You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed

Sigh. I don't know anything about him aside from general musings about him as a Cumberbatch-esque sort of figure - award-winning, feted, celebrated, attractive in a mildly quirky sort of way, and incredibly privileged (as in, same Eton class as Prince William and on to Cambridge type privileged). I don't doubt that he's smart or a good actor or that he'll be fine in the role, so my disappointment isn't really down to him. But in JKR's Pottermore writing about the Quidditch World Cup she described Rolf Scamander as "swarthy," leading to much hopeful speculation on tumblr that Rolf's swarthiness might suggest that Newt, too, was dark-skinned and that FBAWTFT might be a story in the HP verse with a leading man of color at its center. Which would've made sense and been absolutely fascinating in a story set in NYC in the 1920s. Eddie Redmayne is...well, obviously not going to fit that bill, and is sort of the epitome of not fitting that bill. In a movie that's just about bound to do well at the box office, and in a franchise that's had considerable star-making power, and with a script-writer/canon creator who already described member of this family as "swarthy" it's a bit of a bummer to see them ignore the chance to confer all the opportunities being part of this movie would bring on someone like Eddie Redmayne, instead of using it as a chance to help establish an up-and-coming non-white actor. That's got far more to do with my politics than with Eddie Redmayne who, I'm sure, will be fine. But the choice itself has me disappointed.