After numerous delays, THE NEW MUTANTS has finally arrived, and judging by the reviews, it doesn’t seem as though the film is the diamond in the rough that many were hoping it would be. One person who doesn’t exactly love the film is Bob McLeod, the artist who co-created The New Mutants along with Chris Claremont.
McLeod took to Twitter to express his disappointment in the film, which stems from the white-washing of characters and the misspelling of his own name in the credits.
I was very excited when I heard they were making a New Mutants movie. I thought making it into a horror movie was perhaps an interesting idea, but not at all how the characters should be introduced to the public at large. But, hey, my characters in a movie!
— Bob McLeod (@mcleodbob) August 28, 2020
I never would have thought that would actually happen. But then, I was disappointed when they didn’t give Dani braids, although I like Blu Hunt. I was disappointed when Rahne wasn’t a redhead with spiky hair, although I adore Maisie Williams.
— Bob McLeod (@mcleodbob) August 28, 2020
I was disappointed that Sam isn’t tall and gawky, although I do like Charlie Heaton. But mainly I was very disappointed that Roberto isn’t short and dark-skinned. Yet another example of Hollywood white-washing. There’s just no excuse.
— Bob McLeod (@mcleodbob) August 28, 2020
So basically, #JoshBoone erased everything I contributed to the way the characters look. And now, the movie has come out at last, and apparently they’ve credited someone named Bob Macleod as co-creator.
— Bob McLeod (@mcleodbob) August 28, 2020
They couldn’t even be bothered to check the spelling of my name sometime in the last three years. And that can’t be fixed. That will be on the movie forever. I think I’m done with this movie.
— Bob McLeod (@mcleodbob) August 28, 2020
Although Henry Zaga (who plays Roberto da Costa) is a Brazilian actor, the character was created with a darker complexion, with the anti-Black racism he experienced in Brazil playing directly into his origin. While speaking with io9, director Josh Boone acknowledged the criticism but stood by his casting choices. “My goal was to find the best actor who, because they’ve done so little work, was at least the closest to kind of what I saw in my head for the character,” Boone said. “There was nobody who hold a candle to Henry. It’s like maybe if Henry didn’t exist, I would have found somebody who was darker skinned who exemplified what I needed. But it was never about the color of their skin for me. I didn’t care so much about the racism I’ve heard about in Brazil, about light-skinned versus dark-skinned. To me, it was I wanted to represent Brazil in a positive way and I wanted to find somebody who seems like he could look like a guy who’s had the silver spoon in his mouth, who has like a really rich dad and [Henry] just exemplified all these things.“
THE NEW MUTANTS is now playing in select theaters, so be sure to check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray!
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