8 Upcoming Movies That Have Sparked Massive Controversy

5. Aladdin

Billy Magnussen Aladdin
Disney

Release Date: 24 May 2019

The Controversy: There are a couple of sticking points surrounding Disney's upcoming live-action Aladdin remake, and all center around the notion of whitewashing.

There was a huge outcry late last year when the Caucasian Billy Magnussen was cast as a brand-new character, with many people questioning why the studio felt the need to create such a character in the first place, considering Aladdin's story is based in the Middle East.

Then, just recently, one of the film's extras told The Times that he'd spotted several fair-skinned actors waiting to have their skin darkened with makeup.

It's easy to see why people became upset over both these instances. Darkening skin with makeup is absolutely ridiculous; Aladdin is a quintessentially Middle Eastern story, and to lessen the importance of that by turning it into something that can be erased with a makeup wipe is simply embarrassing.

And Magnussen's addition to the cast simply feels unnecessary, given how well the original tale worked without such a character. But on the other hand, it's important to not pass judgement too quickly; this could be one of the film's standout roles, and it's not as though he's replacing any of the Middle Eastern characters from the original.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!