Will Delenn be Transgender in the B5 Reboot?

[CharlesPhipps]

I oddly believe no because JJM would be SERIOUSLY pissing off a bunch of transgender people with that. Because transgender people are not people who CHOOSE to be their sex, they are mentally that sex and this has turned them against a lot of authors who THOUGHT they were being progressive like Lois Bujold.

[Winter]

I oddly believe no because JJM would be SERIOUSLY pissing off a bunch of transgender people with that. Because transgender people are not people who CHOOSE to be their sex, they are mentally that sex and this has turned them against a lot of authors who THOUGHT they were being progressive like Lois Bujold.

Two things, one JMS has written Transgenders before and has done a fine job of it which leads me to two, I'm trans and I've been impressed with his handling of the subject so far. Would it be 100%, don't know but I think JMS would do it justice and, at the very least, he would ask writers who are trans to make sure he's not being an ass.

Only time will tell, until then I would like to see it be done mainly because I thought the idea of the original was interesting. If it's not done, no big loss or hard feelings because as long as Delenn is well written it will be fine.

[CharlesPhipps]

Two things, one JMS has written Transgenders before and has done a fine job of it which leads me to two, I'm trans and I've been impressed with his handling of the subject so far. Would it be 100%, don't know but I think JMS would do it justice and, at the very least, he would ask writers who are trans to make sure he's not being an ass.

Only time will tell, until then I would like to see it be done mainly because I thought the idea of the original was interesting. If it's not done, no big loss or hard feelings because as long as Delenn is well written it will be fine.

Which is why I don't think Male Delenn becoming Female Delenn because destiny is what they'll do.

[McAvoy]

Mining actors from CW shows wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.

So, assuming that the show goes for actors they can get a hold of from their own studio who would they cast as everyone else? I don't know that many CW shows and most of the ones I do know are from the Arrowverse so I'm sadly drawing a blank here. I think out of the entire cast Garibaldi will be the hardest as Jerry Doyle was such a perfect fit for the role I can't really see anyone else playing him.

If I was casting this I think the best option would be Oscar Isaac as the man is seriously talented. For Sheridan, I would personally want to cast Idris Elba though I would cast Elba in ANYTHING I could get my hands on. Ivanova, odd as this may sound I think Janet Varney would be right for the role cause Ivanova has to hit the right balance of short tempered and calm and Varney has shown she is good at that. Talia Winters and or Lyta Alexander my personal pick would be Seychelle Gabriel as either one though I think she would be better suited for Talia (admittedly part of this is me wanting more Varney and Gabriel working together but the two would be good fit for the roles).

Think one thing that could be improved upon in a reboot is the villains, while characters like Londo were interesting and compelling characters none of the actual villains like Mr. Morden stood out to me so it would be nice to have more engaging antagonists instead of more mustache twirling villains or characters we hardly ever see.

I haven't really thought about it. One big thing would be at least one bih name or a well known name to attract people who never watched the old show before. Not required, but couldn't hurt.

The whole cast aside from Susan who is a Russian Jew is pretty interchangeable as far as race or ethnicity is concerned.

That's assuming we get a real reimagining of the original. Same characters different younger actors.

[Winter]

Two things, one JMS has written Transgenders before and has done a fine job of it which leads me to two, I'm trans and I've been impressed with his handling of the subject so far. Would it be 100%, don't know but I think JMS would do it justice and, at the very least, he would ask writers who are trans to make sure he's not being an ass.

Only time will tell, until then I would like to see it be done mainly because I thought the idea of the original was interesting. If it's not done, no big loss or hard feelings because as long as Delenn is well written it will be fine.

Which is why I don't think Male Delenn becoming Female Delenn because destiny is what they'll do.

On that we can agree, which then begs the question how would/will it be done? JMS has worked with trans before in Sense8, it was even his idea to make Nomi trans and he wrote many of her scenes with the Wachowski Sisters (I think Lily Wachowski even stated how impressed she was by JMS' handling of the issue). One thing to note is if Delenn is made trans in the reboot and if Maines is the one who plays her, well, Maines characters ALL deal with being trans it's a major part of all the characters she's played and I doubt that JMS would just ignore that especially since, again, he's covered the idea before.

[CharlesPhipps]

Get Nicole Maines to play Ivanova.



She's off a CW show after all. It's this or play a vampire in something.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I would prefer it if that applied to their whole race tbh. As in, ''every Minbari can voluntarily or involuntarily change sex Iain Banks Culture style''. I feel as if there are more story opportunities that way. Single transpeople are a dime-a-dozen in sci-fi now, but a whole race of people not confined by sexual or gender binaries is rarer. I realise that I have historically not been the greatest advocate of such things on here, but I am an advocate of good stories. And if done well that could be one. Especially if they make the humans a creeping fascist dystopia again - sounds like good fuel for conflict.

As i was saying in the other thread, this reboot will work best if they don't blindly follow what the previous show did. BSG Classic vs BSG Reboot.

My concern here is Delenn originally looked a bit androgynous. Not terrible sure. But some of the later minbari were obviously male and done by some great actors. I am not sure they could tone down some of them to a universally neutral effect. So would they cast people they could get to seem gender neutral? How many of them can act well?

You'd be surprised. There's a lot of really good trans actors who are starving for work, and so much of gender is down to presentation. I've seen one cosplayer demonstrate a change from cute girl to dreamy boy with a change of facial expression and pose, nothing more.

[McAvoy]

I would prefer it if that applied to their whole race tbh. As in, ''every Minbari can voluntarily or involuntarily change sex Iain Banks Culture style''. I feel as if there are more story opportunities that way. Single transpeople are a dime-a-dozen in sci-fi now, but a whole race of people not confined by sexual or gender binaries is rarer. I realise that I have historically not been the greatest advocate of such things on here, but I am an advocate of good stories. And if done well that could be one. Especially if they make the humans a creeping fascist dystopia again - sounds like good fuel for conflict.

As i was saying in the other thread, this reboot will work best if they don't blindly follow what the previous show did. BSG Classic vs BSG Reboot.

My concern here is Delenn originally looked a bit androgynous. Not terrible sure. But some of the later minbari were obviously male and done by some great actors. I am not sure they could tone down some of them to a universally neutral effect. So would they cast people they could get to seem gender neutral? How many of them can act well?

You'd be surprised. There's a lot of really good trans actors who are starving for work, and so much of gender is down to presentation. I've seen one cosplayer demonstrate a change from cute girl to dreamy boy with a change of facial expression and pose, nothing more.

I am pretty sure a cosplayer no matter how good doesn't count as an actor. There is slightly more involved in acting than making a face change into a different face.

That is just me.

[Nealithi]

You'd be surprised. There's a lot of really good trans actors who are starving for work, and so much of gender is down to presentation. I've seen one cosplayer demonstrate a change from cute girl to dreamy boy with a change of facial expression and pose, nothing more.

So there are more folk capable of pulling a Christopher Reeves? Good to know. Still cautiously optimistic.

[hammerofglass]

Even having them change from a male to female body just because they were doing the metamorphosis anyway and felt like it could be interesting if handled right. Non-binary and genderfluid people are A Thing.