Wait, who's whitewashed in New Mutants?
Roberto âBobbyâ da Costa AKA Sunspot is a biracial, white/Black Brazilian man. (The fact that he is Black is actually a crucial part of his origin story too, considering he discovered his powers because racist assholes physically and verbally assaulted him in the middle of a soccer game.)
This is Bobby in the comics, vs his actor, Henry Zaga:
They got the Brazilian thing right, but gee⌠something seems to be missing. I wonder what it is.
Cecilia Reyes is a Black Puerto Rican woman. She was originally going to be played by Rosario Dawson, (while not perfect, definitely better than who they ended up with) who backed out of the role for reasons unknown. (She probably saw what shit it is.)
This is Cecilia in the comics, vs her actress, Alice Braga:
Well, isnât that weird. But what an innocent mistake, am I right?
Dani Moonstar AKA Mirage is a Cheyenne woman. A Cheyenne woman with dark skin, and who you could never call whitepassing. (Dani has also been one of Marvelâs punching bags for a while now, and I am still eagerly waiting for them to give her her powers back and let her rejoin the X-Men where she belongs instead of fucking around in Asgard.)
This is Dani in the comics, vs her actress, Blu Hunt:
Huh, interesting. Iâm sure casting a whitepassing native girl is totally coincidentally matched with the other whitewashing, yeah?
âBut Blu Hunt is a First Nations woman, shouldnât you, a First Nations woman, be happy they didnât cast a white woman to play Dani?â Well, yes and no. Yes, Iâm not as angry as I would be if they casted a white actress, as Hollywood ever so frequently does. But we are not required to be happy for Hollywood doing the absolute bare minimum when they should be aiming for accuracy. You know what the optimal casting would be? A dark skinned Cheyenne woman. Like Dani. But I would have been pleased with at least a dark skinned native girl period. And when you pair this casting with the casting of the two other characters of colour, itâs really fucking interesting how supposedly out of their international search for actresses, they could only find a whitepassing girl as suitable to play this very much not whitepassing character.Like, if someone came up to me and said âHey, do you want to play Dani, we know sheâs one of your favourite characters!â I would say no. Because while I am half Miâkmaw, I am whitepassing, and Dani is not.
Xiâan âShanâ Coy Manh AKA Karma is a Vietnamese lesbian, who eventually is also an amputee. Shan was the first leader of the New MutantsâŚ
And yet she is not even in this movie. They just. Cut her out. She is the leader of the very team they are making the movie about and they erased her entirely from it.
âAn Asian lesbian you say? Oh no. We canât have that in our movie.âÂ
Now, all of these characters have faced whitewashing in the comics from time to time, as well. Comicbook whitewashing is a thing. But that doesnât mean the movies should follow suit. Iâve seen people post pictures of whitewashed art of these characters and say âlook, itâs great casting!â You are comparing whitewashing to whitewashing and need to shut the fuck up.
So, this is my biggest problem with the New Mutants movie, if you can even call it that.
âŚMy second biggest problem is that itâs fairly fucking obvious what the plot of the movie is, based on the trailer and comic knowledge, and Iâm gonna go ahead and skip a story about the kidnapping and torture of an Indigenous child with the ability to create illusions out of peopleâs fears and thus turns the place into a haunted house and by extension is the villain of the movie by what will surely be a Shocking⢠plot twist.
