No, the problem with this idea is that it's not enough that these people should succeed—others, which means their perceived oppressors in this case, should fail. What they want is "characters beloved by the majority because they're like them should be non white/female/tranny/queer/whatever the fuck the Minority of the Day is and there's nothing they can do about it", but they totally disregard the fact that nobody in the world is as obsessed with 'representation' as them to the point where they find it more important than rights for actual people in those minorities.
As someone once nicely put it:
Activists want to add ramps to buildings so people in a wheelchair can access them freely. SJWs want to remove stairs so they don't offend them.
It's not so much about "improving" anything, it's more about "taking away someone's toy" to me. Especially when it's a toy that the SJW in question doesn't give a shit about. Basically, some person that is not into comics will insunate the only reason said person (and their ilk) doesn't enjoy comics is a lack of [buzzword] and as soon as [traditional character that has been around for 5 decades] is changed into [buzzword], they'll randomly pick up comics en masse - cause that missing [buzzword] is the only thing preventing them from enjoying comics.
Needless to say, these clowns ignore a) the existence of [buzzword] in other characters (otherwise they couldn't maintain their fabricated outrage) and b) they will never pick up comics, no matter how many [buzzword]s get added. Never.
It's why companies catering to these assholes instead of listening to their long time fans annoys me so much.
Isn't there a guy who wants to make an "African Game of Thrones"? I would legit be interested in watching a fantasy series that drew from African myths, no joke.
That would be fucking awesome.
I'm not that interested in Africa tbh, but I assume there's all kinds of interesting myths, legends and fairytales that would make for great and unique entertainment. Then again, in order to succeed it should aim higher than being "GoT with brown people" - unlike that Harry Potter Remake that apparently is being produced...
Plus there is the cultural gap. Most modern day folks can grasp the flow of shows like GoT which is set in a pseudo-European medieval setting most are familiar with but setting something in ancient Africa? Who can related to that? Not most Americans for sure.
How many people could even tell you where in Africa Nigeria is?
Your potential viewer pool would be pretty small
Well, people can enjoy Bollywood movies, it really just depends on your exposure. Sure, to get certain aspects of the cultural background will take some time, but it's not like you can't learn those backgrounds with time.
That being said, a small, focused viewerpool that's being satisfied can be a decent market for niche titles. It's not like some Nigerian tv-show will be expensive to license - you just need a bunch of somewhat competent voice actors et voila.
I'd love to see one of these iconic characters I don't care about at all...James Bond, the Doctor, Sherlock Holmes, whatever...recast with a black dude or whatever who is just a terrible actor, just to watch the struggle to reconcile "He's black, hooray!" with "Oh god he's terrible."
Just look at Ghostbusters and you'll see what will happen.
"This trailer looks like shit! The jokes aren't funny and the CGI looks like garbage!" -> "REEEEEE SEXISM!
REEEEEE"
