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Over the past few years, Hollywood has put out a record number of remakes and sequels of some of their most popular stories. From simple retellings like ABC’s “The Wonder Years” to “Top Gun: Maverick,” a sequel 36-years in the making, it seems that Hollywood’s current era is all about recycling.

Hollywood’s lack of new stories is widely debated — some call it a lack of creativity. Regardless of one’s opinion on the idea as a whole, one of the biggest discussions around remakes has been centered around race-swapping, which is the changing of a character’s original race or ethnicity. While this isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s certainly been more prevalent in the media over the past few years.

As a person of color, it was rare to see someone that looked like me on screen growing up. And when I did, they were often tokenized as the funny Black best friend or cast as a criminal, so seeing someone like myself as a Disney princess for the first time in “Princess and the Frog” was exciting. But as remakes are released, I’ve been thinking about how this representation would feel more sincere with original stories and characters of color.

Earlier this year, the live action remake of “The Little Mermaid” starred Black actress Halle Bailey as the titular character despite the original character being white. The streaming service Max’s “Velma”, a spin off of the original “Scooby Doo” characters, changed the race of several of the characters. Similarly, Disney revealed their plans for a live action film adaptation of the 1937 “Snow White” with Colombian actress Rachel Zegler, which is coming out late next year.

Examples like these have sparked conversation on social media. Some argue changing a character’s original race takes away from the story and the character’s development. Others believe race should be irrelevant and including more characters of color is a great step toward better representation in the media. But there’s also those who see race swapping as an act of performative activism by Hollywood that comes across as disingenuous.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that people of color have been slighted in the media representation for decades. Over 90 percent of people in the entertainment industry are white, resulting in both a lack of representation and misinformation fueled by racist stereotypes. With this, it’s easy to see why many people are open to race swapping famous characters.

Kandice Green, an S.I. Newhouse School of Communications Ph.D candidate, believes that a lack of diversity or lack of new stories with original characters doesn’t always come from a place of malice or an objective to leave out original characters of color.

“I think you can have good intentions mixed with good casting choices or great writing but it can still come as if they’re just trying to meet a diversity quota,” Green said.

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But in terms of pushing for more original characters of color, she believes diversity starts at the very beginning, in the executives and writers room. “The writer’s room is the basis. We must get diverse people behind the scenes in order to greenlight these projects and tell the stories with rich, multidimensional characters,” Green said.

Kennedy Smith, a Newhouse television, radio and film junior, plans to go into screenwriting. She hopes that as she starts her own career, she can write positive stories that allow people from all backgrounds to feel represented.

Smith, referencing the casting for the new Percy Jackson series, said, “When you have an original story that is beloved by man but is not really diverse, I can see the incentive to change the race of certain characters. It allows people to feel represented through their favorite characters and stories in a way they weren’t able to before.”

The character of Annabeth was white in the previous films and book series, but is now being played by Black actress Leah Jefferries, whose casting has been heavily debated online.

“Many people are upset for the wrong reasons,” Smith said. “We should focus on telling never seen before stories with diverse characters whether it’s race, sexual orientation, or gender, and people should be advocating for that instead.”

While diversity in Hollywood has evolved immensely in recent years, there’s still room for improvement. If we keep pushing out remakes in which the main character’s race has been swapped but everything else stays the same, how can Hollywood evolve and tell stories that actually represent people of color?

At every step of the production process, from the writers room to the actors on the screen, people of color need to be involved. Movie studios must tell authentic stories, rather than pushing stereotypes or filling a diversity quota, which is often what race swapping can seem like.

Students and those looking to go into filmmaking at every step of production should think about how they can create original stories that feel representative of all backgrounds. Those looking to be storytellers should ensure they’re including diverse voices from the other writers and producers they collaborate with to the actors they choose to portray these stories.

Kaitlyn Paige is a junior studying Public Relations. Her column appears bi-weekly, and she can be reached at kipaige@syr.edu.

Published on October 19, 2023 at 1:08 am