Something seems amiss with Netflix’s Gundam movie.
The live-action adaptation of the beloved Japanese franchise has officially started production in Queensland, Australia (of all places), and the streaming platform has just announced the film’s main cast members. Sydney Sweeney (gasp!) and Noah Centineo will step into the roles of rival mech pilots fighting on opposite sides of a war between Earth and its former colonies. Joining them in the ensemble are Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus), Jackson White (Tell Me Lies), and Shioli Kutsuna (Deadpool & Wolverine), among others.
If you’re a longtime Gundam fan and that plotline doesn’t sound familiar to you, then you’re not alone. Netflix, along with producers Legendary Pictures and Bandai Namco Filmworks, has chosen to go with an original story, helmed by director-writer and Sweet Tooth showrunner, Jim Mickle. And, if you’re wondering why someone like Sydney Sweeney has been cast in a film based on a widely popular Asian franchise, then join the quickly growing number of people who are pushing back against Netflix’s casting choices.
Online, fans have begun accusing Netflix of whitewashing and of reframing such a beloved piece of Asian pop culture through a Western lens. Critics have already started to draw comparisons between Sweeney and Scarlett Johansson, who previously faced similar whitewashing accusations for taking on the lead role in Ghost in the Shell. Despite Johansson directly responding to the controversy (“Diversity is important in Hollywood,” she told Marie Claire), the film did poorly at the box office and continues to be a messy case of whitewashing in Western cinema.
But then again, Asian erasure on the Hollywood screen isn’t new. To highlight a few recent examples, we’ve had Nat Wolff turn into Light Turner (originally Light Yagami) in Netflix’s adaptation of Death Note, Tilda Swinton as the Tibetan sorcerer, the Ancient One, in the Doctor Strange franchise, and Justin Chatwin as Goku in Dragonball Evolution, Hollywood’s version of the Dragon Ball manga series. And, if we go a little further back in the history of Asian whitewashing, we’ll find that actors like Marlon Brando, Mickey Rooney, and Katharine Hepburn have all tried their hand at yellowface.
It’s still early days for the live-action Gundam movie, but it’s clear that the franchise’s fan base has concerns with the actors who have been cast. What’s more, this isn’t the first time that the film has faced a speed bump in its development process. Kong: Skull Island director (and Gundam superfan) Jordan Vogt-Roberts was initially attached to direct, before Mickle was asked to take on directing instead. Netflix was also no longer involved as a distributor for the film, but this was only temporary.
