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It comes down to one thing, as it always does in these race swapping arguments: good faith.
You can easily argue that race swapped characters can be fun and entertaining in plenty of movies and in many cases, the casting can appear to be meritocratic - the best actor gets the role, regardless of race.
I don't think any of the people who complain about race swapping in 2023 think that the swapping is being done in good faith and I would have to agree because frequently these actors are actually incredibly bad and the meta-promotional material for these shows and movies is dominated by "only a racist wouldn't like this" messaging. Not to mention, that in my experience, blue tribers are frequently anti-meritocratic, or at least are willing to argue against it on equity grounds so you're left wondering "based on their declared and demonstrated values, are they making these swaps in good faith?"
The reviews I've seen of "The Witcher: Blood Origin" seem to indicate that it was indeed terrible, so I think Jodie Turner-Smith was sensible that 'oh dear such an unexpected scheduling conflict' happened.
Same with the recent Disney streaming version of "Willow", which - from the clips I saw - looked amazingly cheap. The costumes were dreadful and the sets looked plastic. Much the same as with "Rings of Power", but even that was higher quality. It honestly looked like some bad 90s fantasy show filmed in Australia with no-name/upcoming actors on the cheap (and I've seen my share of those).
That's what I can't understand - they claim to be spending huge amounts on the new shows, but when you see them, the cheapness is there on-screen. Where is the money going? Accountancy shenanigans? Luxury five star hotels to put up the seventeen producers/ assistant producers/boyfriend of the hairdresser of the assistant producer?
The craze for putting everyone in leather really does detract from historical-era dramas, to the extent that I wouldn't mind if a precious snowflake actor went "I can't wear this" and they did have to switch to period-accurate cloth costumes.
Unfortunately, they just dress them up in fake leather instead as above.
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