Recently the new cast for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie was announced. The guy on the far right is Johnny Storm/The Human Torch. If you don’t remember his sister is Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman. Unless Sue Storm is invisible throughout this entire movie, I think people might notice that they are not the same race. This is a big deviation from the comic. I’m guessing they are going to make them half siblings or step siblings. This kind of change bothers me, not because they changed the race of Johnny Storm, but because they are messing with the formula.

Perry White in the “Man of Steel” movie was played by Laurence Fishburne. Did this race change bother me? No. Perry White’s race doesn’t really mess with the formula. I don’t know if you knew this or not, but there was a character in “Man of Steel” named Jenny Olsen that was following Perry White around in the city. I don’t think they actually ever said her name. But if Jenny is a replacement instead of a relative to Jimmy Olsen, I’m going to have weird feelings about it just as I do about Johnny Storm. Actually, I think this is a bigger problem than the race change with Johnny Storm. At least with Johnny Storm, he can still be her brother (even though he won’t be 100% blood brother). If she is the replacement, that is omitting part of the formula, not just altering it.

I will admit that I had the same reaction when they changed the gender and races of people in Battlestar Galactica. But after watching a few episodes and seeing that this was an entirely different universe, I gave in and loved the changes that were made. Katee Sackhoff was amazing!

Maybe I just need to give these changes some time. Maybe I’ll learn to like the changes. In any case, I’ll be standing in line with everyone else when the movie comes out.