Tibet and the Ancient One

Things got a bit hairy when the Ancient One was announced to be portrayed by Tilda Swinton. And that is because, in the comics, this is a male character coming from Tibet. Obviously, everybody shouted whitewashing, even if the actress is one of the most talented to come out of Hollywood.

Marvel, obviously, defended this pretty weird choice, saying that the character’s gender has never been important to the Doctor Strange stories. And Marvel had to defend it once again, when the Ancient One was revealed to come from somewhere other than Tibet.

So this is the second major change made to a rather important character in the Doctor Strange role. According to Marvel, Tilda Swinton will portray a Celtic version of the Ancient One, because the studio embraces diversity.

Furthermore, this also a political move, since having a Tibetan character might have excluded Doctor Strange from the Chinese market. And since China is the second largest film market in the world…

Anyway, we’ll all find out pretty soon if these changes have an impact on the movie or not.