I'm sure that there are more varieties of human skin tones. This batch of signature metahumans may just not be honkey-dominated like so many other human races in fiction.
Reckless, I'm not so sure. Check out the workers in the background of the second pilot pic from today. And the guy being stared down on the sample Station card. And the waiter handing Almaric a drink. If there are variations in skin tone in this universe (possible, as you say) we haven't seen them.
Both are interesting. I think, however, it seems that this is a take on the human race that hasn't been explored much. Humans are typically held up as examples of adaptability. This takes that in a different direction: a truly homogenous society. That's an angle that still leaves room for cultural differences, however.
Of course, without more of a wide galaxy view, I could be all wet.
I think that it might still be early to write off the entire human species as ethnically homogeneous in the GSF universe just yet. Though I would agree that it might be sad if this ends up not being part of a deliberate and integral part of the human history of this world.
The Sulph-Orcs, on the other hand, have green and red representation so far in the game. ;P
I'll give you that, but that same conclusion could be made from a lot of other works that have nothing but white characters in the future with little to no diversity. If it does turn out to be more homogenized, I'm cool with it. If this future has a Deltron 3030 vibe to it, I'm definitely not gonna complain.
Hmm, humans evolved originally in Africa, and then those who moved northwards slowly paled in their skin tone due to not needing as much pigment as there was less sunlight in those regions. So in the future, maybe as humans have explored further and further into space, maybe the radiation and stuff from the stars has caused their skin to generate more pigment, or maybe the lights on their ships are equivalent to sunlight (so they get all their Vitamin D and stuff ;))...in which case it would be logical that those who work/live in space all the time would have darker skin. Maybe there are planets of humans who are pale, or even darker than the spacefaring humans, because they spend more time in climates different to those found in spaceships and stuff. We don't know how orcs and stuff evolved so we can't say why they're red and green and stuff - maybe, unlike humans, there are different sub-species of orc or something...or maybe they've bred themselves into different varieties over the centuries.
All fun speculation! :D
If you have the technology for FTL travel, travel within a world or even a system is likely trivial, which will, over time, lead to relatively homogenous populations within those nodes. Especially if there aren't long-term wars between major factions within those nodes. And if interstellar travel is trivial and the species is at peace with itself, you'd expect the entire species to be relatively homogenous. It basically boils down to the timescale involved and how freely/easily you can travel. For very long timescales and very free travel, I would expect very little ethnic diversity.
Reminds me of how they describe the playable humans in the DBZ MMO that's being made. You come from an unknown time far in the future, where all humans have Saiyan blood within them.
Hey, I'm the guy who made the kickstarter comment mentioned in the OP. Spiff hit the nail on the head with my intentions: I used "black" to mean "of a dark skin color" rather than the many valid ethnic/cultural/race-as-social-construct meanings of the term. I definitely meant no disrespect or offense in doing so, and if I caused any I apologize!