Marvel really have a thing with hiring over-qualified people with their movies and TV shows. Case in point: they’re courting Hailee Steinfeld to play Kate Bishop in their upcoming Hawkeye limited series.
According to the scoop by Variety, the actress has been offered the lead role for Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ MCU show, which will also star Jeremy Renner as, well, Hawkeye.
Now the reception to Marvel nabbing Hailee Steinfeld for Hawkeye (assuming she says yes) has been very positive, as it should be because she is a fantastic actress and seeing her banter with Renner over Hawkeye-y stuff is going to be electrifying.
But the internet being what it is, there are a few people who aren’t too pleased with this news because they perceive Steinfeld’s casting as *checks notes* whitewashing.
You see, there are some folks out there who are claiming that Kate Bishop is Asian and casting a “white woman” like Hailee is whitewashing that’s akin to Scarlett Johansson as The Major in Ghost In The Shell.
Now I’m all for folks getting all up in arms when it comes to Asian representation and whitewashing in Hollywood but there are a couple of issues with this whole Hailee Steinfeld/Hawkeye thing.
Firstly, Kate Bishop isn’t depicted as Asian in the comics. In fact, her ethnicity isn’t referenced at all and the whole “Kate is Asian” thing most likely spawned from fans who assumed she is (or wish she is) due to the different art styles used over the years.
Now that’s not to say that an Asian actress couldn’t have played Kate Bishop, but Marvel clearly go for the most talented actors and it’s hard to argue against Hailee not doing a great job.
Secondly and most importantly, Hailee is actually Asian – she’s part Filipino on her mother’s side – which renders any whitewashing claim immediately moot.
So to all those people having a whinge over Marvel whitewashing Kate Bishop, please put this “argument” away because it’s got no legs to stand on. It’s perfectly fine for Hailee to play Hawkeye so there’s no need to lose all your arrows in your quiver.