Kevin Feige regrets whitewashing the Ancient One in Doctor Strange

When Doctor Strange came out in 2016, it came under fire for casting Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, Stephen Strange’s magical mentor. In Marvel comics, the Ancient One is a Tibetan man, and plenty of folks looked askance at the Scottish Swinton being picked to play him.

Speaking to Men’s Health, it sounds like Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige sees their point. “We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge, ‘We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man’,” he explained. “But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”

So Feige and co didn’t cast an Asian man to avoid falling into a stereotype. Interestingly, director Scott Derrickson told The Daily Beast back in 2016 that his original plan was to cast an Asian woman, but thought that would play into the Dragon Lady stereotype. He tried to make the “best possible choice,” but what ended up happening was white-washing. “I was very aware of the racial issues that I was dealing with. But I didn’t really understand the level of pain that’s out there, for people who grew up with movies like I did but didn’t see their own faces up there.”

Will the Ancient One be in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?

I think this shows the sensitivity needed when trying to thread the needle on decisions like this. There’s a way to do it right, but lots of potential pitfalls along the way.

The Ancient One died in the original Doctor Strange, although she came back for a cameo in Avengers: Endgame. The sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, comes out on March 25, 2022. Odds are we won’t see Swinton back in the role again.

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h/t Digital Spy