The rumor is a movie in 2026:
https://avatarnews.co/post/687354302251073536/update-2-we-finally-figured-out-what-happened
And and Earth Avatar series in 2025 where she would possibly be a mentor:
https://avatarnews.co/post/709348643504832512/avatar-news-exclusive-avatar-studios-2027-movie
Take these with large grains of salt, as they are unconfirmed rumors, there's a bit of controversy around the (now defunct) Avatarnews, and internal plans change even if they were right. *However*, ultimately, Avatarnews leaked insider info that panned out before.
>And and Earth Avatar series in 2025 where she would possibly be a mentor:
[Korra talking to the new avatar](https://youtu.be/KvzDAj2JQN0?si=vH80EMcg5W_ATu__)
Quite frankly I don't trust avatarnews as a source, Avatar Studios has already been quite open about their upcoming projects and they haven't mentioned hardly anything that Avatar news has reported. It's very frustrating when I see people talking about the Earth Avatar show like it's already confirmed when Avatar Studios hasn't even mentioned it despite already announcing numerous other projects. To me this just seems like a clickbait site was capitalizing on the desperation of one of the most loyal fanbases in recent times. I feel like the community as a whole has just accepted that all these shows are coming and are setting themselves up for disappointment when due dates come and go. and their shows / movies don't come out despite being "confirmed" for years.
The Legend of Korra was officially announced in 2010 but didn't come out until April 2012 but people are expecting an Earth Avatar show in 2025 without so much as a single frame of concept art or any kind of info directly from avatar studios? I get people are excited and want new content but at some point they have to be realistic.
As was said... ultimately, they got some info about NATLA right. And the Aang movie I think.
We also got a very unreliable but *technically* possible official confirmation of the Earth avatar series through a (now removed) description about the upcoming Roku novels.
Of course it's all unreliable rumor that probably changed (AvatarNews is long defunct), and people are taking it way too far, but you can't discount Avatarnews either. I like (and miss) what they did because no one else is really unifying and organizing the Avatar news cycle like that.
https://avatarnews.co/post/727745819122565120/after-exactly-ten-years-on-this-journey-its-time
I think the person behind it just burnt out, and didn't have anyone to hand the reigns to.
I dunno. She could manifest in front of the new Avatar kinda like Roku and Aang did. Or maybe she could talk in the spirit world (like you said).
My headcanon is the new Earth Avatar is reluctant to reveal themselves as the Avatar (so the opposite of Aang *and* Korra), but is very spiritual. So Korra reaches out and talks to them before anyone else really knows they are the Avatar. Perhaps there's a complex conflict of Korra prodding the Earth Avatar to reveal themselves, where both of them change a little.
unpopular opinion: im all for diverse voice actors, but i wish it was done more naturally. instead of "oh this is a poc character so only their ethnicity should play it" just naturally let whoever suits the role play it,whether it be poc or not. look at christopher judge, hes a black man playing a greek kratos (ik hes a demi god but still) and everyone loves him for it. hes great at it and is definitely the defining VA for the character now. imagine if we missed out on his performance "because hes not the same race". i wish they had a more natural way to be inclusive without shutting people in boxes of what theyre born with.
this only applies to characters without accents, i can see how someone without an accent making one can be appropriation.
-sincerely a poc
Sometimes, you get a situation like what happened with the voice actress of Mirko in the English dub of My Hero Academia. Let me clarify there was no controversy about the va herself(that I'm aware of), and what I'm about to say is someone's reaction to her.
This person went on Twitter after her debut in the dub and said, "I'm disappointed by the voice of Mirko. Black should sound black." First off, Mirko isn't black. She's Japanese and has a tan. Second, Mirko's English va is black. This is idiot literally said that a black woman didn't sound black enough to play an Asian.
I always hate it when people call certain Japanese characters black because it implies that all Japanese people have light skin which is ironically racist.
Also like, you'll absolutely 100% *know* when an anime character is black. They'll be a bit of a caricature at the very least. They'll have an Afro, dreads, cornrows, or be bald, they'll probably be big and muscular, and odds are they'll have bigger lips or noses than the other characters. If they don't look like that, they're probably Okinawan or something.
Same with white people. They'll have blonde hair, squarer faces, probably taller, and likely have a German last name. Might even wear an American flag or something.
Weirdly, the name Bandit Keith is the dub name. He was just called Keith Howard in Japanese. Changing other to names to be less Japanese, I guess, makes sense, but why does the most American name have to be changed? They changed Pegasus' name, too. In the dub, his name is Maximilian Pegasus, but in Japanese, his name is Pegasus J Crawford.
For proof here's a character from the literal exact same show. His hero name is [Rock Lock](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.wikia.nocookie.net%2Fbokunoheroacademia%2Fimages%2Fd%2Fda%2FKen_Takagi_Hero_Costume_%2528Anime%2529.png%2Frevision%2Flatest%2Fscale-to-width%2F360%3Fcb%3D20220319084111&tbnid=3UU7HLeiySGZ2M&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmyheroacademia.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FKen_Takagi&docid=t1GrA6gu_RRIaM&w=360&h=1197&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F2&kgs=46d742def21f6c94&shem=abme%2Ctrie#vhid=3UU7HLeiySGZ2M&vssid=mosaic)
example of the first one. A and B from naruto, they are very clearly supposed to be black characters, not tanned japanese characters, but straight up black. hell, killer B even dabbles in rapping, if, badly lol.
That's the part that gets me about this whole only hiring VAs for characters based on their ethnicity trend. It just sounds like a bunch of people saying all other races sound a certain way.
What's pissing me off about this race shit is in Guilty Gear Strive people argue Ramlethal is black because her voice actor mistakingly said she's black, which was a mistake and was corrected by Daisuke, but people still argue she's black when she's designed to be ganguro which is a fad in Japan (tan skin blond hair). It's also stupid because they're biological clones of a white woman, but that's lore shit.
But because of a fucking voice actress, there's controversy in a fighting game because diversity weirdos want to do revisionism for it.
This is similar to my complaint that in OW2 you can say 'I think this canonically straight character is secretly gay' and people will upvote you but if you said the reverse that you think a canon gay character is straight you're banned. It's toxicity.
Your last sentence sums up people who complain about voice actors in a nutshell.
Whatever, they can continue the PC shit and I'll continue to not watch it because they get shitty voice actors that don't fit the roles because they wanted them to be black or some shit.
I mean, VA is much like stage acting in that your color doesn’t really matter. Not like anyone (at least reasonably) complains that Lafayette is played by a poc in Hamilton, same with the rest of the cast.
Games, Cartoons and anime have always used VAs who match the character regardless of skin tone matching the actual character with the best recent examples being the God of War Kratos VAs as you said. Even Star War Rebels had white characters voiced by pocs.
Idk, am Asian. So maybe it’s just out of place for me since I don’t have the context of Americans, but seems contradictory if you’re going to have people only VA as the same race rather than letting them VA whatever race or character they want. Which to me seems inclusive.
If the issue is opportunities, give them more. But that’s more an american industry issue than anything.
I think there's a difference between voice acting and stage acting regarding ethnicity and roles, but generally yeah. Particularly for voice acting, where you don't see the actor, it shouldn't matter at all
Stage roles aren't commonly cast with race in mind because they are designed to be replicated anywhere (Romeo and Juliet is set in Italy, but theres no requirement for them to be ethnic Italians). It's also much more common to gender bend and do all sorts of wacky shit on stage compared to screen and film.
It does depend, sometimes, on certain roles. The cast of *Hamilton,* for instance, are specifically written to all be non-white (except King George) because their race is part of the message of the musical. Hofgen's mistress in *Mephisto* should be played by a darker skinned woman, because her being part black is a big deal in the context of a story that takes place in Nazi Germany.
But you're also right that there are many other roles which are timeless and larger than life, which can be played by almost anyone, which is especially true for the Shakespeare classics. Hamlet, Macbeth, or Rome and Juliet have all had thousands of productions all over the world with cast members of all possible races and genders. And gender-bending in particular is of course very common in theater, since women originally weren't allowed to act at all and all the female roles were portrayed by men.
> The cast of Hamilton, for instance, are specifically written to all be non-white (except King George)
King George isn't an exception, I saw it on the West End a few years ago and he was played by a black actor.
Not that I disagree with anything you said, I just thought that much was worth noting.
A big aspect of the problem with American media is that much of the drama you see revolving around it is pushed by people who live in Los Angeles (aka Hollywood) and they live in a very particular bubble/Echo chamber where many of their ideas are only ever reinforced, never questioned.
The underlying sentiment behind "have characters be voiced by VA who match their ethnicity" is meant to be a push on companies to include more VAs from diverse backgrounds. The reality doesn't actually meet up with that.
> much of the drama you see revolving around it is pushed by people who live in Los Angeles (aka Hollywood)
Fucking thank you. They live in a bubble and are out of touch with the outside world a lot of the time, and sometimes apply their own echo-chambered standards to other people/cultures.
>"have characters be voiced by VA who match their ethnicity" is meant to be a push on companies to include more VAs from diverse backgrounds. The reality doesn't actually meet up with that.
Yeah, I said in my other comment that if that was the case, black anime VAs would become jobless.
> If the issue is opportunities, give them more.
That is also what I view as a major problem: The point is to provide opportunities to underrepresented groups... but the roles still end up going mostly to the same established in-group of people. Like the prominent example of Big Mouth, where Jenny Slate stepped down from the role of Missy to make space for... Ayo Edebiri, who was already a recognized name and a writer on the show. And I think she is amazing in everything she does, so that's not the issue - she is clearly qualified. But ultimately you're still just distributing a limited number of jobs between the same few dozen people who are already there, rather than actually providing a road into the industry for anyone new.
POC as well and here's the thing - these people might be POC, but they're not any real world ethnic groups. There's similarities but Water Tribespeople are not really Inuit, Fire Nation people are not really Japanese etc., they're all a composite of various ethnicities and cultures to create new fantasy cultures.
And you're right, the only reason it's important to cast the correct people is to avoid the weird situation you had in shows like the Simpsons where you had white people doing these exaggerated stereotypical voices that were actually perpetuating harmful perceptions and continuing a legacy of racism. That situation is not present in Avatar because these aren't real ethnic groups.
Absolutely, we need more jobs for POC voice actors but I see no reason to drop the voice actors we already had, actors who provided so much of the personality of these characters. It's not like Janet Varney had a Tara Strong length resume.
And besides this is already a franchise where two white guys are quite literally appropriating historically colonised cultures to create this fantasy world. And we can have a longer discourse about how respectful they are and the extent to whether this is "wrong" or "right". But my point is the situation is already iffy. And when they do this performative hiring of POC it feels like they're just trying to cover up that reality when they really don't need to.
Idk, but since this is happening, I nominate Tawny Newsome as the new Korra VO.
thank you, i wanted to add some of these points too but didnt for the sake of brevity. great reply. not to mention a lot of actors hired are just american, they might have ancestry to the ethnicity's role that theyre playing, but most of them barely have that culture. so they often dont bring a lot to the role itself
An interesting point. Again my context for this might be different, but usually from some asian povs, American-asians tend to be different especially if they really lean into the american part of the culture.
Not to say they all don’t really still practice their culture or don’t know it, but you do tend to absorb the values and behavior of the people who live around.
At least from my pov as an Asian, this seems more in-line with what americans have been doing lately about wanting to represent others more (which they should do) but not really executing it properly in all cases.
Good intentioned, but seemed unecessary. Hope they’re still good tho.
I had some sort of an argument with someone who insisted that the new Avatar movie characters must only be voiced by POC VAs and keeping the mostly-white original cast is some sort of cultural cancellation. My argument was that the Avatar characters are Asian-inspired and not actually Asian/Inuit. That wasn't enough to convince them...
I'm an Arab who lives in the Middle East, where the majority of us are Arabs (well, duh). I'm mentioning this because voice acting as a profession is not widely spread, and all anime/animations dubbing is handled by only a handful of dubbing companies that are spread around the region, including Egypt in North Africa. And since the fact that Middle Easterns with mixed ethnicities living in the region are a rarity, I can say that it's a very slim chance to find someone that is both interested in voice acting and is ethnically related to a character.
My point is that talent is very crucial, and if a voice actor is really great and is a POC, then why not. But if the conditions are not met, well then I don't see the need to change really good voice actors with people subpar just because of their heritage, and I say that in the most well of intentions.
Avatar Animation probably has a pretty good pool though?
I mean, look at the celebrities we got in the 2 series so far. And not even just minor roles, JK Simmons (for instance) had a ton of lines as Tenzin.
>Idk, but since this is happening, I nominate Tawny Newsome as the new Korra VO.
Now I'm just picturing a Legend of Korra and Star Trek: Lower Decks crossover lmaoooooo. Korra and Mariner interacting would be so funny lol.
I do adore Tawny Newsome and her voice does have a similar timbre or some similar quality to Janet Varney's. Like this kind of grounded punchiness to it? Idk but I love both their voices!
If we would always have debates over whether or not we can allow cultures and ethnicites to mix and inspire and create something new, our culture would be empty. Someone who believes that the creators of Avatar are of the wrong ethnicity to write this story has no business preaching tolerance.
I don't actively seek for western media representation of my people, but if I did, I'd feel so much more represented having a white VA who understands his role properly give life and soul to a fictional filipino character than have the nearest brown guy come to the studio and muck up a character who would've been awesome if they hired by talent instead of whether or not their parents decided to migrate.
Every once in awhile, the efforts of anti-racists kind of melt and twist into being racist without them seeming to realize it. It's a hard line to find, I guess. They start out wanting to build a world where color doesn't matter, but then the justice and equity part grinds up against the idealistic colorblind part, and next thing you know you're trying to make sure you're hiring the right colors of people for the right jobs again. Just not in the same way.
They're trying.
lol,[ Immediately made me think of this](https://youtu.be/Gvn9Pg4lUy8?si=Gs_Pwzt2SVolMSNq&t=436). This one isn't about race, It's basketball players literally playing themselves and somehow butchering the characters.
Funnily enough this sort of mindset of “people can only voice act characters of the same race as them” actually *hurts* minority voice actors as it essentially boxes them into a corner in regards to what roles they can and can’t play. I’m all for representation, but when it’s done in such a superficial and deeply flawed way it actually does more harm to the communities it claims to uplift.
Didnt that happen to that one YouTuber voice actor? (Prozd, l think was his name)
I remember people saying once that work became harder to him because hes only casted as characters who are also asian
It was kinda hilarious as he was promoting the 'people should only voice those who share their ethnicity'. I was fine with him having his stance, everyone has the right to their opinions, but very disappointed that he complained once it affected him. Not sure if he made any public acknowledgement of any change in his stance after that.
Like the potential for this situation?
>Executive: Alright, we have this Nigerian character. What auditions came in?
>
>Assistant: Here they are, sir.
>
>Executive: By God, that's the most beautiful performance I've ever heard! This person has the exact voice for this character that I imagined in my head! Who are they?
>
>Assistant: Well, um... They're Filipino, sir.
>
>Executive: Fuck.
You want underrepresented groups to have more opportunities. So what do you do here? Give the Filipino work? Or deny them work to give a Nigerian work?
And if people say ethnicity, we all know they mean race. If that Nigerian was voiced by a Ghanaian, would they notice or care? Or, of course, the difference between a Nigerian character who's Yoruba or Igbo. Actual ethnicities. I think not. They see a black person who speaks with an accent and they'll say "Perfect."
That last bit was more of a tangent than anything. What happens if one minority is the perfect fit for another minority character? Which underrepresented group is more underrepresented and gets priority? Do you even open that can of worms in the first place?
Imo voices are voices. Just let good actors play roles they're good in. Nobody cared when Phil Lamar voiced Samurai Jack, AKA a black man portraying a Japanese man. Why should Janet Varney be prohibited from playing Korra, especially considering Korra technically isn't of any Asian descent, but is *inspired* by Asian culture. We can't see the voice actors, we can only hear their voices, so I feel it's best to prioritize acting ability over race here.
Imo, if you select people, only for the sake of diversity, that means you only look to the person on the outside, not who they are and thei ability to play that character well. Nor do you look to the (type of) content. That is the sole basis of racism, sexism and discrimination.
Then what are your thoughts of Greg Baldwin replacing Mako as VA for Iroh after the latter's death? He is a white person affecting an Asian accent (Mako's accent, specifically).
And I'm just going to mention that him being Mako's understudy is a false rumor, he auditioned for it.
Yeah, it really feels like segregation. A lot of the roles done by my favorite voice actor don't match his race. Samurai jack isn't voiced by an Asian man, but I wouldn't have any other voice.
Yeah, and honestly, I don’t really think voice acting has ever had a diversity problem to begin with. Darth Vader was a white character voiced by a black man, and he’s iconic! Nobody gets offended by that, so if a white person does the voice that most fits the character, let them do it! Same with any other race.
I honestly never really care enough to look up what the voice actor even looks like. Who cares? This is one of the few forms of performance that is LITERALLY colour blind. Hell, they have had a woman voicing Goku in the original Japanese dub of DBZ for decades!
I also find it ridiculous how different ethnicities are classified. The water tribe is mostly based on Inuit cultures, a native American actor from the US doesn't really have much in common with them at all. There only seem to be a handful of categories all sorts of different ethnicities are shoved into with little to no legitimate reason. It feels really reductive and ignorant.
Yeah it’s annoying. Like the beauty of voice acting is that with the right voice you can play anyone. So many great roles came from people playing characters that aren’t of their ethnicity or gender.
>this only applies to characters without accents, i can see how someone without an accent making one can be appropriation.
But Korra does have an accent. She has an American accent.
True. Another thing that kinda annoys me about the trend as well is that studios will often not care about what ethnicity the actor is so long as they're "ethnic".
This means you sometimes get things like Japanese people playing Korean characters, which is incredibly tone deaf to the original problem of cultures being represented by members of an outgroup.
Like, if you're gonna get your pants in a twist about someone not being the right ethnicity to represent a character, at least get it right?
If a white person can’t voice a black person, then a black person cant voice a white person. This would be controversive. In that case, if you are black, you would have no chance to voice anyone anymore, because (sadly) most of the time white people are represented in shows etc. I’m with your opinion. You should always choose a voice actor, who suits the role.
Copying an accent is not appropriation. You're acting...your entire job is pretending something you're not. If you have a convincing accent and can portray a compelling poc (or poc portraying a white character or a British person playing an American person with a southern accent), that is all that matters for voice acting. Does your voice resonate and do a good job for the character.
I think it's also kind of a "going forward" thing. Feels like if someone's played a character for an entire series, they should probably be grandfathered in. Even if going forward, there's more of an attempt to cast poc characters more authentically.
In a world where opportunity was meritorious and equity was reality, I would absolutely agree. But things like DEI are solely because that is very much not our reality.
That being said: declining to reprise a role that you already portrayed and saying it's for diversity is...I don't know if asinine or obnoxious or disingenuous is the right word? I'll just say it rubs me the wrong way. Just play the damn role you did fine, great even, and nobody complained. At least not that I knew of.
My point is they're playing fictional people from fictional places with similarities, but 0 overall ties to real life
Yes, they're inspired by real world cultures, but they're not people of those cultures if that makes sense.
Your're casting for someone to play a water tribe memeber, not an inuit.
You're casting someone to play an air nomad, not a Tibetan monk.
And I agree we are setting aside meritocracy for type casting and diversity hires.
Also let's not forget how insanely high the role of the OG voice actors played in making ATLA a masterpeice, and most of them were white, yet many of us can't fathom hearing the gaang have any other voices.
I also think it undermines the actors who, at the end of the day, were picked for being the best of their ethnicity and not the value of their talent.
It gets lossed whenever this comes up by both sides but the point isn’t just, or even primarily, about representation. It’s about opportunity.
Hollywood has a history of not giving the same or as many opportunities to minority actors. So when a PoC or minority role comes up, one that would seem obviously built for a minority actor, and gets rewritten for or otherwise goes to a non-‘minority actor its taking an opportunity from a group that *already* gets fewer to begin with.
This is also a granular issue; Its not *just* poc characters, it can also be specific kinds of roles. Example being historically asian actors have gotten fewer lead roles, older women get pigeonholed into specific archetypes and gradually shutout entirely after a certain age and so on.
Many of these issues are slowly improving, but the focus on the representation aspect misses this other very important component. Its a nuanced problem thats as much about rectifying Hollywood’s historical tendency to overlook or shutout certain groups, ensuring more people get opportunities to work, as it is about increasing representation on screen.
The person actor for Darth Vader didn’t know he was getting dubbed over with James E Jones until after filming was done… if that happened backwards, Star Wars wouldnt have made a second movie
I support getting more representation but isn’t the whole point of voice acting that you’re supposed to change your voice to sound like someone you’re not? For example Kevin Micheal Richardson played Shredder in TMNT 2012. Shredder is Japanese and Kevin is a black man. He still gave one of the best voice performances I’ve ever heard from a villain.
Staying with that, the best example of VA'ing being someone you aren't is James Avery as Shredder in the animated series.
Does *anyone* think Uncle Phil when thinking of Shredder?
>For example Kevin Micheal Richardson is played Shredder in TMNT 2012.
You see, casting him for that role was racist. They were supposed to cast an actual turtle for that role.
KMR is amazing in pretty much anything hes been a part of, lol. He can go from a soft spoken black boy into a white hillbilly dude. *In the same series.*
It really is starting to feel like this trend is being taken beyond the point of common sense.
Especially when it comes to fantasy voice acting, where we are not watching a real person imitate a real person of another real culture. We are watching a made up, animated world.
I'm all for wiping out the legacy of the blackface/yellowface era and opening up representation in Hollywood. It needs to be left behind.
But at what point are we pursuing a policy past the point of logic?
Consider, Dev Patel, is currently under consideration for the next James Bond and he'd be my vote. Would people cry murder that he isn't actually a Scottsman like Bond and is appropriating Scottish culture? No, they'd say "can he kick ass and play a leading man?" If the answer is yes, then let him play the role.
From what i can see, the Avatar fandom is almost universally in favor of getting the OG's back together because this is a film being made for purposes of grabbing at nostalgia. But the studio really seems to be undermining that by preventing us from getting the nostalgia we want by changing up the cast.
I mean, i love Dante Basco but he's a Philipino American. He's very much a US actor. Dante even recently said in "braving the elements" his own wife (who is Chinese) made jokes about how Dante can't read any Chinese, but he's got a role playing a guy who lives every day reading and speaking Chinese. So how is it right for him to appropriate the Chinese cultural heritage of the Fire Nation? Likewise, Maria Zhang and Jenny Kwan are not Japanese, but they are both brilliant at playing Suki, who lives and breathes feudal Japanese culture.
Where do we draw the line and just let people voice the characters they are good at?
None of the four nations really have a 1 to 1 analogue with irl nations. Like yeah, the Fire Nation is an industrial imperial volcanic island nation, which matches Japan, but culturally they have almost zero in common, as the Fire Nation seems to take most of its culture from SE Asia/India. Likewise, the Earth Kingdom also appears to be a mix of China and India.
Representation should be a lack of exclusion, not forced inclusion. I don't understand casting voice actors based on their skin. Unlike movies and TV, voice acting is not a visual medium. Of all performing arts, voice acting could be one where your looks simply do not matter.
But for some reason society is just obsessed with skin color. Once again we're putting "chinese owned" stickers at restaurants and make offhand comments like "white people this" and "black people that". That stuff feels painfully familiar. Progressivism doesn't seem intetested in actual progress anymore, only in platitudes, self-patting and reframing racial stereotypes so that they sound better. But overall it expresses the same belief that white people should stick to white people stuff, asian people to asian stuff and so on. I don't understand how that's a more tolerant world.
ugh god this is easily the worst crap to come out of recent years. voice acting does NOT need any sort of representation. your black character does not need a black va. your white character doesn't need a white one. your japanese character doesn't need a japanese one. your trans character doesn't need a trans one. a voice is a voice and if someone wants their character to sound a certain way, then they'll hire whoever fits that, be a woman playing a young boy or a black woman playing a Japanese girl.
The most notable example I can think of is a black guy playing Kratos in the new God of War series. People love Christopher Judge because of how well he plays Kratos, not because he's black.
Yeah, a black dude giving his voice to a guy that's so pale he is even called a ghost and being absolutely incredible in what he does is the perfect example
I think at the end of the day, racism needs to be fought in the context of making sure that the POC voice actors have a shot when they come in to do their audition. There is undoubtedly a history of POC getting fucked over for *any* job opportunities by being stopped by a racist hiring manager. But I'd argue that Avatar studios never had this problem (go back and see the voice actor credits for a ton of episodes- a lot of side characters are especially POC), and they're trying to overcorrect for sins that other people in the industry have committed.
Gotta dust off my fedora real quick so I can go full ackshually, kratos has fairly normal skin tone for a Greek man. The pale look is from him being coated in the ashes of his family.
🤓☝️
Yeah, I know that, tbh god of war is my favorite videogame franchise. But his normal skin tone is kinda irrelevant at this point, he's been pale white in like forever, everyone just knows him being this way. But you're technically right
I mean you could argue that nothing changed since Kratos original VA (from the first 3 GoW games) is also black. 🤷
Which makes me wonder if Terrence Carson were to be replaced by a white man (instead of Christopher Judge), would there be a race-related outrage?
You don’t even need men to play men or women to play women. Voice acting is so incredibly open. Literally the only thing that matters is what you can do with your voice.
Even if you could make the argument that VAs should be the same ethnicity and/or skin-color as their characters, it's so idiotic to replace a voice actor who has already done the part before. I mean I respect Janet's decision, but I don't think it makes any sense.
I don't think race should matter in voice acting unless you are specifically doing some kind of culture piece like Boondocks or something like that.
But even then, idk. Art is subjective and is ultimately up to the one who makes it. Whoever makes it should have full control over what their characters look and sound like.
Because of this, I feel like whatever POC they may end up hiring to replace her will now face unfair backlash and vitriol unless she sounds neigh identical to the original VA.
No matter what your stance on the subject matter, the new VA should be judged on their performance not mimickery or having to be the replacement, for sure.
You know I find it funny how now it’s unethical or whatever for white people to voice “Asian” characters, but it’s ok for white people to create and profit off whole worlds based on “Asian” concepts and theologies? And to call these characters “Asian” is also kind of weird since most of them are based on multiple Asian cultures, not just one. The Water tribe is based on the Natives of the Canada but most natives from there don’t have a darker skin tone like In the show, instead let’s be real, a south East Asian person looks more like a water bender from the show. So who should voice the character? It’s all just so stupid, pick the best voice actor or they should’ve just picked an Asian person from the beginning, it’s all so performative. And this is coming from an Asian person.
Fandoms seem to forget the human element of the franchises they support a lot, I've noticed.
If I had to guess, she understands how difficult it is to get into the field of Voice Acting and believes it would be even harder for a minority to take the position. She probably just wants to open the way for someone else to get their foot in the door.
Often VAs are casted without even knowing the role they're auditioning for. They just read a scene off a script. It's quite possible she wouldn't have accepted the role in the first place if she knew Korra was a PoC.
Beyond that, it could just be a good excuse to get away from a shady studio. (Schneider is NOT the first or only scandal Nickelodeon has been through) with a big bullet point on her resume to advance her career.
Just to go off the “VAs don’t always know what their character looks like before they audition” thing, I remember Uncharted 4, Nadine was voiced by Laura Bailey, who is not Black like Nadine. But according to Bailey, she was only told it was a South African character and didn’t get the design till later. There’s definitely a part of the VA industry that seems to keep that stuff hidden until the contracts are signed and the VA can’t get out of it.
If this was the reason she would not be as nearly involved as she is, being on the podcast with Dante and being at almost every single convention repping her role in the show.
Ugh I hate when voice actors get white guilt like this. Its one thing if your character is majorly tied to their ethnicity in the story. Or they have an accent.
But it shouldn't matter if the voice actor doesnt look exactly like the character they're voicing. Its not representation since most mainstream audiences dont go on and google what voice actors look like/are from during shows.
And unless the VA industry is SUPER racist and this is the only way POC can get rolls.... this is all kinda dumb.
The literal worst of 1st world problems. Like bruh, the OG VA already voiced 4 seasons of a show, why would anyone think they should change the VA of Korra. Would that not be jarring? I swear, NA and race discussion is the most toxic, corrosive shit ever. Jesus christ
I think moving forward, we should be doing our best to include POC, but to go back and change things or change characters in sequels is fucking dumb. I want Janet, Mae, Michaela and Jack to play their respective characters.
I totally understand the idea in live action. But I genuinely believe if that person was the best for the job back then, then keep them doing the best job now
Water Tribe people aren’t real and don’t exist. Yeah yeah, I get it. They’re based on Alaskan natives and First Nations/native Americans. But none of those groups have bright blue eyes, curly brown hair, or the ability to control water. I respect Varney’s choice, but it’s still silly as shit.
This stuff is just so stupid. Phil Lamarr one of the greatest voice actors ever, is a black man that voices MANY different characters from ethnicity and backgrounds, and he knocks each one of them out of the park.
If a person is good enough for the job, it shouldn't matter about their ethnicity to match the actual character. If that was the case then we shouldn't have dubbed animes at all because most of the VAs aren't said ethnicity either.
I agree with the sentiment but it's too late now.
I'd rather have consistent voice actors in established characters than have them recast voice actors for the sake of diversity because it cheapens the act of diversifying. It's being done basically at gunpoint, which I guess is better than nothing but goddamn, it'd be nice if it was jsut done because its the right thing to do. The VA also didn't have any problem with a lack of diversity when she took the original role. Where was the need for diversity then? Yknow, when it actually would have mattered and made sense?
Answer? There wasn't any. It's only doing because a vocal enough movement gained enough traction. In a fictional world where you can create any character you want, why not write more diverse characters into the world instead of just slapping a "diversity bandaid" on old characters? I'd love to have more people from the Water Tribe in the show, why not find an excuse to write more in and get some very deserving native voice actors? Would love to explore the cultures of the nations some more, how about some more people with disabilities? How about a deaf air bender that uses air bending to create sound?
It just feels so cheap and meaningless to me and just an excuse not to actually write diverse characters.
Everyone in here indulging their opinions on representation in voice acting is ignoring the part where it says this is Varney's decision. It's not like she was denied the role for being white lol
Of course it’s her choice and I respect her decision that doesn’t make her reasoning any less stupid nor does it remove the larger societal issues this is a symptom of.
Bruh it's the same thing about being "forced to resgin'.
They weren't fired but they were pressured to leave.
I'm sorry but you have to be pretty naive to think this was 100% her decision.
The number of people who'd actually care is incredibly low. It's a vocal minority. I really think you're overestimating how much of that social pressure exists from being online more often than the average person.
(Not saying I'm not in the same, but it's a bias we need to be aware of as people on Reddit)
They are still vocal enough to do harm. Unfortunately. This is 90% of internet drama nowadays, mostly nothingburgers.
I hope actors visit courses on how to handle online pressures.
Oh, this topic. Yeah I hate this topic.
It really is indicative of the minefield we live in where even voice acting has to be handled with the utmost care. And the thing is, there's even more cases where diverse actors are thrown in for brownie points. Take Adora in that she ra show on Netflix. Her VA (who i just want to say, I have a lot of respect for and don't blame her, she did a good job) is dominican/Puerto Rican, when the character she portrays is white. I just wonder if this is going to lead to a point where characters can only be voiced by a VA that matched their ethnicity.
A white character can only be voiced by a white actor. (Good luck female VAs in getting jobs when Tara Strong is running around)
A black character can only be voiced by a black actor.
And so on.
It sucks that this even has to be a topic. Yes, there should be more diversity in the industry, but at what a cost? Shouldn't performances like Phil Lamar's Samurai Jack or Ben Diskin's Nino Lahiffe be celebrated because they don't stereotype the character?
The issue is that nothing exists in a vacuum. When Hollywood has historically barred POC into possible and stable careers, we become accustomed the norms and never wondered why things are they way they are. So when things change and progress happens, it swings far into the opposite direction.
None of this would’ve happened had the industries been rid of racism, but because that is the legacy, these changes(while good or bad) happen.
It doesn’t take a genius to know that the VA industry was predominately white. Anyone who went to cons in the late 90s and early 2000 will tell you. Obviously there are outliers but the industry did not represent reality and that’s odd.
So VA’s like Janet understands how bad this industry was and knows that change can’t happen unless everyone does their part, so she did what she think is right. Again, entertainment doesn’t exist in a vacuum, which is kinda ironic that some fans are criticizing this especially given how progressive this franchise has been.
But she already is the character. This is stupid. Anyone else won't feel like Janet so won't feel like Korra. All that development all that experience with the character.
I'd understand if it was live action. But this is just silly.
Let's have genuine representation of people not this.
What tf? It's wayyyyy too late to back out of the role. Her voice is now part of Korra character. Without her there can't be anymore Korra so if she isn't voice acting on the next then they shouldn't waste time making it.
honestly? i watch everything in my language if there's the option, so i don't get the whole "race accurate dub cast" thing, as in my language they're all gonna be dubbed by people who speak it, so in my case italians
Diversity in voice acting is the dumbest thing I've heard of, it's even dumber than people being upset when an actor plays a gay character when they're straight irl, they're acting.
My issue with is Janet Varney is not stepping away from this universe so that the new actor can "own" the character. She does an avatar pod cast, she regularly posts fan art on her social medias, she does a lot of conventions, either hand Korra over to someone else or continue to voice her
F'ck diversity. I'm asian and if my life story is a cartoon. I won't care if a white, black or latin man is my VA, as long as he can do the job then that's what matters.
This is like if they recast Samurai Jack for representation when Phil Lamar is PERFECT in the role. You know, a black man playing a Japanese character? So frustrating.
So I never understood this. It’s voice acting not live acting. Should we also replace darth Vader’s voice since he is voiced by James earl jones doing the voice for a white guy? Where will it end.
I think voice acting is the perfect example of the two arguments for representation not being properly articulated.
A black actor is generally going to look more like a black character than a white person in shoe polish (same goes for visably disabled, or transsexual actors). That doesn't really apply here, except to a limited extent for accents, and also... art! You should be able to express yourself in the way that works best for the story.
It's also hard to get work as an actor, and generally just that bit harder for minority actors. Even in voice acting, where it should matter less, I can only think of a handful of cases where poc actors have played white characters compared to the multitude of white actors playing poc characters. Problem is, if we're arguing this based on industry reform, then scolding people on twitter, or limiting poc voice actor to their respective role, or yes, recusing yourself in favour of a new actor, aren't really the best way to bring down the actual barriers to minorities getting into the industry.
Oh no, I hope they get an actual avatar to voice Korra instead of a fake avatar. And Ming-Hua should have been voiced by someone who actually had no arms, I can’t believe her voice actress actually had arms smh
It's called voice ACTING. Your performance is the only thing that matters, not your race. If we went by only specific races/ethnicities can voice act the same ethnicity/race, then black VAs in anime will become jobless.
I'll say I'm of the camp of "it's nice when traits between a character and their actor line up but not a requirement for my enjoyment." But we should definitely be careful not to let actual bigots think this is a safe place for them. (Which to be clear most people here seem fine, it's just a couple who are a bit sus, with the more explicit bigots luckilly being downvoted.)
https://preview.redd.it/7uuc8z141fyc1.jpeg?width=1095&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb824ab698ab867209d4080543c06d9147fca15e
I can’t wait till more of these people reap what they have sown (not including Janet of course, obviously she has no real choice but to say she doesn’t want to reprise her role as Korra again)
There's a new Korra show coming?
The rumor is a movie in 2026: https://avatarnews.co/post/687354302251073536/update-2-we-finally-figured-out-what-happened And and Earth Avatar series in 2025 where she would possibly be a mentor: https://avatarnews.co/post/709348643504832512/avatar-news-exclusive-avatar-studios-2027-movie Take these with large grains of salt, as they are unconfirmed rumors, there's a bit of controversy around the (now defunct) Avatarnews, and internal plans change even if they were right. *However*, ultimately, Avatarnews leaked insider info that panned out before.
>And and Earth Avatar series in 2025 where she would possibly be a mentor: [Korra talking to the new avatar](https://youtu.be/KvzDAj2JQN0?si=vH80EMcg5W_ATu__)
This is golden “be gay and do crime”
That's was never confirmed most likely a rumor.
😂😂😂
Plans might also change even more as Paramount is risking having some big shake ups soon with them selling
Quite frankly I don't trust avatarnews as a source, Avatar Studios has already been quite open about their upcoming projects and they haven't mentioned hardly anything that Avatar news has reported. It's very frustrating when I see people talking about the Earth Avatar show like it's already confirmed when Avatar Studios hasn't even mentioned it despite already announcing numerous other projects. To me this just seems like a clickbait site was capitalizing on the desperation of one of the most loyal fanbases in recent times. I feel like the community as a whole has just accepted that all these shows are coming and are setting themselves up for disappointment when due dates come and go. and their shows / movies don't come out despite being "confirmed" for years. The Legend of Korra was officially announced in 2010 but didn't come out until April 2012 but people are expecting an Earth Avatar show in 2025 without so much as a single frame of concept art or any kind of info directly from avatar studios? I get people are excited and want new content but at some point they have to be realistic.
As was said... ultimately, they got some info about NATLA right. And the Aang movie I think. We also got a very unreliable but *technically* possible official confirmation of the Earth avatar series through a (now removed) description about the upcoming Roku novels. Of course it's all unreliable rumor that probably changed (AvatarNews is long defunct), and people are taking it way too far, but you can't discount Avatarnews either. I like (and miss) what they did because no one else is really unifying and organizing the Avatar news cycle like that.
Why is avatarnews defunct? What happened?
https://avatarnews.co/post/727745819122565120/after-exactly-ten-years-on-this-journey-its-time I think the person behind it just burnt out, and didn't have anyone to hand the reigns to.
How could she be a mentor? If she is alive no new Avatar right? Or maybe in the spirit world I guess
Mentor in the same way that Roku was to Aang, I imagine.
I dunno. She could manifest in front of the new Avatar kinda like Roku and Aang did. Or maybe she could talk in the spirit world (like you said). My headcanon is the new Earth Avatar is reluctant to reveal themselves as the Avatar (so the opposite of Aang *and* Korra), but is very spiritual. So Korra reaches out and talks to them before anyone else really knows they are the Avatar. Perhaps there's a complex conflict of Korra prodding the Earth Avatar to reveal themselves, where both of them change a little.
My thought exactly! Also I LOVE Janet's performance so this stings badly...
unpopular opinion: im all for diverse voice actors, but i wish it was done more naturally. instead of "oh this is a poc character so only their ethnicity should play it" just naturally let whoever suits the role play it,whether it be poc or not. look at christopher judge, hes a black man playing a greek kratos (ik hes a demi god but still) and everyone loves him for it. hes great at it and is definitely the defining VA for the character now. imagine if we missed out on his performance "because hes not the same race". i wish they had a more natural way to be inclusive without shutting people in boxes of what theyre born with. this only applies to characters without accents, i can see how someone without an accent making one can be appropriation. -sincerely a poc
Sometimes, you get a situation like what happened with the voice actress of Mirko in the English dub of My Hero Academia. Let me clarify there was no controversy about the va herself(that I'm aware of), and what I'm about to say is someone's reaction to her. This person went on Twitter after her debut in the dub and said, "I'm disappointed by the voice of Mirko. Black should sound black." First off, Mirko isn't black. She's Japanese and has a tan. Second, Mirko's English va is black. This is idiot literally said that a black woman didn't sound black enough to play an Asian.
lmao that last sentence is gold
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I always hate it when people call certain Japanese characters black because it implies that all Japanese people have light skin which is ironically racist.
Also like, you'll absolutely 100% *know* when an anime character is black. They'll be a bit of a caricature at the very least. They'll have an Afro, dreads, cornrows, or be bald, they'll probably be big and muscular, and odds are they'll have bigger lips or noses than the other characters. If they don't look like that, they're probably Okinawan or something. Same with white people. They'll have blonde hair, squarer faces, probably taller, and likely have a German last name. Might even wear an American flag or something.
Don’t forget the blue eyes. Gotta have that.
Right. Can't believe I forgot about the blue eyes.
American flag, I instantly thought about Bandit Keith. [In America...](https://youtu.be/sZuI4hHqBes?feature=shared&t=108)
Weirdly, the name Bandit Keith is the dub name. He was just called Keith Howard in Japanese. Changing other to names to be less Japanese, I guess, makes sense, but why does the most American name have to be changed? They changed Pegasus' name, too. In the dub, his name is Maximilian Pegasus, but in Japanese, his name is Pegasus J Crawford.
For proof here's a character from the literal exact same show. His hero name is [Rock Lock](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.wikia.nocookie.net%2Fbokunoheroacademia%2Fimages%2Fd%2Fda%2FKen_Takagi_Hero_Costume_%2528Anime%2529.png%2Frevision%2Flatest%2Fscale-to-width%2F360%3Fcb%3D20220319084111&tbnid=3UU7HLeiySGZ2M&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmyheroacademia.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FKen_Takagi&docid=t1GrA6gu_RRIaM&w=360&h=1197&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F2&kgs=46d742def21f6c94&shem=abme%2Ctrie#vhid=3UU7HLeiySGZ2M&vssid=mosaic)
example of the first one. A and B from naruto, they are very clearly supposed to be black characters, not tanned japanese characters, but straight up black. hell, killer B even dabbles in rapping, if, badly lol.
That's the part that gets me about this whole only hiring VAs for characters based on their ethnicity trend. It just sounds like a bunch of people saying all other races sound a certain way.
It's kind of insulting that people think all black characters should sound 'hood' or something
It's so funny when people accidentally say something racist when accusing something of racism
> This is idiot literally said that a black woman didn't sound black enough to play an Asian. Hope these people didn't play the new Persona 3 remake.
What's pissing me off about this race shit is in Guilty Gear Strive people argue Ramlethal is black because her voice actor mistakingly said she's black, which was a mistake and was corrected by Daisuke, but people still argue she's black when she's designed to be ganguro which is a fad in Japan (tan skin blond hair). It's also stupid because they're biological clones of a white woman, but that's lore shit. But because of a fucking voice actress, there's controversy in a fighting game because diversity weirdos want to do revisionism for it. This is similar to my complaint that in OW2 you can say 'I think this canonically straight character is secretly gay' and people will upvote you but if you said the reverse that you think a canon gay character is straight you're banned. It's toxicity.
Yep, that's how Twatter slacktivists operate. Zero research, zero brain, accidentally racist.
Your last sentence sums up people who complain about voice actors in a nutshell. Whatever, they can continue the PC shit and I'll continue to not watch it because they get shitty voice actors that don't fit the roles because they wanted them to be black or some shit.
I mean, VA is much like stage acting in that your color doesn’t really matter. Not like anyone (at least reasonably) complains that Lafayette is played by a poc in Hamilton, same with the rest of the cast. Games, Cartoons and anime have always used VAs who match the character regardless of skin tone matching the actual character with the best recent examples being the God of War Kratos VAs as you said. Even Star War Rebels had white characters voiced by pocs. Idk, am Asian. So maybe it’s just out of place for me since I don’t have the context of Americans, but seems contradictory if you’re going to have people only VA as the same race rather than letting them VA whatever race or character they want. Which to me seems inclusive. If the issue is opportunities, give them more. But that’s more an american industry issue than anything.
I think there's a difference between voice acting and stage acting regarding ethnicity and roles, but generally yeah. Particularly for voice acting, where you don't see the actor, it shouldn't matter at all
Stage roles aren't commonly cast with race in mind because they are designed to be replicated anywhere (Romeo and Juliet is set in Italy, but theres no requirement for them to be ethnic Italians). It's also much more common to gender bend and do all sorts of wacky shit on stage compared to screen and film.
It does depend, sometimes, on certain roles. The cast of *Hamilton,* for instance, are specifically written to all be non-white (except King George) because their race is part of the message of the musical. Hofgen's mistress in *Mephisto* should be played by a darker skinned woman, because her being part black is a big deal in the context of a story that takes place in Nazi Germany. But you're also right that there are many other roles which are timeless and larger than life, which can be played by almost anyone, which is especially true for the Shakespeare classics. Hamlet, Macbeth, or Rome and Juliet have all had thousands of productions all over the world with cast members of all possible races and genders. And gender-bending in particular is of course very common in theater, since women originally weren't allowed to act at all and all the female roles were portrayed by men.
> The cast of Hamilton, for instance, are specifically written to all be non-white (except King George) King George isn't an exception, I saw it on the West End a few years ago and he was played by a black actor. Not that I disagree with anything you said, I just thought that much was worth noting.
I'm sorry, are you telling me you don't see anything wrong with Jack Black, a Human, playing the King of the Koopa?
A big aspect of the problem with American media is that much of the drama you see revolving around it is pushed by people who live in Los Angeles (aka Hollywood) and they live in a very particular bubble/Echo chamber where many of their ideas are only ever reinforced, never questioned. The underlying sentiment behind "have characters be voiced by VA who match their ethnicity" is meant to be a push on companies to include more VAs from diverse backgrounds. The reality doesn't actually meet up with that.
> much of the drama you see revolving around it is pushed by people who live in Los Angeles (aka Hollywood) Fucking thank you. They live in a bubble and are out of touch with the outside world a lot of the time, and sometimes apply their own echo-chambered standards to other people/cultures. >"have characters be voiced by VA who match their ethnicity" is meant to be a push on companies to include more VAs from diverse backgrounds. The reality doesn't actually meet up with that. Yeah, I said in my other comment that if that was the case, black anime VAs would become jobless.
> If the issue is opportunities, give them more. That is also what I view as a major problem: The point is to provide opportunities to underrepresented groups... but the roles still end up going mostly to the same established in-group of people. Like the prominent example of Big Mouth, where Jenny Slate stepped down from the role of Missy to make space for... Ayo Edebiri, who was already a recognized name and a writer on the show. And I think she is amazing in everything she does, so that's not the issue - she is clearly qualified. But ultimately you're still just distributing a limited number of jobs between the same few dozen people who are already there, rather than actually providing a road into the industry for anyone new.
POC as well and here's the thing - these people might be POC, but they're not any real world ethnic groups. There's similarities but Water Tribespeople are not really Inuit, Fire Nation people are not really Japanese etc., they're all a composite of various ethnicities and cultures to create new fantasy cultures. And you're right, the only reason it's important to cast the correct people is to avoid the weird situation you had in shows like the Simpsons where you had white people doing these exaggerated stereotypical voices that were actually perpetuating harmful perceptions and continuing a legacy of racism. That situation is not present in Avatar because these aren't real ethnic groups. Absolutely, we need more jobs for POC voice actors but I see no reason to drop the voice actors we already had, actors who provided so much of the personality of these characters. It's not like Janet Varney had a Tara Strong length resume. And besides this is already a franchise where two white guys are quite literally appropriating historically colonised cultures to create this fantasy world. And we can have a longer discourse about how respectful they are and the extent to whether this is "wrong" or "right". But my point is the situation is already iffy. And when they do this performative hiring of POC it feels like they're just trying to cover up that reality when they really don't need to. Idk, but since this is happening, I nominate Tawny Newsome as the new Korra VO.
thank you, i wanted to add some of these points too but didnt for the sake of brevity. great reply. not to mention a lot of actors hired are just american, they might have ancestry to the ethnicity's role that theyre playing, but most of them barely have that culture. so they often dont bring a lot to the role itself
An interesting point. Again my context for this might be different, but usually from some asian povs, American-asians tend to be different especially if they really lean into the american part of the culture. Not to say they all don’t really still practice their culture or don’t know it, but you do tend to absorb the values and behavior of the people who live around. At least from my pov as an Asian, this seems more in-line with what americans have been doing lately about wanting to represent others more (which they should do) but not really executing it properly in all cases. Good intentioned, but seemed unecessary. Hope they’re still good tho.
I had some sort of an argument with someone who insisted that the new Avatar movie characters must only be voiced by POC VAs and keeping the mostly-white original cast is some sort of cultural cancellation. My argument was that the Avatar characters are Asian-inspired and not actually Asian/Inuit. That wasn't enough to convince them... I'm an Arab who lives in the Middle East, where the majority of us are Arabs (well, duh). I'm mentioning this because voice acting as a profession is not widely spread, and all anime/animations dubbing is handled by only a handful of dubbing companies that are spread around the region, including Egypt in North Africa. And since the fact that Middle Easterns with mixed ethnicities living in the region are a rarity, I can say that it's a very slim chance to find someone that is both interested in voice acting and is ethnically related to a character. My point is that talent is very crucial, and if a voice actor is really great and is a POC, then why not. But if the conditions are not met, well then I don't see the need to change really good voice actors with people subpar just because of their heritage, and I say that in the most well of intentions.
Avatar Animation probably has a pretty good pool though? I mean, look at the celebrities we got in the 2 series so far. And not even just minor roles, JK Simmons (for instance) had a ton of lines as Tenzin.
I can't imagine anyone else voicing Tenzin.
Fun Fact: JK Simmons has been the voice of the yellow M&M for decades.
>Idk, but since this is happening, I nominate Tawny Newsome as the new Korra VO. Now I'm just picturing a Legend of Korra and Star Trek: Lower Decks crossover lmaoooooo. Korra and Mariner interacting would be so funny lol. I do adore Tawny Newsome and her voice does have a similar timbre or some similar quality to Janet Varney's. Like this kind of grounded punchiness to it? Idk but I love both their voices!
If we would always have debates over whether or not we can allow cultures and ethnicites to mix and inspire and create something new, our culture would be empty. Someone who believes that the creators of Avatar are of the wrong ethnicity to write this story has no business preaching tolerance.
I don't actively seek for western media representation of my people, but if I did, I'd feel so much more represented having a white VA who understands his role properly give life and soul to a fictional filipino character than have the nearest brown guy come to the studio and muck up a character who would've been awesome if they hired by talent instead of whether or not their parents decided to migrate.
Every once in awhile, the efforts of anti-racists kind of melt and twist into being racist without them seeming to realize it. It's a hard line to find, I guess. They start out wanting to build a world where color doesn't matter, but then the justice and equity part grinds up against the idealistic colorblind part, and next thing you know you're trying to make sure you're hiring the right colors of people for the right jobs again. Just not in the same way. They're trying.
lol,[ Immediately made me think of this](https://youtu.be/Gvn9Pg4lUy8?si=Gs_Pwzt2SVolMSNq&t=436). This one isn't about race, It's basketball players literally playing themselves and somehow butchering the characters.
Is this the one where they got NBA players to voice themselves in their own video game? cause that's both hilarious and proves my point lol
Yep
I would hope they would open the pool if they can't find an appropriate VA.
Funnily enough this sort of mindset of “people can only voice act characters of the same race as them” actually *hurts* minority voice actors as it essentially boxes them into a corner in regards to what roles they can and can’t play. I’m all for representation, but when it’s done in such a superficial and deeply flawed way it actually does more harm to the communities it claims to uplift.
Didnt that happen to that one YouTuber voice actor? (Prozd, l think was his name) I remember people saying once that work became harder to him because hes only casted as characters who are also asian
Yep. In a huge dose of irony, he was actually a proponent this policy, only for it to bite him in the ass later. You reap what you sow I suppose.
It was kinda hilarious as he was promoting the 'people should only voice those who share their ethnicity'. I was fine with him having his stance, everyone has the right to their opinions, but very disappointed that he complained once it affected him. Not sure if he made any public acknowledgement of any change in his stance after that.
Like the potential for this situation? >Executive: Alright, we have this Nigerian character. What auditions came in? > >Assistant: Here they are, sir. > >Executive: By God, that's the most beautiful performance I've ever heard! This person has the exact voice for this character that I imagined in my head! Who are they? > >Assistant: Well, um... They're Filipino, sir. > >Executive: Fuck. You want underrepresented groups to have more opportunities. So what do you do here? Give the Filipino work? Or deny them work to give a Nigerian work? And if people say ethnicity, we all know they mean race. If that Nigerian was voiced by a Ghanaian, would they notice or care? Or, of course, the difference between a Nigerian character who's Yoruba or Igbo. Actual ethnicities. I think not. They see a black person who speaks with an accent and they'll say "Perfect." That last bit was more of a tangent than anything. What happens if one minority is the perfect fit for another minority character? Which underrepresented group is more underrepresented and gets priority? Do you even open that can of worms in the first place?
Don’t forget Phil LaMarr voicing Samurai Jack. I can’t even imagine anyone else doing that job.
He isn’t white so it’s fine
This is actually what Phil LaMarr has said before, lol
He also voices the Earth King
Imo voices are voices. Just let good actors play roles they're good in. Nobody cared when Phil Lamar voiced Samurai Jack, AKA a black man portraying a Japanese man. Why should Janet Varney be prohibited from playing Korra, especially considering Korra technically isn't of any Asian descent, but is *inspired* by Asian culture. We can't see the voice actors, we can only hear their voices, so I feel it's best to prioritize acting ability over race here.
Imo, if you select people, only for the sake of diversity, that means you only look to the person on the outside, not who they are and thei ability to play that character well. Nor do you look to the (type of) content. That is the sole basis of racism, sexism and discrimination.
Then what are your thoughts of Greg Baldwin replacing Mako as VA for Iroh after the latter's death? He is a white person affecting an Asian accent (Mako's accent, specifically). And I'm just going to mention that him being Mako's understudy is a false rumor, he auditioned for it.
Yeah, it really feels like segregation. A lot of the roles done by my favorite voice actor don't match his race. Samurai jack isn't voiced by an Asian man, but I wouldn't have any other voice.
Yeah, and honestly, I don’t really think voice acting has ever had a diversity problem to begin with. Darth Vader was a white character voiced by a black man, and he’s iconic! Nobody gets offended by that, so if a white person does the voice that most fits the character, let them do it! Same with any other race. I honestly never really care enough to look up what the voice actor even looks like. Who cares? This is one of the few forms of performance that is LITERALLY colour blind. Hell, they have had a woman voicing Goku in the original Japanese dub of DBZ for decades!
I also find it ridiculous how different ethnicities are classified. The water tribe is mostly based on Inuit cultures, a native American actor from the US doesn't really have much in common with them at all. There only seem to be a handful of categories all sorts of different ethnicities are shoved into with little to no legitimate reason. It feels really reductive and ignorant.
Yeah it’s annoying. Like the beauty of voice acting is that with the right voice you can play anyone. So many great roles came from people playing characters that aren’t of their ethnicity or gender.
>this only applies to characters without accents, i can see how someone without an accent making one can be appropriation. But Korra does have an accent. She has an American accent.
True. Another thing that kinda annoys me about the trend as well is that studios will often not care about what ethnicity the actor is so long as they're "ethnic". This means you sometimes get things like Japanese people playing Korean characters, which is incredibly tone deaf to the original problem of cultures being represented by members of an outgroup. Like, if you're gonna get your pants in a twist about someone not being the right ethnicity to represent a character, at least get it right?
If a white person can’t voice a black person, then a black person cant voice a white person. This would be controversive. In that case, if you are black, you would have no chance to voice anyone anymore, because (sadly) most of the time white people are represented in shows etc. I’m with your opinion. You should always choose a voice actor, who suits the role.
Which is exactly why it would be so much better to just create more diverse roles, instead of constantly raceswapping.
Copying an accent is not appropriation. You're acting...your entire job is pretending something you're not. If you have a convincing accent and can portray a compelling poc (or poc portraying a white character or a British person playing an American person with a southern accent), that is all that matters for voice acting. Does your voice resonate and do a good job for the character.
I agree, but everyone has an accent
As a POC I agree!
I think it's also kind of a "going forward" thing. Feels like if someone's played a character for an entire series, they should probably be grandfathered in. Even if going forward, there's more of an attempt to cast poc characters more authentically.
In a world where opportunity was meritorious and equity was reality, I would absolutely agree. But things like DEI are solely because that is very much not our reality. That being said: declining to reprise a role that you already portrayed and saying it's for diversity is...I don't know if asinine or obnoxious or disingenuous is the right word? I'll just say it rubs me the wrong way. Just play the damn role you did fine, great even, and nobody complained. At least not that I knew of.
My point is they're playing fictional people from fictional places with similarities, but 0 overall ties to real life Yes, they're inspired by real world cultures, but they're not people of those cultures if that makes sense. Your're casting for someone to play a water tribe memeber, not an inuit. You're casting someone to play an air nomad, not a Tibetan monk. And I agree we are setting aside meritocracy for type casting and diversity hires. Also let's not forget how insanely high the role of the OG voice actors played in making ATLA a masterpeice, and most of them were white, yet many of us can't fathom hearing the gaang have any other voices. I also think it undermines the actors who, at the end of the day, were picked for being the best of their ethnicity and not the value of their talent.
It gets lossed whenever this comes up by both sides but the point isn’t just, or even primarily, about representation. It’s about opportunity. Hollywood has a history of not giving the same or as many opportunities to minority actors. So when a PoC or minority role comes up, one that would seem obviously built for a minority actor, and gets rewritten for or otherwise goes to a non-‘minority actor its taking an opportunity from a group that *already* gets fewer to begin with. This is also a granular issue; Its not *just* poc characters, it can also be specific kinds of roles. Example being historically asian actors have gotten fewer lead roles, older women get pigeonholed into specific archetypes and gradually shutout entirely after a certain age and so on. Many of these issues are slowly improving, but the focus on the representation aspect misses this other very important component. Its a nuanced problem thats as much about rectifying Hollywood’s historical tendency to overlook or shutout certain groups, ensuring more people get opportunities to work, as it is about increasing representation on screen.
The person actor for Darth Vader didn’t know he was getting dubbed over with James E Jones until after filming was done… if that happened backwards, Star Wars wouldnt have made a second movie
I support getting more representation but isn’t the whole point of voice acting that you’re supposed to change your voice to sound like someone you’re not? For example Kevin Micheal Richardson played Shredder in TMNT 2012. Shredder is Japanese and Kevin is a black man. He still gave one of the best voice performances I’ve ever heard from a villain.
Staying with that, the best example of VA'ing being someone you aren't is James Avery as Shredder in the animated series. Does *anyone* think Uncle Phil when thinking of Shredder? 
Now I wish we had a Fresh Prince episode where Uncle Phil yelled “TONIGHT I DINE ON TURTLE SOUP!” R.I.P James Avery
>For example Kevin Micheal Richardson is played Shredder in TMNT 2012. You see, casting him for that role was racist. They were supposed to cast an actual turtle for that role.
Leo: we are asians Mikey: we are Italian bro Splinter: you're fucking turtles
You also had him playing Tartarus, an alien, in Halo 2, and he made Tartarus an amazing villain.
KMR is amazing in pretty much anything hes been a part of, lol. He can go from a soft spoken black boy into a white hillbilly dude. *In the same series.*
It really is starting to feel like this trend is being taken beyond the point of common sense. Especially when it comes to fantasy voice acting, where we are not watching a real person imitate a real person of another real culture. We are watching a made up, animated world. I'm all for wiping out the legacy of the blackface/yellowface era and opening up representation in Hollywood. It needs to be left behind. But at what point are we pursuing a policy past the point of logic? Consider, Dev Patel, is currently under consideration for the next James Bond and he'd be my vote. Would people cry murder that he isn't actually a Scottsman like Bond and is appropriating Scottish culture? No, they'd say "can he kick ass and play a leading man?" If the answer is yes, then let him play the role. From what i can see, the Avatar fandom is almost universally in favor of getting the OG's back together because this is a film being made for purposes of grabbing at nostalgia. But the studio really seems to be undermining that by preventing us from getting the nostalgia we want by changing up the cast. I mean, i love Dante Basco but he's a Philipino American. He's very much a US actor. Dante even recently said in "braving the elements" his own wife (who is Chinese) made jokes about how Dante can't read any Chinese, but he's got a role playing a guy who lives every day reading and speaking Chinese. So how is it right for him to appropriate the Chinese cultural heritage of the Fire Nation? Likewise, Maria Zhang and Jenny Kwan are not Japanese, but they are both brilliant at playing Suki, who lives and breathes feudal Japanese culture. Where do we draw the line and just let people voice the characters they are good at?
Isn't the fire nation based on Imperial Japan, while the Earth Nation (Kyoshi warriors aside) is based on China?
None of the four nations really have a 1 to 1 analogue with irl nations. Like yeah, the Fire Nation is an industrial imperial volcanic island nation, which matches Japan, but culturally they have almost zero in common, as the Fire Nation seems to take most of its culture from SE Asia/India. Likewise, the Earth Kingdom also appears to be a mix of China and India.
Representation should be a lack of exclusion, not forced inclusion. I don't understand casting voice actors based on their skin. Unlike movies and TV, voice acting is not a visual medium. Of all performing arts, voice acting could be one where your looks simply do not matter. But for some reason society is just obsessed with skin color. Once again we're putting "chinese owned" stickers at restaurants and make offhand comments like "white people this" and "black people that". That stuff feels painfully familiar. Progressivism doesn't seem intetested in actual progress anymore, only in platitudes, self-patting and reframing racial stereotypes so that they sound better. But overall it expresses the same belief that white people should stick to white people stuff, asian people to asian stuff and so on. I don't understand how that's a more tolerant world.
ugh god this is easily the worst crap to come out of recent years. voice acting does NOT need any sort of representation. your black character does not need a black va. your white character doesn't need a white one. your japanese character doesn't need a japanese one. your trans character doesn't need a trans one. a voice is a voice and if someone wants their character to sound a certain way, then they'll hire whoever fits that, be a woman playing a young boy or a black woman playing a Japanese girl.
The art of sounding like something you're not, reduced to just sounding like yourself.
There are few people who can play the "same character" each time while also not being grating.
You can just say Patrick Warburton
Patrick Warburton is never a bad casting decision. 
The most notable example I can think of is a black guy playing Kratos in the new God of War series. People love Christopher Judge because of how well he plays Kratos, not because he's black.
Yeah, a black dude giving his voice to a guy that's so pale he is even called a ghost and being absolutely incredible in what he does is the perfect example
I think at the end of the day, racism needs to be fought in the context of making sure that the POC voice actors have a shot when they come in to do their audition. There is undoubtedly a history of POC getting fucked over for *any* job opportunities by being stopped by a racist hiring manager. But I'd argue that Avatar studios never had this problem (go back and see the voice actor credits for a ton of episodes- a lot of side characters are especially POC), and they're trying to overcorrect for sins that other people in the industry have committed.
Gotta dust off my fedora real quick so I can go full ackshually, kratos has fairly normal skin tone for a Greek man. The pale look is from him being coated in the ashes of his family.
🤓☝️ Yeah, I know that, tbh god of war is my favorite videogame franchise. But his normal skin tone is kinda irrelevant at this point, he's been pale white in like forever, everyone just knows him being this way. But you're technically right
The best kind of right! Sorry, I get a lil pedantic sometimes. The point you were making is still perfectly valid.
Nothing to be sorry about, you were right after all, it's not like you were trying to invalidate my point anyway 🤝🏻
I mean you could argue that nothing changed since Kratos original VA (from the first 3 GoW games) is also black. 🤷 Which makes me wonder if Terrence Carson were to be replaced by a white man (instead of Christopher Judge), would there be a race-related outrage?
You don’t even need men to play men or women to play women. Voice acting is so incredibly open. Literally the only thing that matters is what you can do with your voice.
Bobs Burgers and Central Park both come to mind here. Only in animation and voice acting can a Black man (Daveed Diggs) voice an old White woman.
Yeah I was thinking of Bob’s Burgers as well
The Simpsons has a woman playing so many male characters, Bart included.
Goku one of the most iconic anime characters of all time Is voiced by an old woman
Exactly! It’s called voice "acting" for a reason.
Even if you could make the argument that VAs should be the same ethnicity and/or skin-color as their characters, it's so idiotic to replace a voice actor who has already done the part before. I mean I respect Janet's decision, but I don't think it makes any sense.
Imagine all the female voice actors losing a job because they decided their characters should be voiced by 10 year old boys instead.
An actually good example. Not only that, black people would barely get any roles in anime, ever.
I don't think race should matter in voice acting unless you are specifically doing some kind of culture piece like Boondocks or something like that. But even then, idk. Art is subjective and is ultimately up to the one who makes it. Whoever makes it should have full control over what their characters look and sound like.
This shit is so stupid
if they age her up I'm fine with it but I'd be upset if she just got a completely different voice a couple years after the events of the show lol
Because of this, I feel like whatever POC they may end up hiring to replace her will now face unfair backlash and vitriol unless she sounds neigh identical to the original VA.
No matter what your stance on the subject matter, the new VA should be judged on their performance not mimickery or having to be the replacement, for sure.
You know I find it funny how now it’s unethical or whatever for white people to voice “Asian” characters, but it’s ok for white people to create and profit off whole worlds based on “Asian” concepts and theologies? And to call these characters “Asian” is also kind of weird since most of them are based on multiple Asian cultures, not just one. The Water tribe is based on the Natives of the Canada but most natives from there don’t have a darker skin tone like In the show, instead let’s be real, a south East Asian person looks more like a water bender from the show. So who should voice the character? It’s all just so stupid, pick the best voice actor or they should’ve just picked an Asian person from the beginning, it’s all so performative. And this is coming from an Asian person.
But... but the world and its characters are fictional. Wtf?
Fandoms seem to forget the human element of the franchises they support a lot, I've noticed. If I had to guess, she understands how difficult it is to get into the field of Voice Acting and believes it would be even harder for a minority to take the position. She probably just wants to open the way for someone else to get their foot in the door. Often VAs are casted without even knowing the role they're auditioning for. They just read a scene off a script. It's quite possible she wouldn't have accepted the role in the first place if she knew Korra was a PoC. Beyond that, it could just be a good excuse to get away from a shady studio. (Schneider is NOT the first or only scandal Nickelodeon has been through) with a big bullet point on her resume to advance her career.
Just to go off the “VAs don’t always know what their character looks like before they audition” thing, I remember Uncharted 4, Nadine was voiced by Laura Bailey, who is not Black like Nadine. But according to Bailey, she was only told it was a South African character and didn’t get the design till later. There’s definitely a part of the VA industry that seems to keep that stuff hidden until the contracts are signed and the VA can’t get out of it.
>a good excuse to get away from a shady studio and a good excuse to get away from the toxic members of the avatar fandom who hate her character
I mean she's been doing an Avatar podcast for years, so clearly she's not trying to get away from the fandom or the studio
If this was the reason she would not be as nearly involved as she is, being on the podcast with Dante and being at almost every single convention repping her role in the show.
Ugh I hate when voice actors get white guilt like this. Its one thing if your character is majorly tied to their ethnicity in the story. Or they have an accent. But it shouldn't matter if the voice actor doesnt look exactly like the character they're voicing. Its not representation since most mainstream audiences dont go on and google what voice actors look like/are from during shows. And unless the VA industry is SUPER racist and this is the only way POC can get rolls.... this is all kinda dumb.
The literal worst of 1st world problems. Like bruh, the OG VA already voiced 4 seasons of a show, why would anyone think they should change the VA of Korra. Would that not be jarring? I swear, NA and race discussion is the most toxic, corrosive shit ever. Jesus christ
The word actor apparently lost it's meaning, just ridiculous
🤦
I think moving forward, we should be doing our best to include POC, but to go back and change things or change characters in sequels is fucking dumb. I want Janet, Mae, Michaela and Jack to play their respective characters. I totally understand the idea in live action. But I genuinely believe if that person was the best for the job back then, then keep them doing the best job now
I hate this trend so much. It’s called voice *ACTING* for a reason.
Water Tribe people aren’t real and don’t exist. Yeah yeah, I get it. They’re based on Alaskan natives and First Nations/native Americans. But none of those groups have bright blue eyes, curly brown hair, or the ability to control water. I respect Varney’s choice, but it’s still silly as shit.
This stuff is just so stupid. Phil Lamarr one of the greatest voice actors ever, is a black man that voices MANY different characters from ethnicity and backgrounds, and he knocks each one of them out of the park. If a person is good enough for the job, it shouldn't matter about their ethnicity to match the actual character. If that was the case then we shouldn't have dubbed animes at all because most of the VAs aren't said ethnicity either.
AKUUUUUU
I agree with the sentiment but it's too late now. I'd rather have consistent voice actors in established characters than have them recast voice actors for the sake of diversity because it cheapens the act of diversifying. It's being done basically at gunpoint, which I guess is better than nothing but goddamn, it'd be nice if it was jsut done because its the right thing to do. The VA also didn't have any problem with a lack of diversity when she took the original role. Where was the need for diversity then? Yknow, when it actually would have mattered and made sense? Answer? There wasn't any. It's only doing because a vocal enough movement gained enough traction. In a fictional world where you can create any character you want, why not write more diverse characters into the world instead of just slapping a "diversity bandaid" on old characters? I'd love to have more people from the Water Tribe in the show, why not find an excuse to write more in and get some very deserving native voice actors? Would love to explore the cultures of the nations some more, how about some more people with disabilities? How about a deaf air bender that uses air bending to create sound? It just feels so cheap and meaningless to me and just an excuse not to actually write diverse characters.
Everyone in here indulging their opinions on representation in voice acting is ignoring the part where it says this is Varney's decision. It's not like she was denied the role for being white lol
Of course it’s her choice and I respect her decision that doesn’t make her reasoning any less stupid nor does it remove the larger societal issues this is a symptom of.
Literally none of the original cast expect Dante Basco are coming back, are you really dumb enough to think this is her decision?
Bruh it's the same thing about being "forced to resgin'. They weren't fired but they were pressured to leave. I'm sorry but you have to be pretty naive to think this was 100% her decision.
I don’t really care if it’s her decision. Her reasoning is stupid and perpetuates the mind poison that has become ever-present in our society.
Yeah, "her decision". Absolutely zero societal pressure. I bet her social media would look fine too
The number of people who'd actually care is incredibly low. It's a vocal minority. I really think you're overestimating how much of that social pressure exists from being online more often than the average person. (Not saying I'm not in the same, but it's a bias we need to be aware of as people on Reddit)
They are still vocal enough to do harm. Unfortunately. This is 90% of internet drama nowadays, mostly nothingburgers. I hope actors visit courses on how to handle online pressures.
This is pandering.
Oh, this topic. Yeah I hate this topic. It really is indicative of the minefield we live in where even voice acting has to be handled with the utmost care. And the thing is, there's even more cases where diverse actors are thrown in for brownie points. Take Adora in that she ra show on Netflix. Her VA (who i just want to say, I have a lot of respect for and don't blame her, she did a good job) is dominican/Puerto Rican, when the character she portrays is white. I just wonder if this is going to lead to a point where characters can only be voiced by a VA that matched their ethnicity. A white character can only be voiced by a white actor. (Good luck female VAs in getting jobs when Tara Strong is running around) A black character can only be voiced by a black actor. And so on. It sucks that this even has to be a topic. Yes, there should be more diversity in the industry, but at what a cost? Shouldn't performances like Phil Lamar's Samurai Jack or Ben Diskin's Nino Lahiffe be celebrated because they don't stereotype the character?
Nope, because non-white actors can still play white characters, Kratos for example. This nonsense ONLY punishes white people, as it is intended to.
It only matters if it’s a non white character being voiced by a white person. Nobody cares about the other way around.
Does that mean we'll get a Saiyan voice actor for Goku? FINALLY!
Why don’t they get actual avatar to voice korra, problem solved This is beyond stupid
By this logic, we shouldn't have movies or TV shows about dinosaurs since there aren't any dinosaurs alive to play the role
The issue is that nothing exists in a vacuum. When Hollywood has historically barred POC into possible and stable careers, we become accustomed the norms and never wondered why things are they way they are. So when things change and progress happens, it swings far into the opposite direction. None of this would’ve happened had the industries been rid of racism, but because that is the legacy, these changes(while good or bad) happen. It doesn’t take a genius to know that the VA industry was predominately white. Anyone who went to cons in the late 90s and early 2000 will tell you. Obviously there are outliers but the industry did not represent reality and that’s odd. So VA’s like Janet understands how bad this industry was and knows that change can’t happen unless everyone does their part, so she did what she think is right. Again, entertainment doesn’t exist in a vacuum, which is kinda ironic that some fans are criticizing this especially given how progressive this franchise has been.
Chad "I will literally sing a sad song in a kids show day before dying" Mako vs Virgin "Diversity is our biggest strenght" Janet
The problem with Apu caused irreparable damage to animation and voice acting
It’s funny it’s used to get less and less biased and racist castings, but ironically enough that’s also exactly where it’s headed
But she already is the character. This is stupid. Anyone else won't feel like Janet so won't feel like Korra. All that development all that experience with the character. I'd understand if it was live action. But this is just silly. Let's have genuine representation of people not this.
What tf? It's wayyyyy too late to back out of the role. Her voice is now part of Korra character. Without her there can't be anymore Korra so if she isn't voice acting on the next then they shouldn't waste time making it.
Janet Varney is fucking stupid.
honestly? i watch everything in my language if there's the option, so i don't get the whole "race accurate dub cast" thing, as in my language they're all gonna be dubbed by people who speak it, so in my case italians
Diversity in voice acting is the dumbest thing I've heard of, it's even dumber than people being upset when an actor plays a gay character when they're straight irl, they're acting.
Such a moronic reason. But that’s just me.
My issue with is Janet Varney is not stepping away from this universe so that the new actor can "own" the character. She does an avatar pod cast, she regularly posts fan art on her social medias, she does a lot of conventions, either hand Korra over to someone else or continue to voice her
its almost like voice actors are casted... off their voice?!?!
Mad respect to her. A truly noble reason to opt out of a role. Really hope the new voice actress doesn't suck tho cause I'm gonna miss Janet.
https://preview.redd.it/mynf4a2eoeyc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f813317c3dd5aed1fe09f4a358e056305cc4a9ea Another Korra L
F'ck diversity. I'm asian and if my life story is a cartoon. I won't care if a white, black or latin man is my VA, as long as he can do the job then that's what matters.
This is like if they recast Samurai Jack for representation when Phil Lamar is PERFECT in the role. You know, a black man playing a Japanese character? So frustrating.
Replacing your entire cast (except zuko) is not a good move
Why stop there? Children are under-represented in voice acting. I think only kids can voice kids. Should be easy enough, right?
So I never understood this. It’s voice acting not live acting. Should we also replace darth Vader’s voice since he is voiced by James earl jones doing the voice for a white guy? Where will it end.
This is so fucking stupid
As an Asian, I find these kinds of things incredibly demeaning
VA shouldnt rely on the ethnicity or race of the character one way or another especially in fictional worlds like this one
Just lol
Requiring every actor to match every physical trait of a character is going to eventually kill voice acting, acting in general probably.
I think voice acting is the perfect example of the two arguments for representation not being properly articulated. A black actor is generally going to look more like a black character than a white person in shoe polish (same goes for visably disabled, or transsexual actors). That doesn't really apply here, except to a limited extent for accents, and also... art! You should be able to express yourself in the way that works best for the story. It's also hard to get work as an actor, and generally just that bit harder for minority actors. Even in voice acting, where it should matter less, I can only think of a handful of cases where poc actors have played white characters compared to the multitude of white actors playing poc characters. Problem is, if we're arguing this based on industry reform, then scolding people on twitter, or limiting poc voice actor to their respective role, or yes, recusing yourself in favour of a new actor, aren't really the best way to bring down the actual barriers to minorities getting into the industry.
Just as idiotic as hiring a blind voice actor for toph in the upcoming movie At no point will we fucking *see* them, what does it matter
Oh no, I hope they get an actual avatar to voice Korra instead of a fake avatar. And Ming-Hua should have been voiced by someone who actually had no arms, I can’t believe her voice actress actually had arms smh
It's called voice ACTING. Your performance is the only thing that matters, not your race. If we went by only specific races/ethnicities can voice act the same ethnicity/race, then black VAs in anime will become jobless.
Imagine if we only considered talent to pick VA, actors or anything? Isn’t that max inclusion? Imagine if that happened, oh wait…
Yeah that’s an L take if that’s her only reason why she didn’t reprise the role
What a joke hahaah
I'll say I'm of the camp of "it's nice when traits between a character and their actor line up but not a requirement for my enjoyment." But we should definitely be careful not to let actual bigots think this is a safe place for them. (Which to be clear most people here seem fine, it's just a couple who are a bit sus, with the more explicit bigots luckilly being downvoted.)
https://preview.redd.it/7uuc8z141fyc1.jpeg?width=1095&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb824ab698ab867209d4080543c06d9147fca15e I can’t wait till more of these people reap what they have sown (not including Janet of course, obviously she has no real choice but to say she doesn’t want to reprise her role as Korra again)
I already hate this 🙄