After the producers of
The Last Airbender announced their decision to cast white actors
Noah Ringer,
Nicola Peltz and
Jackson Rathbone as the lead roles, the artists who had worked on the
animated series it was based on created an anonymous
LiveJournal website and started a letter-writing campaign. The film
Exodus: Gods and Kings received significant backlash on social media before its release due to white actors
Christian Bale,
Joel Edgerton and others being cast to play the roles of Egyptians. In contrast, black actors were only given the roles of slaves and thieves. Director
Ridley Scott argued that they cast actors of other ethnicities as well (Iranians, Spaniards, Arabs, etc.) because Egyptians have varied ethnicities, and that the audience should not focus on only the white actors. When
Scarlett Johansson was cast in the lead role of
Motoko Kusanagi in
Ghost in the Shell, a live-action adaptation of the
Japanese manga, there was fan backlash over the casting as, since the story is located within Japan, it was assumed that the actress to portray the character was meant to be of Japanese descent. Numerous fans signed petitions for a recast. Johansson addressed the issue in an interview with
Marie Claire, stating that she never would have accepted the role if it meant taking it from an Asian actor. Johansson explained how she accepted the part because the main protagonist was female and "having a franchise with a female protagonist driving it is such a rare opportunity." Activists groups, such as the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) accused Johansson of lying that she would never portray or attempt to play someone of a different race. Their complaints stemmed from the idea that they believed Hollywood was not allowing Asians to portray Asian characters, and instead, was hiring white actors to take roles that could easily have been portrayed by an Asian actor and actress. Asian actors such as
Constance Wu and
Ming-Na Wen called for a boycott of the film because they thought it was unfair that the role did not go to an Asian woman. In contrast to the controversy,
Mamoru Oshii, director of the
1995 anime film, defended Johansson's casting and even cited the casting being in line with the themes, story, and source material of the book, specifically saying "The Major is a cyborg and her physical form is an entirely assumed one. The name 'Motoko Kusanagi' and her current body are not her original name and body, so there is no basis for saying that an Asian actress must portray her...I believe having Scarlett play Motoko was the best possible casting for this movie. I can only sense a political motive from the people opposing it, and I believe artistic expression must be free from politics." Conversely, when
Harry Potter received an addition to its installment with the stage play
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it was announced that the character
Hermione Granger would be played by
Noma Dumezweni, an African actress residing in England. Fans were displeased with this and called it "blackwashing", citing the books' prior mention of Hermione's skin tone, but
J. K. Rowling, the author of the original book series, stated that white skin was never specified in the making of Hermione and that "Hermione can be a black woman with my absolute blessing and enthusiasm."In 2025, for the upcoming
TV series adaptation of the novels, the casting of
Paapa Essiedu as
Severus Snape, has led to a controversy and significant debate about racebending, with fans noting the description of the character being understood as white and having "sallow skin", leading to the actor, as of March 2026 receiving death threats.Rowling said on the matter "I don’t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did."Harry Potter actor,
Jason Isaacs, who played
Lucius Malfoy, called out the fans who were displeased by Essiedu's casting, citing racism, and that performance matters more than appearance. Another example of racebending occurred when
Jodie Turner-Smith, who is a black woman, was cast to play
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of
Henry VIII and a white woman.
Netflix's docuseries "Queen Cleopatra" provoked controversy after casting black actress
Adele James as the titular character and portraying
Egypt's Ptolemaic Dynasty, a
Macedonian family, as black Africans. Netflix has similarly cast black actor
Denzel Washington (aged 68) in an upcoming biopic of
Carthaginian general
Hannibal Barca, who was 26 years old at the beginning of the
Second Punic War, and likely of
Semitic Phoenician descent. ==Other uses==