Fans Are Having a Laugh As They Poke Fun At Disney’s Whitewash Casting

in Disney, Movies

(Right) Sydney Agudong to cast (Left) Nani Pelekai

Fans continue to be upset with Disney for casting actors who are either too black or too light skin for the characters they are portraying in their live-action adaptations. While not many people were happy with the casting choices for the live-action The Little Mermaid (2023) and Peter Pan and Wendy (2023) due to Ariel and Tinker Bell being played by black actresses, the latest news of Sydney Agudong being cast as Nani Pelekai in the new Lilo & Stitch has fans shouting “whitewash casting.”

Lilo & Stitch
Credit: Disney

Related: The Latest ‘Little Mermaid’ Featurette Brings Fans Back Under the Sea With Joy

Although Agudong is multiracial with Hawaiian and Filipino ancestry, fans are more concerned about the lightness of her skin tone. The announcement triggered a widespread reaction from the fans, mostly having a bit of fun by Tweeting posters featuring white actors playing real-life icons who are definitely not white.

For example, there was a whole section dedicated to Ryan Gosling. Several tweets went out under the casting announcement featuring Gosling as different famous black men. There was Obama, Martin Luther King, and even Tupac Shakur.

Whitewash casting fans upset over Lilo And Stitch casting
While some of these images aren’t new, people online are having a field day pulling them up and sharing them around, tagging Disney in many of them. Some fans went as far as to make a Rosa Park movies poster starring Chris Pratt or Jennifer Lawrence.
Whitewash casting twitter posters
Not everyone made a poser, but rather just dropped a few images with a made-up casting announcement for an upcoming film that isn’t happening. Some good ones were Michael Cera is starting as Kunta Kinte in a Roots reboot, Scarlett Johansson as Mirabel in a live-action Encanto (2021), and Ronny Chieng as Tiger Woods (presumably because they are both Asian).
Whitewash casting
Whitewash casting has been an industry taboo since the early days of cinema, so when fans make fun of the situation, they are just shaming Hollywood in general. Disney isn’t the only studio accused of such a crime, but they have had several offensives against them over the years. Fans were upset when they cast Johnny Depp as Tonto in The Long Ranger (2013) and Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One in Dr. Strange (2016). In Disney’s defense, Agudong’s ethnicity isn’t the issue as much as her skin tone is. It’s like when Keanu Reeves is cast in Asian roles because his father was a quarter Chinese.
Doctor Strange and the Ancient One in the astral plane
Credit: Marvel Studios

Disney isn’t known for going back on their casting choices; they didn’t fire Halle Bailey after the internet blew up about it. So no matter how much fans shout and moan, there may be no going back on the announcement. However, Disney hasn’t confirmed any casting for the Lilo & Stitch live-action remake, but with the roster getting pretty full, we may be getting the official news soon.

Which made-up casting announcement was your favorite? Let us know in the comments. 

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