(Me: I saw the article and decided to add pictures to the fan-casting.)
Star Trek in 2017: Sonequa Martin-Green and Six White Men
by Culturess Staff
The current cast of Star Trek Discovery shows how little the needle has moved in 50 years. It has more white men and fewer women and minorities than even The Original Series.
I was looking through old bookmarks the other day and came across a November post where some friends and I were fan-casting the new Star Trek: Discovery. Michelle Yeoh had just been announced as a Captain. (It later turned out that she would be the captain of the Other Ship.) After a couple of names into fan-casting, we decided to ONLY cast women of color for all the roles. We had a blast doing our dream cast.
Which piqued my curiosity for the current cast, and see who’s been hired since November. Imagine my disappointment…… other than the lead, Sonequa Martin-Green, the rest of the cast on the Discovery are white men.
That makes…
- Six white men
- One woman
ONE WOMAN.
Is this really the best you can do? In 2017? That’s pathetic.
* Note: Since the time of writing, a white woman has been added to the crew, bringing the total of women up to a grand total of two.
Yes, I know that Michelle Yeoh leads a second ship whose crew includes an Indian-American actor (as a medical officer). Two more black men and a white woman heads up a Klingon ship, but they aren’t on the main ship and are recurring actors. (p.s. Has Star Trek had a black woman play a Klingon yet? Or have there only been white women as Klingons?)
It brings to mind shows like Nikita, Mr. Robot, and Jessica Jones, which were lauded for having a “diverse cast”. As it turns out, however, one Lead PoC, or one prominent PoC, is not a free pass to shunt the rest of your PoC into the supporting cast while your main cast remains white.
I ran the numbers, and there have been a total of THREE main characters played by women of color.
- Uhura.
- Torres.
- Sato.
That’s it. And there have been five casts with 44-ish main characters across five shows. Less than 7% of your main casts are WoC. (And frankly there aren’t many in the supporting casts either, just Guinan, Keiko, and Kasidy.) Hell, even if we cast the ENTIRE Discovery cast with WoC, that would only bring it up to 11 out of 51 characters.
Progressive show? You can’t even escape Hollywood.
Do better, Star Trek.
For your consideration, these were the folks that we put into our fan cast once we decided that we should cast with only WoC. (Some men of color also snuck onto this list before we decided otherwise.)
And don’t say that these folks are already headlining their own shows. Look in their supporting and recurring cast members. WoC actors exist, stretch your imagination and your network a little, for Spock’s sake. It’s 2017.
Yeah, to paraphrase Brett Gelman, it might be really difficult for the producers to look for WoC actors. But… how difficult is it? You know what’s really difficult? Not having any opportunities open to you in your chosen field. Not seeing yourself represented in the “equal”, progressive future, except in supporting or fleeting guest roles. Or being represented only as A Unicorn, destined to be the only one, a lonely existence without a cohort of people that look like you.
So yeah, maybe the white, mostly male*, producers could handle having things be kind of inconvenienced for one pivotal moment in their careers.
* Speaking of which, you might have noticed this problem if you had more men and women of color in your creative team. Like, more than zero.
Anyway, on with the list!
- Captain. Gina Torres. Shohreh Aghdashloo. Aisha Tyler. Viola Davis. Tajari Henson. Faran Tahir (Vulcan)
- First officer. Gina Torres. Priyanka Chopra
- Lt Commander. Gina Torres. Gabrielle Union.
- Science. Gina Torres. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (from WiT & Jupiter Ascending). Phillipa Soo
- Tactical. Gina Torres. Archie Panjabi (Romulan). Tamlyn Tomita. Eva Mendes. Chloe Bennet.
- Security. Gina Torres. Ming-Na Wen. Andrea Navedo (from JtV). Naya Rivera. Jada Pinkett Smith.
- Chief Engineer. Gina Torres. Keiko Agena. John Boyega. Quvenzhané Wallis. (w Zendaya as a guest engineering ensign).
- Communications. Gina Torres. Gina Rodriguez. Lynn Chen. Lyndie Greenwood. Sophie Okonedo.
- Ops. Gina Torres. Luke Youngblood. Amandla Steinberg (40 yo baby Vulcan). Yara Shahidi.
source: http://cosplay-refs.tumblr.com/post/123695657939/are-there-any-hijabi-in-star-trek-o-dyou-think
- Medical. Gina Torres. Shohreh Aghdashloo. Salma Hayek. Renee Elise Goldsberry.
- Weird Alien Bartender. Gina Torres. Issa Rae. Ivonne Coll (from JtV). Lucille Soong (from FotB). Kal Penn.
Recurring guests.
- Michelle Yeoh. other Captain.
- Nicole Beharie. recurring baddie antagonist. like Vash / Shran
- Maggie Q. bounty hunter.
- Octavia Spencer. Admiral.
- America Ferrera. Spectacularly lost Bajoran explorer who becomes part of the crew.
- Orlando Jones.
- Rosario Dawson. Alien baddie.
Who is in your Star Trek: Discovery WoC dream cast? And what would they be cast as?
I’ve got a few more:
- Claudia Kim for Chief Engineer
- Lupita Nyong’o as a Trill doctor
- Jess Pava as the hotshot pilot at Helm
- Danielle Tabor at Security
- Katie Leung as a Vulcan doctor
- Afshan Azad on Comms
