The worst casting of all time (and in my favorite series too)
What do you think was the single worst casting of all time?
At least for movies I’ve seen: Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek Into Darkness takes the cake. I hate when white people are cast as people of color, but it’s even more racist than that.
Khan was an established character in the Trek canon, played by the inimitable Ricardo Montalbán (who was Latino, not South Asian). Khan’s backstory, at least in The Original Series, is that he was a major player in the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s. He was a genetically enhanced human who took over most of Asia before he was defeated, put into cryogenic stasis and launched into space.
Sure, there examples on film dating back to the very first movie of blackface and yellowface that are objectively more offensive. But this movie came out in 2013, long after those tropes were outdated, and this is STAR TREK. They had Uhura on the bridge in the 1960s, when Black women on TV were only maids. They had the first interracial kiss in TV history. Can you imagine if they had cast a white man as Sulu instead of George Takei? How did we end up going backwards over 50 years in terms of casting?
White Khan is even worse than white Sulu, actually. Because Khan is genetically enhanced. You’re telling me if you do eugenics to a South Asian man, he’ll turn out as British as Benedict Cumberbatch? What kind of master race Nazi bullshit is that?
Khan should be South Asian, period. At least in Strange New Worlds they somewhat fixed that. I really liked the recent episode that retcons the Eugenics Wars, because, you know, the 1990s happened and Khan doesn’t exist.
And even when you ignore race, Benedict Cumberbatch is STILL a terrible Khan. Ricardo Montalbán is charismatic. You can see how he became a leader that took over half the world. Benedict Cumberbatch is known for playing weird, nerdy guys like Sherlock Holmes, who are geniuses that nobody really likes. He fundamentally does not match the character.
Let me know if you think of anyone worse, though!