I think this misses the point, at least in my opinion, as to why this is even a conversation. Starkid has a pattern of both overt and covert racism--as far as writing and casting descsions go, especially.
Every sane person can agree that the issue here with casting a Black actor in the role as "The One Who Dies" can't be simply fixed now. Corey is already in the role, and it would be even more racist to drop him or change it over this.
The issue with Starkid is they don't think about this. At all. They don't do the work to stop this stuff before it happens. They were making poor taste Orientalist jokes in AVPM, and a white writer and mostly white production team might not be the right people to correctly commentate on the dynamic between canonical Cho Chang, AVPM Cho Chang, and Ginny's racism in that show. They wrote Taz to be a walking stereotype, they wrote a disgusting racist and sinophobic joke into HMB (a show made in 2012, this was not okay within the cultural context of the time). They have an issue of casting their few Black actors into small roles, and even sometimes, like in this case, roles that fall into common stereotypes and tropes Black characters and actors get boxed into.
They colour blind cast, but that can only go so far as an excuse. A character and the tropes it plays into will always look different dependent on the actor that is cast. It isn't up to the audience, or even cast members like Corey, to find the solution in that. The casting and writing falls on, often times the Lang brothers (and others), it is their job to be sensitive and careful in this. You can adapt a script, you can cast the show a different way.
We do not have the full picture yet, that is true. However, Starkid is one of those companies (more so than most indie companies, too) where the fans and the audience are the sole investors. They already have issues with transparency in their business and their promises to backers in pervious projects. Their social media management and updates to supporters is lacking. And the full process behind their shows is still mostly kept from us. They, of course, have no obligation to share that--but it also isn't surprising that some people would like to know these things before the supporting the show (whether that be monetarily or otherwise).
They're marketing their show here, and to a lot of people this leaves a sour taste. Black cast members with Starkid are already often given side roles, and the one show with a Black lead and another Black actor given a prominent role, it feels as if the show itself has been brushed aside at this point. We can only judge the show based on what they've shown us so far--and the show can also only be defended on what we know.
Its a complicated issue with no clear answer or solution, but I also think it would be a mistake if we brushed off this stuff. Starkid issues, especially when writing for Black characters, queer characters, female characters, and disabled characters crop up over and over. The fandom have "discourse" (I hate that word, but it's what we call it), people get up in arms and defend the Lang brothers and Starkid as a whole, most of the fandom move on, and the cycle repeats. It leaves fans who are confronted with these writing issues feeling ignored and upset. It leaves me upset, even though many of these issues have no direct effect on me. Starkid should do better, they're years into their careers and it is 2026, we should want Starkid to be striving for more. Not shielding them from any and all deeper discussion of important topics like this.
And I'm not saying you don't want to have this conversation OP, the fact you're engaging at all and appear to be on the fence tells me you do. I guess this is just more of a general comment on the fandom and the way the fandom moves when topics like this (especially racism) come up time and time again.
Everyone is racist, it's a fact of life. It's just important that we all work to unlearn our biases one step at a time. We listen, we learn, we try and understand. The Langs and Starkid are not bad people for these mistakes, they're as human as the rest of us. When we have this image of "The Racist" being a monster, of being someone evil or someone intent on doing harm, we let these instances of bias and racism slip through the cracks.
Just something to think about. To pose this conversation now as the fandom being the ones to find the solution feels foolish. The decision has been made, we have thoughts on it. Now we can only hope that Starkid can grow. But they won't grow if we don't at least talk about it.
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