An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

[u/Morr4Seiya]

Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

[u/-Release-The-Bats-]

Or when they released the first look at the cast for the new Harry Potter series: the only black person (hell, the only dark-skinned black person) in the new cast announcement was Snape, the child-abusing wizard nazi.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/-Release-The-Bats-]

It's gonna be so awful cause Harry gonna be suspicious of Snape in first season cause in the books he found Snape creepy. In the TV show its gonna come off hella racist. "ITS SNAPE TRYING TO KILL ME! HES WORKING FOR VOLDEMORT!" bro gonna accused the sole black teacher as being an agent for wizard world's HITLER.

[u/First_Foundationeer → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

You've made the show so much funnier for me that I want to watch it now.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

well, he's a known consort. also, they hang him from a tree

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

YEAH its questionable at best, cause this is gonna be the first time watching Harry Potter for some people, and Harry is gonna be suspicious of the ONLY BLACK TEACHER, claiming he's a Wizarding World equal to a Nazi. AND then if we finally get to Snape flashback, suddenly James is as bad for bullying a black student and HANGING HIM.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

of course, this makes no sense as a trope, because it's british and they didn't go around lynching black people.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

Still gonna look horrible, I mean, that's always what the bullying was meant to be awful, BUT bullying the sole black kid, OOF! even british people didn't lynch black people, seeing a black person get hanged no matter what ethnicity they are, is still bad.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

so we're back to questioning this absolutely baffling casting choice.

imagine casting dumbledore as a black guy (since we are apparently obligated). works fine, he's an authority figure and well respected. get avery brooks - done.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

simple answer is brownie points. They made Snape and Hermione black cause. "IT'S REPRESENTATION!" don't get me wrong, representation is good; give minorities a character who's their race to look up to, BUT my entire problem with this is these characters existed before and weren't that race; changing their race has 0 narrative reason and is basically hand-me-downs.

"Oh, you want an original character who is your race to look up to? All we can afford is a pre-existing character who was originally white, but we made the same race as you, just for you!" The only time I swear this worked was Miles Morales. 1 success vs. 1,000 failures isn't a good track record.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

Miles is black spiderman - JustSomeGuy refers to him as that - he isn't spiderman, he's the black version.

Herms is a mousy haired bunette white chick - she's described broadly as such. why even race swap anyone? but if you're going to do that, exercise some common sense.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

Miles is the only one who did it successfully enough that everyone can now know him as "Oh, that's Miles Morales, he's the black Spider-Man," and he has enough unique powers that people don't solely compare him to Peter and view him as his own separate person.

Rest of these attempts. feels like the creator is going. "OKAY what if we made Iron-man but hes a black girl and stole her tech from Iron-Man and actively refuses to give it back. EVEN though she shouldn't have such a weapon," and got shocked when folks didn't like Ironheart.

I find the biggest issue with these race swaps is that the creators just claim the haters are racist. Like, "NO, we aren't racist!, instead of giving the minorities their own individual role model figures. YOU took a fan-favorite character, changed their skin tone, and called it a day and GOT shocked when people didn't like it!"

I understand wanting to seprete yourselves from the movie, BUT turning Heromine black is abit odd, cause one of her subplots in the books is basically "Freeing" the house-elves, which everyone mocks and finds dumb. ONE OF THE BLACK CHARACTER SUBPLOTS IS GONNA BE THEM ATTEMPTING TO ABOLISH SLAVERY WHICH EVERYONE MOCKS. That's akin to making Hermione get a subplot where she becomes obsessed with rapping and tries to rap spells.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

Your point is undermined a bit by the fact that said teacher has an irrational grudge against Harry based solely on who his dad was.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/HonestAbe1809]

TO BE FAIR, we don't find that out till later. Like Book 3, I believe? Like, Harry doesn't realize Snape hates him for a reason until later books; he originally thinks Snape hates him because he works for Voldemort.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

Then it’s even more reasonable for Harry to be suspicious. Snape just absolutely despises Harry from the moment he lays his eyes on him. It doesn’t help that the real agent for Voldemort, Quirrell, acts like he’d profusely apologize to a fly for swatting it.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/HonestAbe1809]

Honestly, I get it, the suspicious BUT let's look at this from a new-to-the-series person, Harry, who thinks Snape is evil cause it rubbed him the wrong way, BASICALLY went all of season 1 assuming Snape is evil, only to be proven wrong.

We also see Snape not like Neville, so it could realistically be assumed Snape is just the teacher who is a dick. To a first-time viewer, they can assume. "Oh, Harry hates Snape cause Snape is a bit harsh, and assumes the man is evil cause of it."

In the first season, first impressions are key, and Harry assuming the only black teacher is EVIL is gonna make an awful impression on newcomers. CAUSE we gotta look at it through a first-time viewer's eyes, cause thats what this series is aiming for.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

It might be a transparently obvious red herring in hindsight but Harry wouldn’t know it. All he sees is a man who loathes a kid who hasn’t done anything to him for seemingly no reason.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/HonestAbe1809]

Fair, I think we gotta look at the series from 2 angles: newcomers and old fans. The entire point of the TV show is to bring new fans to the IP who aren't influenced by the old fans. As older fans, they know what's gonna happen, BUT to new fans who never watched the movies or read the books, they won't know what's coming.

I'm looking forward to this series, cause the movies had to cut alot of shit from them to fit the runtime. I HOPE the TV show actually shows that cut stuff. I will say I'm iffy about the race change; I think it's important to see the stuff before you make a judgment call. ONLY idiots judge a series off a trailer alone, cause saying you hate a TV series after 1 minute of footage is judging the book off the cover.

You follow my thinking? I will say I'm iffy about Snape being black cause the whole issue it brings, BUT if Harry can explain well, then I won't be too judgemental.

[u/HonestAbe1809 → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

And I’m saying that even with the tone deaf diversity for publicity casting the first book’s story is set up to make Harry’s suspicions regarding Snape look reasonable.

I want it to work but I don’t have HBO MAX and we already have enough streaming memberships.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/HonestAbe1809]

I agree; it's tone-deaf, but at the same time. I think there is also the issue of Snape's actor stepping into LARGE shoes; HELL, most of the cast is stepping into large shoes that they need to fill. I also think the backlash, while a bit valid, is also blinded by bias; in the eyes of movie fans, no one is replacing Alan. No one can replace Robbie.

It's just Snape and Hermione's actors taking most of the brunt because they are such different portrayals of Snape and Hermione; it's easy for fans to hate on them. I think it has potential cause as I said, movies aren't 1-to-1 with the books, and the TV show isn't 1-to-1; it's different portrayals of the source material, and older fans gotta accept the fact that this TV show isn't made solely for them; it's made as a gateway for newer fans to come see the IP.

Older Fans are the kids who grew up and handed their toys to their younger siblings; they gotta accept the younger sibling might play with the toys differently and not follow the narrative they made up. I hope this is successful, cause I always hated the cut content the books left out. The Books cut out most of the school part of Hogwarts, which left the image of the school being 75% mortal danger around every corner and 25% actual school stuff.

The amount of cut content or altered content, I feel like, leaves enough room for the adaptation to feel much different from the movies. Most of the books are mystery books; all books have at least 1 big Mystery behind them: Book 1 is who's trying to kill Harry, and what's under the hatch Fluffy is guarding. Book 2: Who's trying to open the chamber; Book 3: Why does Black wanna kill Harry? Book 4: WHO PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?! Said mysteries excel in longer formats; movies had to cut so many subplots and stuff out to fix the mystery. A TV show can slow-burn, roast these mysteries, and allow subplots to flourish. THAT's why I have faith in this adaptation. NOW, will said faith pay off? WE DUNNO yet.

[u/UncommittedBow → u/-Release-The-Bats-]

And also the one who EXPLICITLY gets lynched in the books by his childhood bully.

[u/1_Am_Andrew_Ryan → u/UncommittedBow]

Your father was a Great Wizard, Harry!

[u/Royal_Bitch_Pudding → u/-Release-The-Bats-]

Given that they're English I would have expected him to be Irish instead