vulgarweed | Good Omens Fancasting for Fun and Prophet!

I suppose just about everyone has to do this sooner or later, because everyone has looked at everyone else's fancasts and had lots of feelings about why everybody else is SO WRONG.

I tried to be less wrong in my own eyes, which is sure to be SO WRONG in someone else's. This is a work in progress--I am complete shite at remembering actors, for one thing. I've also only done the supernatural characters so far, frankly because they're the easiest and the most fun. I'm actually kind of surprised by how many current fan favorites turned up in here.

Angels and Demons

Aziraphale

Kenneth Branagh

Crowley

Cillian Murphy

Hastur

Benedict Cumberbatch

Ligur

Mark Sheppard

The Metatron

Alan Rickman (again!)

Beelzebub

Ron Perlman

The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse

War

Rooney Mara

Famine

Tom Hiddleston

Pollution

Tom Felton

DEATH

Christopher Lee (again!)

What say you?

It does bother me that they're all white. And yet, the characters in GO are so cartoonish in so many ways, especially the supernatural beings, that casting them as PoC can lead to a different kind of problematic-ness. I'd welcome feedback on this too.

Threaded | Flat

From:

htebazytook.livejournal.com

I would watch this and not bitch!

Aaand now you've got me contemplating my own dreamcast

From:

linda3m.livejournal.com

Thanks. Now you have me slashing Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Sheppard.

From:

conjure-lass.livejournal.com

I'd switch Tom Hiddleston into Crowley's role because Cillian Murphy scares the living shit out of me. That and it would give Tom more screentime and i'm ALL ABOUT THAT.

...no i'm not kidding.

But otherwise, I'M WITH YOU.

P.S. Oh...and A MIDDLE-AGED AZIRAPHALE! YES. YEEEEEEESS!!! If he's not over forty he's just NOT AZIRAPHALE TO ME.

Edited Date: 2012-05-25 01:52 am (UTC)

From:

trickseybird.livejournal.com

I think that with casting poc, just like casting women as leads in different genres, it just needs to happen more, because the more they are there, the more they can have complex roles and add nuance instead of being stereotyped.

Branagh looks so right there. I like your horsemen. Crowley looks too young and attractive - though I know Cillian can be fiendish

From:

last-archangel.livejournal.com

Tom Felton is ALWAYS Pollution and I ALWAYS approve.

From:

lady-bealzabub.livejournal.com

omg i approve of this. especially your famine~

From:

sejitsu.livejournal.com

Whoa Hastur and Ligur are perfect though whoa. O_O Like, just... Perfect. *flail*

From:

rocketgirl2.livejournal.com

This is a beautiful thing and now I need Gaiman and Prachett to write a book all about Hastur and Ligur so we can have a movie of them.

From:

isiscolo.livejournal.com

Holy crap Tom Felton looks a lot better now that he's a little older.

From:

angharadd.livejournal.com

My dreamcast includes Sheppard as Crowley (for consistency's sake, and all), and Martin Freeman as Aziraphale, but your casting of the Horsepersons, Hastur, and Beelzebub is now my dream!cast as well.

From:

http://users.livejournal.com/_silverfox/

Crowley seems just a touch too young somehow - but I suppose make-up can fix that.

Since they're all supernaturals, I suppose they probably chose white corporations to wear in Europe, because those will blend in best with the natives.

From:

shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com

Not everyone looks quite like I'd picture them, but it's definitely my favourite dream!cast to date. :D (But man, seeing Mark Sheppard not playing Crowley will be weird! I blame SPN crossover fic.)

As to race... An all-white cast is definitely problematic, though slightly less so in the UK (where about 90% of people are white) than it would be in the US.

I'd still vote for Crowley being played by a non-white actor (though I have no one specifically in mind; I'm bad at casting), perhaps Indian, or Pakistani. Sure, a non-white demon ties into unfortunate medieval associations, but you can stop those by having the other demons be white and making sure the background cast isn't monochromatic-looking, especially in London. Crowley is the one of the main characters and possibly the most sympathetic one in the whole book, so that should outweigh the fear about catering to stereotypes.

Also, Anathema could be mixed-race. Her great-great-great-... grandmother may have been a native Brit, but that doesn't mean the current generation of Devices still has to be all pasty-faced. ;) And she (while of course still a comedic character) doesn't come with any of the negative cartoonishness that would make having, say, a black Famine... unfortunate. (It's darkly amusing that casting a Chinese-British actor for Pollution wouldn't be half as immediately uncomfortable, even though it's equally problematic. 'Acceptable target', anyone?)

From:

compactstars.livejournal.com

So um. My instant reaction to this list was "Jesus take the wheel..."

I don't think I'd survive this movie.

From:

irisbleufic.livejournal.com

I think I've settled on the interesting (perhaps in the Soho sense of the word; as for whether they're interested, well, who knows) combination of Gary Oldman and Rowan Atkinson as Hastur and Ligur.

The more I think about it, my choices for Aziraphale (Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh) and Crowley (Tom Hiddleston, Cillian Murphy) could be pretty well mixed up. I think I still tilt toward Branagh/Hiddleston or Firth/Hiddleston most strongly, but you could give me Branagh/Murphy and I think that'd be peachy keen :)