Idris Elba Is Wrong For The Dark Tower

I have liked Idris Elba ever since he played Russell "Stinger" Bell on season one of The Wire. Such is the man's talent that I had no idea this actor, playing a hoodlum from the seedy side of Baltimore, was actually a Brit. Elba stole every scene--the man exudes charisma. I applaud Hollywood's efforts to find Elba a franchise vehicle because he is certainly deserving. However, and I say this as both a story purist and fan of the Dark Tower novels, Idris Elba as Roland is a bad casting decision. It's not that I think he won't deliver a good performance...it's that there are elements of the story where this does not fit. This decision was borne out of misguided political correctness, a desire to jump on the "Zeitgeist of Diversity" band wagon, but at the expense of The Dark Tower. Either that or the producers just plumb hadn't read the novels.

Despite Hollywood's reputation as a liberal bastion, many find that when it comes to actual practice, Hollywood has fallen short of the mark with regards to developing a diverse range of properties that showcase minorities in a positive light. Hollywood should produce properties that are inclusive and diverse, and represent the culture at large because a realistic representation of our society on screen has positive benefits for viewers of all races and is good for box office returns. Black children deserve to have heroes they can project themselves on as much as white children--we all want our kids to see a place in the world for themselves. The past few years have seen a great effort to correct past trends, and though no one has issue (at least I hope they don't) with casting a black actor in an original property (like Independence Day or Star Wars: The Force Awakens), the act of casting a traditionally white character with a black actor has at times lit up the Internet with unsavory comments. 

One example of this is Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in the Avengers. The character had traditionally been white for over 50 years. When Hollywood decided to do the Avengers movie, they chose to adopt an alternative version of Fury from a 2002 series called Ultimate Avengers (where he was drawn black, and coincidently to look like Mr. Jackson) to diversify the cast. This was not a bad move. Nick Fury's race was not essential to the story and it brought a popular actor to the franchise (Mace Windu for millennials, Jules Winnfield for older fans). Sometimes these decisions are not as logical, such as Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen on Supergirl. However, like it or not, it's not intrinsically important to the stories on Supergirl that Jimmy Olsen is white.

But Idris Elba's casting of Roland smells of back-room Hollywood deals and bankers masquerading as producers thinking that Jon Boyega's success in The Force Awakens means the audience just wants to see handsome black men in any sci-fi leading role. (Hollywood really thinks this way folks.) Anyone who has read the Dark Tower series, whatever their race, is cringing right now. And here are reasons why.

Roland Deschain Is A Clint Eastwood Version Of Stephen King

To be specific, Roland is a version of Eastwood's Man With No Name character from the Sergio Leone westerns of the 1960s and early 70s. He's described quite clearly in the book, and the character is very much white. He has light blue eyes. In the books, there are times when he's alluded to looking very Eastwoodesque, and then there's a part later in the series when Roland meets Stephen King the writer (don't worry folks, it makes sense), and it's remarked how much he looks like Mr. King. He's described quite specifically in the books. Also, he is Roland of Gilead. His background borrows from Arthurian legend. Everything about Roland's home smacks of northern European origins, even the mythology. In no way shape or form is the character a black man. And this is actually very important to the next and most valid point.

Detta Walker Hates White People

Don't mess with Detta Walker, white boy.

The Dark Tower already has a diverse cast, and this little point is intrinsic to the development of this story. Odetta Holmes is a woman from pre-civil rights America, who because of a racially motivated trauma (or so she thinks) develops a multi-personality disorder. They are going to need an African American actress of Viola Davis-level talent to pull Odetta off. This is a great opportunity for some actress of color out there. One of Odetta's personalities is Detta Walker, a caricature of an angry black woman who hates white people so much, she spends half of one entire book calling Roland a "Honky Mo' Fo'". She thinks he wants to rape her (because all white people want to rape black women) and that if she's given the chance she's going to cut his "lil white dick off." Roland's whiteness is a major sticking point for her trust as she goes back and forth between sweet demure Odetta and raging lunatic Detta. She tries to kill Roland. She makes racist anti-white remarks ad nauseum for half a novel. This more than anything emphasizes that Roland must be Caucasian. This interaction also leads to curing her disorder when she merges the two personalities to create a third hybrid personality. If you need to rewrite all this stuff, there's no point in doing this story. We're not talking about a single chapter here. This is ongoing for most of a book. You can maybe reverse this and make Odetta a white woman, but then she'd have to have an abject hatred of black people and be throwing the 'N' word out every single page, but there's no evidence that PC Hollywood has the balls to do such a thing.

But, We Can Have A Fictional Stephen King In The Story That's Black?

No, we can't. The whole point of the book is that it transcends time and space, and it revisits many of Stephen King's other worlds from his lifetime of writing.  There are other realities that are similar, but not the same as ours. When they finally get to our world, the real world, it feels different than the others, more true than the others. Our world is the center of stability compared with all the other worlds in creation where ghosts, vampires, cyborgs, werewolves, and homicidal A.I.s. exist. I would go so far as to say Stephen King should play himself in the last act of the series. A black Stephen King makes the ground zero universe just another weird reality.

I know Hollywood wants to desperately get Mr. Elba a property. But why are they looking to convert white roles? They were even talking about him being the next James Bond. Pandering to the Zeitgeist of Diversity does not Serve The Dark Tower as Mr. King wrote it. Clint Eastwood's son, Scott, makes far more sense for this series. There are properties out there from African American authors, like Octavia Butler, that Hollywood can co-opt to give Mr. Elba a lead role. If the issue is that the Stephen King books are more popular and sold better than Ms. Butler's, the producers of this series should pause a moment and really think about that...will millions of Stephen King fans want to see this series when it diverges so radically from the story we read? Especially when this artificially induced diversity is crammed down their throat in a story that already had a diverse cast? 

Stephen King and Idris Elba: separated at birth?

Mr. Elba is risking a backlash that could diminish his earning power. He will not be perceived as a bankable lead (and he really is a bankable star with the right property). I would see an original property with him as the hero. I just can't imagine him as Roland Deschain.