but that credit is far outweighed by the enormous vaccum created by the erasure of that character’s Asian heritage. The Ancient One in this film resides in Nepal, and is steeped in Asian culture – from cuisine, to architecture, to costuming. And yet, she is very clearly a white woman. In trying so desperately to avoid perpetuating the offensive stereotypes of the source material, the Doctor Strange filmmakers have leaned all the way in on cultural appropriation – by dropping Tilda Swinton into an entirely Asian situation and saying, “TA-DA! Female representation!”

The filmmakers are very keen for us to notice how important they think their work here is, and the dialogue in the scene depicting the arrival of Doctor Strange at The Ancient One’s pad is designed to draw your attent...

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