Every other month, Hollywood drops a new casting announcement that sets the internet on fire. The latest cases? HBO’s casting of a Black actor as Severus Snape in their new Harry Potter series and the casting of a White actor as Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s movie adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Both decisions have stirred up quite the conversation, and they should!
This is absolutely not a rant against diversity. As an Asian American woman, I want nothing more than to see characters who look like me (and other diverse characters who don’t) receive the spotlight that they deserve on the big screen. My issue isn’t with diversity itself, it’s with lazy, inconsistent attempts at achieving it. Also worth clarifying is that when I say “diversity,” I’m not only talking about race. I’m also referring to gender, sexuality, class, and ability. There are so many cultures, communities, and identities that deserve representation in our media.
The important thing is that representation needs to be approached with thought and respect. It needs to be meaningful. And, of course, it needs to make sense! When media diversity is driven by optics instead of narrative integrity, the result is a hollow excuse for real progress that’s only met with confusion, backlash, and missed opportunities.
Tokenism vs. Representation
Hollywood’s main problem is its conflation of tokenism with representation. So, what’s the difference? Representation is when an underrepresented character’s identity is properly portrayed in a way that adds substance to their story while also reflecting diversity as it appears in the real world.
Tokenism is surface level. It’s a quick casting decision done to appear inclusive instead of doing the hard work of writing or contextualizing said inclusion. Tokenism is often a product of commercial opportunity — sometimes for guilt, but never for depth. Token characters lack nuance, personality, and overall complexity because their only purpose is to check a box. Often, they’re reduced to clichés and become representative of their entire minority group.
Interestingly, recent Hollywood diversity reports have indicated that despite the industry’s lack of progress overall, there has been a notable influx of Asian representation onscreen. Most other underrepresented groups, however, have yet to see any significant change.
HBO’s Severus Snape
For HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series, Black actor Paapa Essiedu is in talks to play Severus Snape. The same Severus Snape who grew up in poverty and was neglected as a child, who was bullied at Hogwarts by rich, privileged students like James Potter. Now imagine casting a Black actor for that role without altering the script or context. Suddenly, it’s no longer just about class or social status. It’s now about a dominant class of popular, wealthy White kids who tormented a Black youth throughout his entire childhood, causing him to turn into a miserable, vengeful adult and bitter professor who picks on his young students. Yikes.
This introduces the weight of systemic racism to a wizarding world that doesn’t acknowledge race at all, let alone deal with what that shift implies. Although the dynamic between “pure blood” witches and wizards versus those with non-magical or mixed heritage like “half-bloods” can already be interpreted as a race proxy that is prominent throughout the story, it’s still not the same as if the story dealt with racial tension.
Another major concern raised with this casting choice is the backlash it invites against the showrunners as well as Essiedu himself. He’s a great actor whose work on TV series like I May Destroy You or The Lazurus Project proves without a doubt that he has the range and presence needed to take on a role as complex as Snape. Now, inevitably, he’ll be the unfortunate brunt of misplaced, racist comments from dissatisfied audiences.
Emerald Fennell’s Heathcliff
Now, let’s talk about another shortcoming of mishandled diversity in media: erasure. Emerald Fennell has recently announced her adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. I was honestly really excited about this until I found out that Hollywood’s opposition to appropriate casting choices had struck yet again. This time, a character of color has been cast as a white man.
Jacob Elordi has been cast as Heathcliff. Though his specific race is kept ambiguous, he is explicitly described in the book as “dark-skinned.” Heathcliff’s place in the story has everything to do with how other characters perceive him racially.
In the novel, Brontë makes a very clear distinction between him and the Earnshaws and Lintons, who exclude Heathcliff based on his foreign appearance and mysterious heritage. It is this marginalization that drives his infamous obsession, rage, and revenge. Stripping him of this identity erases this entire aspect of the story, disregarding one of the most famous classic literary figures of color.
Less Performativity, More Authenticity
What Hollywood needs are fresh stories about diverse characters that lead from scene one. Too often, marginalized groups are only seen as “important” when they are attached to pre-existing, typically white stories. Diverse representation shouldn’t need to be filtered through white, straight male creators or their universes. Why cause unnecessary controversy by forcing a new identity onto a canonically white character instead of making something original? There are countless opportunities to tell fresh stories using media from communities of different cultures, sexualities, and races just waiting to be told.
Despite my long list of grievances, the future of representation in media isn’t all bleak. There are many successful examples of inclusion done right. Like Abbott Elementary, a TV series about underfunded public schools and the Black teachers who hold them together, written by and starring African American actress, comedian, and producer Quinta Brunson.
Another great example is Heartstopper, another TV series, a soft, wholesome queer teen romance written by LGBTQ+ author Alice Oseman. These projects are proof that with the right people behind the scenes — creators with personal connections to the culture, language, humor, and struggles being represented — the emotional resonance is undeniable.
So, yes, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done onscreen. But just as important is the work that needs to be done off-screen, in the writer’s room, behind the camera, and in the director’s chair. Casting diverse actors in pre-written roles is not enough; we need to support stories that are created by the communities being represented. Give me a TV series with an LGBTQ+ cast written by queer filmmakers. Or a movie based on African, Polynesian, or South Asian folklore and myth, co-created by POC historians, writers, and artists.
The people who carry such stories also carry the passion necessary to share them conscientiously. This is what Hollywood needs to prioritize: the financial, promotional, and productional support of diverse creatives and the colorful stories that they deserve to tell.
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