'Doctor Strange' Controversy: Is Benedict Cumberbatch Marvel Superhero Movie Racist?

Days after Disney released the first trailer for this year's second Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Doctor Strange, the Internet is buzzing with controversy regarding the film's casting -- but it's not the idea of having Benedict Cumberbatch as a superhero. After the teaser showed the first look at Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, some are calling the choice to hire the Oscar winner whitewashing.

Less than a week after the first picture of Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell reignited people calling out Hollywood whitewashing, this time is Academy Award winner Swinton in the middle of this type of controversy. Why? Because, as Indie Wire points out, the actress isn't only doing a gender-bent role: she's also doing an ethnicity flip.

The website quotes a number of people on Twitter complaining about the move to have British actress Swinton in the role of an ancient wise Asian man. Perhaps if the situation with Johansson hadn't set a precedent in the same week as the Doctor Strange teaser trailer was released, things would have gotten more smoothly for the upcoming Marvel release.

In late December last year, after Swinton was announced in the role of the Ancient One, the film's producer and head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige talked about the decision to cast the Grand Budapest Hotel actress.

"Within the storyline of the comics, and our movie, 'the Ancient One' is a title that many people have had. We hit very early on, What if the Ancient One was a woman?" Feige told Entertainment Weekly at the time, months before the controversy arose. "What if the title had been passed and the current Ancient One is a woman? Oh, that's an interesting idea. [Clicks fingers.] Tilda Swinton! Whoah! And it just hit."

In the past, Swinton has played plenty of gender-bent characters, from her turn playing a man in Orlando to an angel in Constantine and even a play on her own androgyny on Davie Bowie's video "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)."

Doctor Strange will hit theaters next November 4.