re: DEI casting in Gentleman in Moscow (Prime Video)

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It absolutely tanked, I don't even know who would wanna watch that. But having finished a gentleman in Moscow, it was not like that at all.

There was one regard in which the black casting worked for the side character in AGIM, which I won't go into deeply for spoiler reasons, but suffice to say that they were childhood friends, but were not equals.

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I just don't get the rationale in race swapping an individual who really existed. It doesn't make them more interesting or "fresh" for modern audiences. It just looks stupid and screams woke. Both the Anne Boleyn and Cleopatra race swap shows bombed and were even panned by critics.

Race swapping a fictional character sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Casting a British-Indian woman as Yennifer in The Witcher series didn't bother me. The actress was good in the role and her portrayal stayed true to the character. The same thing can be said for casting a black actress as Miss Honey in the movie version of Matilda the musical. Lashana Lynch was fantastic in the role. They didn't change the nature of the character at all, just her skin color. I've seen the play twice and I'll go so far as to say that she was my favorite version of the character, even though the role is usually played by a blonde white female. If the acting is good and they inhabit the character, you don't really notice anything else.

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DEI casting in The Passion of the Christ and The Ten Commandments

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Yeah, I remember that!