{"id":36646,"date":"2015-11-12T21:41:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T05:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=36646"},"modified":"2015-11-12T21:41:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T05:41:44","slug":"here-we-go-again-gods-of-egypt-and-the-diversity-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/11\/here-we-go-again-gods-of-egypt-and-the-diversity-debate.html","title":{"rendered":"Here we go again: Gods of Egypt<\/i> and the “diversity” debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"godsofegypt\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been a little over two years since I first mentioned<\/a> the ancient-mythological epic Gods of Egypt<\/a><\/i> here at this blog, and now \u2014 with the film\u2019s release only three and a half months away \u2014 we finally<\/i> have some official images from the film.<\/p>\n

The studio released six character posters through six different websites today. And, predictably, many people are complaining about the ethnic composition of the movie\u2019s cast, the same way they did about Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/a><\/i> last year.<\/p>\n

Case in point: the headline on a Washington Post<\/i> article<\/a> by Soraya Nadia McDonald complains that \u201cno lessons [were] learned\u201d from the Exodus<\/i> controversy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Gods of Egypt<\/i> started shooting<\/a> in March 2014 \u2014 four months before the Exodus<\/i> controversy flared up<\/a>, and nine months before the film itself came out. What\u2019s more, I think the studio behind Gods of Egypt<\/i> was trying to head off a similar controversy by releasing posters that feature actors from a range of ethnic backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, yes, three of the posters feature white actors: Gerard Butler as the bad god Set (via Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/i>), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as the good god Horus (via Yahoo! Movies<\/a>) and Brenton Thwaites as a thief named Bek (via Twitter<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"godsofegypt-gerardbutler\"<\/a> \"godsofegypt-nikolajcosterwaldau\"<\/a> \"godsofegypt-brentonthwaites\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But two of the posters also feature actresses of part-Asian descent: Elodie Yung, who is half-Cambodian<\/a>, as the goddess Hathor (via Hitfix<\/a>) and Courtney Eaton, who is part-Chinese<\/a>, as the mortal woman Zaya (via Teen.com<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"godsofegypt-elodieyung\"<\/a> \"godsofegypt-courtneyeaton\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And one features African-American Chadwick Boseman as the god Thoth (via IMDb<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"godsofegypt-chadwickboseman\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a marked improvement on Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/i>, which featured a number of Middle Eastern actors in the supporting roles but only white actors in the major roles (with the possible exception of Ben Kingsley, who is half-Indian).<\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t stopping some<\/i> people from complaining about this new film.<\/p>\n

And so it looks like we\u2019re in for another several months of hand-wringing over the \u201cwhitewashing\u201d of ancient Egypt \u2014 hand-wringing that will overlook the diversity that does<\/i> exist within this film, just as it overlooked the diversity within Exodus<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ad campaign for Gods of Egypt<\/i> features a more diverse cast than the ad campaign for Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/i>, but many critics don’t see it that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2006,1839,2007,2210,2005,743,1782,1444,3179,3180],"class_list":["post-36646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-brenton-thwaites","tag-chadwick-boseman","tag-courtney-eaton","tag-egypt","tag-elodie-yung","tag-exodus-2015","tag-gerard-butler","tag-gods-of-egypt","tag-nikolaj-coster-waldau","tag-soraya-nadia-mcdonald"],"yoast_head":"\nHere we go again: Gods of Egypt and the "diversity" debate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ad campaign for Gods of Egypt features a more diverse cast than the ad campaign for Exodus: Gods and Kings, but many critics don't see it that way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/11\/here-we-go-again-gods-of-egypt-and-the-diversity-debate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here we go again: Gods of Egypt and the "diversity" debate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ad campaign for Gods of Egypt features a more diverse cast than the ad campaign for Exodus: Gods and Kings, but many critics don't see it that way.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/11\/here-we-go-again-gods-of-egypt-and-the-diversity-debate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-13T05:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2015\/11\/godsofegypt.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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