get round to depicting the character properly "20 years from now". Nice.
Constantine is still waiting on Hollywood to acknowledge his sexuality, twelve years after they got it wrong the first time. Time will only tell if the long-gestating Dark Universe will go there (and there's really no excuse that it shouldn't), but still, the character's treatment exemplifies a worrying Hollywood trend that has not only afflicted comic book characters throughout the years, but wider literary figures too.
So yeah, stop with all this washing stuff, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse - whatever; follow in Ed Skrein's footsteps, and make sure that the marginalised characters of the genre get the respect - and indeed, the representation - that they so sorely deserve.
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Are there any other characters out there that we missed? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!