Dharamshala, 23rd May: According to the original story of the famous comic of Marvel, the Ancient One was a Tibetan monk who was a man but in the film(Dr. Strange) the Ancient one was transformed into a Celtic one who was a woman. At the time Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, director Scott Derrickson, and co-writer C. Robert Cargill all defended the decision, but many fans called it whitewashing of the character and others accused Marvel have to change the character to cater to the China Film Administration but the studio defended itself at the time by claiming it supported creative freedom.
In an interview with Men’s Health magazine, Feige admits it was unfair to cast a white actress, Tilda Swinton, but the studio worried that a realistic depiction of the character would lead to “a bad stereotype.” Swinton, too, had clarified previously that casting a non-Asian woman in the role was an effort to prevent insensitive racial stereotyping of “this kind of Fu Manchu, an ancient man sitting on top of a mountain called The Ancient One”.
That’s the same reason Feige fell back on in 2016, but it’s not the argument that screenwriter C. Robert Cargill gave at the time. Cargill said that they didn’t want to risk losing access to the Chinese market by choosing to get political and that director Scott Derrickson suggested casting a woman in the role to counteract the whitewashing. Doctor Strange made $109 million at the Chinese box office, almost one-fifth of its global earnings. Marvel later broke more than 30 records in China with Avengers: Endgame, which made over $600 million in its China run.
Pandering to China is nothing new for Marvel. The studio welcomed Chinese regulators to the set of its 2013 film Iron Man 3 to prevent something that would offend Xi Jinping’s sensibilities. It’s not fresh for Marvel’s parent company Disney either, which has repeatedly pandered to China’s regime after angering Chinese officials with the 1997 film Kundun, which was sympathetic to the Dalai Lama. The whitewashing of a Tibetan character was sufficient to circumvent any resentment that might have left Disney scrambling to re-enter the Chinese market, as it did after Kundun.
It’s worth noting that at the time of Swinton’s casting, Scott Derrickson announced that other choices for Asian actors to take on the role had been discussed but eventually scrapped as well. The filmmaker previously told Express.co.uk that he considered an older Asian woman for the role but said “It felt like it was slipping into the Dragon Lady stereotype—the domineering mysterious woman with a hidden agenda.”
A sequel, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, is in the pipeline for a release in March next year, with actor Benedict Cumberbatch returning as Doctor Strange. It is not known whether The Ancient One would make an appearance.
Image Courtesy: news.sky.com
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