Complaints — almost exclusively from white men — about ‘wokeness’ or ‘forced diversity’ in mainstream culture have become exhaustingly predictable. And yet, this is the current carousel of featured movies in the iTunes Store, here in May 2022:
There are more lead roles here for Tom Holland (2), than there are for people who aren’t white men (0). There is such a long way to go. (NB. at the the same time, the cinemas are full of Tom Cruise, Benedict Cumberbatch, & Chris Pratt.)
By contrast — and because Star Wars Celebration was this week — consider the leads on the current live-action Star Wars projects: Ewan McGregor yes, but also Pedro Pascal, Temuera Morrison, Rosario Dawson, & Diego Luna. This is also work being made with truly diverse supporting casts, and created by an equally diverse team of writers, directors etc. I’ve been really happy to see Disney push the franchise in this area since taking ownership of it almost a decade ago.
2022-06-01 Update: and yet…