Council of Conservative Citizens attacks Marvel for giving role of deity Heimdall to Idris Elba, star of The Wire

A US white supremacist group has called for a boycott of the Kenneth Branagh-directed superhero movie Thor on the grounds that a black actor has been cast in the role of a Norse god.

The Council of Conservative Citizens is upset that London-born Idris Elba, star of The Wire and BBC detective series Luther as well as a number of Hollywood films, is to play deity Heimdall in the Marvel Studios feature. The group, which opposes inter-racial marriage and gay rights, has set up a website, boycott-thor.com to set out its opposition to what it sees as an example of leftwing social engineering.

"It [is] well known that Marvel is a company that advocates for leftwing ideologies and causes," the site reads. "Marvel frontman Stan 'Lee' Lieber boasts of being a major financier of leftwing political candidates. Marvel has viciously attacked the Tea Party movement, conservatives and European heritage.

"Now they have taken it one further, casting a black man as a Norse deity in their new movie Thor. Marvel has now inserted social engineering into European mythology."

The site chooses to ignore its target's thespian talents, referring to "hip-hop DJ Elba" in apparent reference to the actor's career in East End nightclubs more than a decade ago. Elba himself addressed the casting issue earlier this year, pointing out that "Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his fingers". He continued: "That's OK, but the colour of my skin is wrong?"

Branagh's decision to cast non-white actors as citizens of Asgard stands in apparent opposition to a one-time policy on Peter Jackson's forthcoming Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit. A British woman of Pakistani origin complained last month that she had been turned away from a casting session for being "too brown". The offending crew member, an independent contractor, was later sacked.

Thor, starring the Anglo-Saxon-looking Chris Hemsworth in the title role, and Jewish actor Natalie Portman as his love interest is due to arrive in cinemas next May.