Whitewashing is one of the biggest issues in Hollywood right now. Despite several campaigns against this practice, Hollywood is once again in the spotlight after Asian and Asian-American were snubbed for a character in the upcoming Spider-Man film.
Marvel Cinematic Universe decided to cast Micahel Barbieri to play the role of Ganke Lee, the Korean-American friend of Miles Morales, who is the alter ego of Spider-Man. The move has been widely criticized, with many accusing the producers of whitewashing the character.
The upcoming movie Spider-Man: Homecoming was first dragged into controversy when the actor Tom Holland was picked to play the titular superhero, despite the fact that the Spider-Man character in the latest comic is a Black Latino teenager.
Prior to the latest controversy, Marvel was also criticized for whitewashing the cast of Doctor Strange. In the movie, Marvel cast Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, a mystical character who is of Tibetan descent in the original comics. Swinton has Scottish ancestry.
In its defense, a Marvel spokesperson told Mashable, "The Ancient One is a title that is not exclusively held by any one character, but rather a moniker passed down through time, and in this particular film the embodiment is Celtic."
The spokesperson added that Marvel regularly casts diverse talents for its projects and deviates from the common stereotype in it source material.
However, the issue did not die down after that. In fact, it got more heated up after writer C. Robert Cargill made a statement claiming that casting a real Tibetan could spark political problems.
