I'm not sure if Hollywood is making an effort to be PC as much as it is just casting the best actor for the job at the time. If a character is iconic, meaning everybody knows what he looks like, you put him on the screen that way. Electro doesn't have a visual image that is set in the mind of the general public. Neither is his ethnicity necessary to the nature of the character (Black Panther / Luke Cage). I understand where you are coming from, but changing Perry White, Kingpin, or Electro are fine with me for the reasons above.

On another website, commenters were upset that Denzel Washington has been cast as The Equalizer in a movie version. I certainly understood where they were coming from. People who know the old TV show know what the character looks like: white British actor Edward Woodward. Why cast Washington?

In that instant I think it came down to box office bankability. Anthony Hopkins or Gary Oldman are positively perfect for the role. But people don't go to see a "Hopkins movie" or a "Oldman movie". People do go to see a Denzel movie though in whatever he's in becuase they expects a high quality product from him. There is a certain assurance for the investors that they will get better box office.

Could they use another bankable star? Yeah, Russell Crowe would be perfect. He's the right age, he's bankable, and he's got an accent. But maybe he wasn't interested in it. Denzel Washington ended up being the bankable star who wanted to do it.

The bankability is just a guess on my part but I wouldn't be suprised if I'm right on this.

As far as casting against race concerned, sometimes it can be a good thing. I thought Michael Clarke Duncan was great as the Kingpin in Daredevil.  I was intially against Kerry Washington's casting as Alicia Masters  in the FF movie because I'm such a big FF fan. But her performance was great and her casting just underscored the central truth of the Thing's and Alicia's relationship:  appearance doesn't matter.  In the end she won me over. The FF films had other problems but Washington's performance wasn't one of them.

Lead characters that are already culteral icons are far more difficult to tamper with casting wise. But with supporting characters or lesser known villians, why not so long as they are good actors.

Agreed with axia777. Give the rights back to Marvel.

As a side note: Sam Raimi gave us a superior Spider-Man cinematic series with a dynamite supporting cast. Who else can play J. Jonah Jameson so memorably? While yes, Spider-Man 3 could've done without piano dances and Venom (and even more so the Vulturess), Raimi just gave us a great series.

Hire Raimi when Spider-Man goes to Marvel Studios.

If they are using giamatti, they're probably going with Ultimate rhino, which is a guy in a rhino suit.  

 o.k people yes P.G is not 7ft tall and also the hobits in lord of the rings are not really small, wich means they can make this work, that's the great thing bout SFX, CGI and good crew to make this work..

Thezillaman,

I imagine someday in the future technology will be there so actors will literally transform their bodies for the role they will be doing. That'll really get bizarre. I read alot of sci-fi author John Varley's short stories where he had a future where people constantly changed sex or body parts for a job or on a whim.

 One of these days maybe someone will make a Superhero movie where everything is done in CGI including the characters.  I liked what they did with The Hulk in the Avengers and expect the technology will get better and better.  Then we won't have to worry about whether Paul Giamatti is big enough or strong enough to play Rhino ...we'll only have to concern ourselves with his voice.  Plus they'll be able to put the muscles back on the Heroes / Villains bodies where they belong instead of having them molded into their rubber suits.

@ Wise I'm all on board for the Ultimate reboot at least until the Kill off Parker, then again I guess he is dead in both at the moment,