Who Would Have Guessed: “Arrow” Casts a White Dude as Ra’s Al Ghul

So when it was announced that the third season of Arrow would heavily feature Ra’s Al Ghul as the villain, we sort of pre-cringed around here thinking about the casting. Although Ra’s Al Ghul is probably one of the most notable DC villains of middle eastern descent, his most memorable onscreen appearance had him played by a white dude (Liam Neeson in Batman Begins).

Sadly, rather than surprise us all with a middle eastern actor getting cast (or at the very least someone not white), Arrow will feature Australian actor Matt Nable in the role. So yeah, another white dude will play Ra’s Al Ghul.

…and continue to say his name incorrectly.

Nable you may know from Riddick (pictured above), and while he’s a perfectly fine actor, it’s just disappointing to see the show’s continued placement of white actors as characters who aren’t white in the comics (see the previous casting of white Bex Taylor-Klaus as normally Asian character “Sin”). The Arrow-verse is usually the bright spot in the DC Carnival of Sadness, but the constant white washing really needs to stop.

Via io9