Apparently, as some say, Marvel is into whitewashing. Quite a few people said that when there was no African-American superhero - and they are saying it still, especially since the first Doctor Strange trailer dropped.
You guessed it - some fans are overreacting (we believe) when seeing Tilda Swinton portraying The Ancient One, who is an old Asian dude in the comics. And those fans might have a point, since this kind of a change was met with even more ruckus when Michael B. Jordan was cast as the Human Torch in Fant4astic.
Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch (Wired)
However, from this to saying that Marvel is whitewashing is a stretch. As a counterargument, we could take a peek into the future and see the actors who have already been announced for Spider-Man: Homecoming - out of six officially announced actors, three are minorities, while one is of Italian ancestry. So is that really whitewashing?
Tilda Swinton also approached this issue, after Kevin Feige said that neither the gender nor the race of the Ancient One counts in the economy of the film. According to the actress, the fans should trust Marvel, because the reasons behind her casting will be revealed when the movie is released. And there is no reason to not trust the studio, which has so far made only top-notch choices as far as actors are concerned (of course, we are not talking about villains"¦)
Sure enough - we might have been caught a bit off-guard when seeing her in the Doctor Strange trailer. But that was mainly because she was bald and not because she was a, well, she.
Anyway, here is what Tilda Swinton had to say:
The script that I was presented with did not feature an Asian man for me to play, so that was never a question when I was being asked to do it. It all will be revealed when you see the film, I think. There are very great reasons for us to feel very settled and confident with the decisions that were made.
So…whitewashing? (Newsrama)
