7 Times Hollywood Whitewashed (And Straightwashed) Comic Book Characters

5. Ra's Al Ghul: Whitewashed

Since his introduction to the comics medium in the seventies, the Head of the Demon himself, Ra's Al Ghul, has always been depicted as being of Middle Eastern heritage. He's one of Batman's greatest enemies, and that's been a constant for the four or so decades he's been on the comics scene. As for that other, live action scene, however, well... it's been rather white, hasn't it?

Liam Neeson took on the part in Batman Begins, and Australian Matt Nable was cast in the role in... whatever Arrow is. Those two aside, the character has also been mainly voiced by white voice actors in both the gaming and animated mediums, with only the Israeli actor Oded Fehr having been appropriately chosen for the part in the short-lived (though soon to be revived) Young Justice.

Given the character's popularity, he's bound to get a live action appearance again later down the line - hopefully in a more authentic light.

Ewan Paterson

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.

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