Wentworth Miller is biracial. And pretty buff.
What do you mean by “more biracial”?
Really? I had no idea that he was anything other than a typical white guy, although with a name like “Wentworth”, I kind of assumed he was actually British. Which apparently he also sort of is.
Gaiman has already said a younger Dwayne Johnson would have been a perfect Shadow, and I agree. Shadow is half black half Scandinavian…so let’s bulk up Richard Ayoade and we’ve got a winner!
I mean, you can’t front too hard on Gaiman talking about his own character, but I think of Dwayne Johnson as having a ton of charisma. Glib, big shiny personality, million watt smile. I have a hard time reconciling that with Shadow’s personality as I remember it from the books…even if his bulk and brownness are a great fit. Hell, I never even thought of Shadow as a particularly good-looking guy, which Dwayne certainly is.
He’s clearly black, and he may not be the tallest and buffiest of the candidates, but Michael Ealy is a superb actor, and after Almost Human’s cancellation he’s probably available. Barring that, Tru Blood’s werewolf Joe Manganiello would fit the bill physically.
His mother is British I believe and he was born in and IIRC lived in the UK for several years.
Speaking of Wentworth Miller, if you want someone who could be seen as of ambiguous ethnicity who could convince people he was of African-American descent if it came to it and is also quite buff, how about Dominic Purcell.
Yeah, he’s white but he’s played Wentworth Miller’s brother twice and they do look a lot alike.
Yeah, if we have a protagonist who is half-black, casting him with a totally white dude wont work today.
I mean, they have Sue Storm the Blonde’s brother being played by a black guy.
That may be reaching but if the character really is a minority, then some dude putting on blackface aint gonna cut it.
Maybe; he definitely has the ability to do the sort of sketchy guy that Wednesday was, although I wouldn’t have thought that he looks right for the part, although makeup and wigs can go a long way.
I kind of imagine Ed Asner as Czernobog myself.
The problem with Miller, is that he’s already staring in a new show - D.C.'s Legends of Tomorrow - so wouldn’t be available.
Same thing applies for Dwayne Johnson, who is staring in HBO’s Ballers (which, you know, may make him available in a year, but not right now).
I was thinking of the Soska sisters for the Zorya sisters, but then I realised Gaiman invented a third sister for the book.
Aah, I knew he was occasionally on Flash (as is Purcell), but didn’t know about this new show.
Richard Ayoade it is 
The main reason I was hoping it would be big screen was so that they have the budget to hire Christoph Woltz for Wednesday; he would be perfect.
And if he’s mixed race, I don’t see how whiteface is better than blackface.
Flipping through the book again, I’m liking the idea of Paul Bettany as Low Key. Stephen Merchant as Mad Sweeney would be doable if you couldn’t find an appropriate Irish actor - Sweeney is supposed to be seven feet tall and Merchant has the gangliness and the grin the character needs. A pity Chris O’Dowd isn’t taller and thinner.
Works for me.
Much as I love Mr Ayoade’s work, just the thought of this is ruining Shadow for me. Stop it.
I really wasn’t sure, to tell you the truth. Gaiman didn’t specify Shadow’s race iirc. I usually like to form a face out of the ether as I’m reading about the character, and I eventually settled for resolute black man, like Denzel Washington. Momoa strikes me as too “glamorous” for the role, and I’ll never forgive Tom Hardy for accepting the role of Bane.
That’s interesting- I had him pictured as a very large and burly looking guy- almost like a non-handsome, darker-skinned Channing Tatum, except not specifically ripped, just big. Or, I suppose like a non-exotic looking Jason Momoa really. Not black, per-se, but some sort of mixed-race person who doesn’t really look like any particular race- someone who could pass for white, black or hispanic if they so chose (kind of Vin Diesel-ish in that regard). I guess ultimately, my mental picture of Shadow fixated on his size and his indefinite ethnicity.
Not directly but in one of the early scenes a prison guard is harassing him about his looks, wanting to know if he had some “nigger in him”, which suggests that he wasn’t obviously black but was noticeably mixed race of some undefined sort. It’d be an odd question if you cast Idris Elba or another obviously black actor in the role.
So: big (which is mentioned on the first page of the book) and of “indefinite ethnicity”.
This thread is really making me also think aboutthe ongoing thread about how important a character’s race/handicap/gender/etc… are in casting a part.
Casting Shadow seems to be very closely related to the problem being discussed in that thread.
The thing is that Shadow’s racial makeup is linked to a major plot twist in the story, so the actor has to look the part. I don’t really care what the actual racial makeup of the actor is as long as he’s a credible physical fit for the part. If they cast a mixed race actor, fine; if they cast a non-mixed-race actor who looks the part without blackfacing up, still fine.