The response to Daniel Craig’s last Bond movie, No Time to Die, was almost universally positive, which is quite staggering considering the uproar less than two decades earlier regarding his casting as 007. He now leaves in his wake bereft fanboys, and a Golden Eye question on who is going to succeed him, which will inevitably cause quite the controversial stir just like their predecessor.

The casting process has often proved to be a source of controversy, with the latest criticism being aimed at James Franco’s casting as Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro due to him not being of Latino origin. John Leguizamo’s complaints over the casting highlighted the discrepancy between South American actors getting South American roles, and the apparent prejudice against them. Over the years, certain casting choices have received backlash, and in some cases, rightly so. Let’s take a look at some of the most divisive…

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Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl Most

     Focus FeaturesUniversal Pictures

Redmayne spoke publicly about his rendition of a trans-woman in 2015’s The Danish Girl, brandishing it a mistake, and not a line he’d cross if it were offered to him now. The Fantastic Beasts cast member took on the role of Lili Elbe, a trans-woman who had suppressed her true identity while in a heterosexual marriage. The actor and The Danish Girls creators’ mouths were left agape when a tirade of reproval deemed the casting as regressive and injurious.

Meryl Streep - The Laundromat

     Netflix

It’s somewhat rare that actors will play multiple roles in one film, but that’s exactly what Meryl Streep did in Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat. The Oscar-winning actress was the main protagonist, Ellen Martin, the journalist at the center of uncovering key information in the Panama Papers; however, the Iron Lady actress also assumed the role of an employee at a Panamanian Law Film, who so happens to be Latina. Streep underwent extreme makeup procedures and sported a bodysuit to transform her appearance. This was regarded as both distasteful and offensive, with Streep appearing as more of a caricature than a convincing, and authentic South American actor.

Jake Gyllenhaal - Prince of Persia

     Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Gyllenhaal starred in Disney’s big-budget Prince of Persia as the Asian Prince Dastan, like Eddie Redmayne, Gyllenhaal would later come out and reassess his decision-making process when taking a role that required cultural appropriation. Due to posing as a man of southwest Asian origin, Gyllenhaal and the movie’s filmmakers were accused of whitewashing, a common theme in Hollywood whereby white actors are preferred for non-white roles over their non-white counterparts.

John Wayne - The Conqueror

     RKO Radio Pictures

In Dick Powell’s 1956 movie, The Conqueror, John Wayne was cast as the Mongolian Genghis Khan. While at the time of release, the film’s reception was not one of a critical nature, it has come to pass, upon reevaluation, that a white man, known most notably for his cowboy flicks and problematic history, should not have been given the role of the Asian ruler of the Mongol Empire.

Furthermore, the film’s controversy did not end there, having filmed on an atomic bomb testing site, where over 100 of the 220-strong cast (including Wayne and Powell themselves) and crew developed forms of cancer, which many believe to be a direct result of radiation poisoning. There’s even an hour-long (NSFW) analysis of this disaster courtesy of Chapo Trap House which you can hear below, where they call this “the worst casting decision in Hollywood history.”

Jodie Whittaker - Doctor Who

     BBC

Doctor Who, the BBC’s flagship sci-fi TV program that has, in every sense, time traveled from its conception in 1963 to the present day, and like Bond has seen the actor at its helm frequently change with the times. From The Doctor and Sarah Jane to the Doctor and Rose Tyler, the TARDIS-living, time-traveling mystery man has commonly appeared with a companion, often a female sidekick.

However, as of last year, Jodie Whittaker assumed the prestigious role and became the first ever woman to take on the mystical mantle of the Time Lord. Unfortunately, despite the ever-progressive and forward-thinking society we inhabit, the mere fact Whittaker was a woman taking what has traditionally been a man’s position was enough to unsettle a misogynistic minority. However, Whittaker’s Dr. Who debut spiked a viewing figure surge and through her emphatic performance hushed her critics.

Daniel Craig - James Bond

     Sony Pictures 

As previously mentioned, it’s somewhat bizarre to think that after a record-breaking tenure as 007, the selection of Daniel Craig as the sixth James Bond was met with real skepticism. The reservations were predominantly surrounding him being a “Blonde Bond,” which didn’t sit well with the Ian Fleming traditionalists, who were of the belief his appearance should be in keeping with his predecessors, who all had darker features. Obviously, the Craig era has proven him to be one of the very best of all the Bond actors.