Mulan fans unhappy with Sony casting white director

Game of Thrones director Alex Graves will helm Sony’s forthcoming Mulan adaptation, but fans feel this is another case of “Hollywood white-washing”.

Sony were thought to be looking to employ an Asian director for the remake of the 1998 classic but opted for Graves which has not gone down well with fans on twitter:

Me thinks it is a really, really bad idea to have a white dude direct the live action film of Mulan. https://t.co/nqgxKz1HeF

— Melissa Silverstein (@melsil) October 17, 2016

thanks #Mulan for "definitely all-asian cast" but most definitely a white director and white casting director

— Justin Tam (Tzekin) (@tamtzekin) October 19, 2016

When you find out the director of Sony's Mulan movie is white pic.twitter.com/rXJESSY6XM

— X Not a real gamer X (@DaGeekyNerd) October 17, 2016

https://twitter.com/katerbland/status/788130281093992453

https://twitter.com/MissBrittHayes/status/788127564560683008

You can never be too male or too white to direct in Hollywood.

— Temp X (@Tempdiaries) October 17, 2016

According to Deadline, the movie will at least have a Chinese lead and is being aimed at the international market.

Disney are also adapting their own Mulan with no director announced yet, but Ang Lee has reportedly turned down an offer. There’s also been controversy surrounding Disney’s version as recently, fans formed a petition online to prevent the film from white-washing.

The petition, named “Tell Disney You Don’t Want A White-washed Mulan!” has over 100 thousand signatures and urges Disney to cast an appropriate actress to play the Chinese Mulan:

Sign the petition to prevent the white-washing of Disney's live action Mulan!

https://t.co/GhK4Ct4ABu pic.twitter.com/Zpz9MqNECE

— Cécilia (@luxspice) September 13, 2016

Disney’s Mulan will hit theaters in November 2017, while Sony’s is expected a bit later in 2018.