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  Netflix Orders ‘Grendel’ Series Based On Dark Horse Comic With Abubakr Ali To Star From Deadline : Netflix has given an eight-episode series order to Grendel, a series based on the masked vigilante from Matt Wagner’s popular, award-winning Dark Horse comic book series, with Abubakr Ali (Power Book II: Ghost, Katy Keene) set to star in the tite role. With Ali’s casting, he becomes the first Arab Muslim male actor to portray a series lead in a comic book adaptation. The series, written and executive produced by Resident Evil and Supernatural alum Andrew Dabb, comes out of Netflix’s first look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment. Source: Deadline - This is so exciting! Congrats, Abubakr Ali! Can’t wait to see this on Netflix. Casting director, Jen Euston, said on Twitter a few hours ago : " I had no idea that when we cast the extremely talented [Abubakr Ali] that he would be the first male Arab Muslim to portray a comic book lead.  "It’s 2021 and we shouldn’t be the firs...

  [Image: thesaurus entry for the word 'untrustworthy', next to image of fictional character Rashid from Knightfall] Tired Trope: Untrustworthy Arabs Hello, I'm back to drag a trope that Hollywood and mainstream western media loves to recycle: the untrustworthy Arabic character. With western, English speaking media, there isn't a whole lot of choice when it comes to seeing diversity among characters or even the cast. If you like the action genre like I do, there's even less diversity plus the fact that the characters tend to fall into one of two roles, heroes or villains. Guess which one Arabs and MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) fall into? Usually the baddies.  But there's a baddie adjacent trope Hollywood loves also! Even in the few instances when the Arabic character is technically a good guy, they are shown as the untrustworthy Arab. The untrustworthy Arab trope frames the Arabic or MENA character(s) as baddies/villains from the white w...

 (Image description: Kevin Feige in front of the Ms Marvel logo) ~ I was just  praising Disney for inclusive content  making the new Ms Marvel show for Disney Plus... Then barely twenty-four hours later, news from the Ms Marvel camp blows up about casting issues on the show. Important note : Most people seem absolutely happy with Iman Vellani 's casting of the lead, Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel. All of the casting issues involve supporting cast/supporting characters only. Let's unpack this. There are at least four known issues  from the casting at Ms Marvel on Disney Plus. The issues are: 1) Casting an Indian woman to play a Pakistani Muslim woman. Zenobia Shroff was cast as Muneeba Khan, Kamala's mother . This casting is confirmed . (Image descriptions: actress Zenobia Shroff, and comic panel of character Muneeba Khan) My reaction: Well, I can't find any helpful information that even tells us if Shroff is Muslim or not, so that's my first question and I h...