“Star Trek” actor George Takei has been especially vocal about white-washing in big-budget films. “Hollywood has been casting white actors in Asian roles for decades now, and we can’t keep pretending there isn’t something deeper at work here,” he recently wrote on Facebook.
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Now William Yu, a 25-year-old digital strategist, has started #StarringJohnCho, a project imagining what big movies and blockbusters would look like if Asian-American actor John Cho had a starring role.
Keep reading to learn more about the project and see some of the posters in the series.
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William Yu, a Korean-American digital strategist in NYC, is the man behind the website #StarringJohnCho.
The series of posters envision Cho as the leading man in a series of big blockbusters ranging from "Spectre" to "The Martian."
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Yu made the site on Thursday and told Tech Insider he was inspired to start the project after seeing the lack of Asian-American actors in leading roles.
"As a Korean-American who has a passion for television and film, I've always had the underrepresentation of Asian-Americans in Hollywood in my mind," Yu says. "With the rise of television shows like Fresh Off The Boat and Master of None that bring nuance to the portrayal of Asian-Americans, I wondered why the current state of racial diversity in Hollywood remained largely unchanged."
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"When I read that films with more diverse casts result in higher box office numbers and higher returns on investments for film companies, I couldn't understand why Hollywood wouldn't cast lead actors to reflect this fact. I'm tired of hearing from people that they can't "see" an Asian-American actor playing the romantic lead or the hero, so I created #StarringJohnCho to literally show you," he adds.
Yu told the New York Times he was also inspired after the criticism of Tilda Swinton as a sorcerer in this fall's "Doctor Strange." In the original comics, the character is of Asian descent.
The actor isn't affiliated with the project. Yu says he chose Cho because of his cult following and popularity in the "Harold & Kumar" franchise. "Cho is someone who possesses the unique combination of charisma, presence, and bankable talent," he says.
Since he started #StarringJohnCho, Yu says he has received a lot of positive attention for the project.
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Some fans have even created their own movie posters starring Cho. Here's one that was made for this fall's "Doctor Strange."