Using a deaf character, adds a fresh perspective in a world of vast entertainment of vast stories, thus giving the screenwriter a new way of story forms and structures. Considering the vast amount of series and episodes that make up a massive amount of stories, and to be fresh, not using a cookie-cutter sheet method, but yet getting a cognitive effect on the audience. Its rather very interesting to have a deaf superhero, because, a super power gives the hero a strange advantage to fight evil, that takes him out of reality into the supernatural, and yet at the same time is deaf, having a struggle that is kin to mortal man and is symbolic of mankind's struggles. Audiences like to see their hero overcome their struggles and win in the end. Action films are predictable, we know the hero will win and will get the bad guys and defeat the big boss. The twist is that a deaf hero is unique in being a somewhat of a new character, if not so new already. Using a deaf hero character offers the screenwriter rich new groundwork from which to write a script.
If we are to examine "Remakes" and usually many remakes are doomed to failure. Why? Because of excess production, it becomes marked with a 'curse', according to Surrealist Theorist Georges Bataille. To quote, Bataille insists that an organism's growth or expansion always runs up against limits and becomes impossible. The wasting of this energy is "luxury". The form and role luxury assumes in a society are characteristic of that society. "The accursed share" refers to this excess, destined for waste. Unquote. So, if we are using the same patterns, the same scripts, the same titles, the same films, they become a wasting of energy, and thus become 'accursed' thus the title of his book, "The Accursed Share". So, the screenwriter and film-makers are challenged to make original media, in this world of vast entertainment, and thus, a a deaf character offers a way to make that "excess energy' be put to use that it doesn't become waste or impossible, and becomes a relevant work of production.
Bruce Lee, was actually a "new character" in his time, he was the first Chinese Hollywood movie star. At first, the producers actually wanted to use a previously famous white movie star to play his role in a script and film intended for Bruce Lee. Eventually Bruce got his way in and was to star in it, but the producer eventually scrapped the project. Then, the producer decided to hire Bruce Lee as the Green Hornet's sidekick, Kato. This went on for one season and was supposed to go for a second season but the producer, despite the acclaim and ratings the show got, ended it. Many Hollywood producers only think of money when they make a film. They were afraid of using Bruce Lee as a major role because he was Chinese. So, a Chinese film company, who was going bankrupt, decided to gamble on Bruce Lee and use him, and at this same time, the previous Hollywood producer had money in India but couldnt' transfer it to his Hollywood bank account, so he had to use that money in India. So he decided to have Bruce Lee make the film in India. But Bruce Lee turned it down to work for the Chinese producers, if they would give Bruce Lee control of the script and certain prodcution control- after the films were made Bruce Lee broke all box office records and made millions more than anyone could have dreamed of and went on to have his own film production company and make his own films. Enter the Dragon and Game of Death are his own he wrote and filmed and acted in.
Before Bruce Lee made any Kung Fu films, he watched the films that the company made and other films, and he felt that these pre-Bruce Lee Kung Fu films were bland with no script, just few dialogue and lots of fighting and a watery thin story. If you examine this problem, French philosopher Baudrillard, to quote, the simulacrum is essentially the copy of a copy, that is to say, the copy of something that is not itself an original, and is hence an utterly degraded form. At its limit, as in certain accounts of postmodernism, the simulacrum is used to deny the possibility of anything being the singular source or origin of either an idea or a thing.
As you can see, Bruce Lee felt the early Kung Fu films were too much simulacrum, they were copies of copies and all alike each other with very thin scripts. So he wrote his own scripts and changed the Kung Fu films and set a new standard to how they were made. He got standing ovations at the theaters with everyone standing and applauding and crowds following him everywhere. You could theorize that the early Kung Fu films were 'degraded' from having thin scripts and were just chop-socky fighting. Bruce Lee also set the standard high in choreography. The point here is that using a deaf character, will solve the film-makers problem with simulacrum when making a film. Bruce Lee was solving the simulacrum of his time with the martial arts film industry, as well as brining Kung Fu to America (the Chinese banned Kung Fu from America but Bruce Lee broke those rules, and he also broke simulacrum by creating JFK, making him the father of Mixed Martial Arts). As you have asked "Why use so many different characters' remember that Bruce Lee is that "different' character during that time. Hollywood was very reluctant and afraid to use Chinese as they fear losing money. It was a different time back then.
