7) Michael Clarke Duncan
Speaking of Ben Affleck, remember the 2003 Daredevil movie that he starred in? Yeah, it wasn’t up to much and Affleck himself might actually have been miscast in that one. However, his nemesis in the movie – the Kingpin – was played by the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan and was probably one of the highlights of the film. However, his casting was hugely controversial at the time.
The simple crux of the matter was that Duncan was of a different skin colour to the character in the comics. More recently, Michael B. Jordan received a similar level of backlash when he was cast as Johnny Storm/Human Torch in Fantastic Four.
In other areas, the broad and beefy Duncan was a perfect fit for Wilson Fisk. His performance might have been eclipsed by Vincent D’Onofrio in the Daredevil TV show in recent years, but fans should still feel bad for giving him a hard time.
6) Idris Elba
Like Michael Clarke Duncan, Idris Elba’s appointment as Heimdall, the guardian of the Bifrost on Asgard in the Thor films, was initially met with criticism due to his visual difference from the character in the comics.
The controversy here stems from the fact that, as with all of those from Thor’s world, Heimdall is based on a mythological character of Nordic descent, not African as Elba is. For anyone worried about that, the actor himself had a brilliant comeback that pointed out the ridiculousness of the backlash:
“Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his fingers. That’s OK, but the colour of my skin is wrong?”
In retrospect, people really should have had faith in the actor to lift a minor role such as Heimdall with a great performance. So successful was Elba’s turn that Heimdall’s role was increased in Thor: The Dark World and he even had a cameo in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
