After the recent release of Netflix’s remake of the popular anime Death Note, many people across the globe were angry with the lack of Asians on the screen. Death Note, a Japanese show, has mostly white actors playing the leads where Asian ones should be. The original story itself had a great deal of cultural significance and placing it in modern-day Seattle is a disgrace to Japanese culture.

Additionally, a few months back, the cast of the live action remake of Aladdin was released. Thousands of people were disappointed due to  one glaring fact: Hollywood whitewashed yet another Asian centered movie.

As an Asian teenager in this era, I looked up to Wendy Wu : Homecoming Warrior, and found solace in Mulan. Unfortunately, those are the only Asians I related to since the rest were portrayed as the underdogs. Many Asian men are often found in roles where they’re depicted as nerds, doctors, or assistants. On the other hand, Asian women are often always seen as fragile and quiet. Along with that, many Asian actors are forced to have an accent for a certain role, when many don’t actually, due to the fact they grew up in America for most of their life, resulting in them not getting the part.

In the 88 years of Oscar awards, only 10 Asian movies were nominated for an award. Along with this, Asians actors are only 1% of Hollywood’s lead roles, and only one out of twenty speaking roles go to Asians. This shows the obvious lack of Asians in the media community.

Recently however, the upcoming actor, Ed Skrein, publicly turned down an offer for the lead role in Hellboy, when he realized he was the wrong ethnicity for the part. Many say that this will be the start of a new era in Hollywood due to the extremes Skrein went to to show his beliefs.

Let’s hope it is.