In a Facebook rant over the weekend, Star Trek actor George Takei said that Marvel’s explanation for casting Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One in Doctor Strange is a “red herring.”
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“This backpedaling is nearly as cringeworthy as the casting,” Takei wrote in part. “Marvel must think we’re all idiots.”
He’s referencing primarily comments that came not from the studio itself, but one of the film’s writers.
“[The Ancient One] originates from Tibet, so if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that’s bullsh*t and risk the Chinese government going, ‘Hey, you know one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We’re not going to show your movie because you decided to get political,” said screenwriter C. Robert Cargill.
“Marvel already addressed the Tibetan question by setting the action and The Ancient One in Kathmandu, Nepal in the film,” Takei wrote in response to that specific comment. “It wouldn’t have mattered to the Chinese government by that point whether the character was white or Asian, as it was already in another country. So this is a red herring, and it’s insulting that they expect us to buy their explanation. They cast Tilda because they believe white audiences want to see white faces. Audiences, too, should be aware of how dumb and out of touch the studios think we are.”
You can check out more of Takei’s comments at the link above. Doctor Strange will be in theaters this November.
