Race-swapping has a long, mostly negative history in Hollywood. For decades studios would use white actors to play characters who are canonically not white, such as Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff in the 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, or more recently Jacob Elordi, in the 2026 version of Wuthering Heights. It is generally defined as the practice of changing an established character's race, ethnicity, or nationality in a new adaptation of media, such as film, television, or literature. It is often used to increase diversity, as seen with casting in The Little Mermaid (2023), but it can also refer to historically whitewashed casting, such as in the 2010 film The Last Airbender. This practice has always drawn criticism from some quarters, but things have changed. Jodie Turner-Smith as the eponymous Anne Boleyn in 2021, and Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm in 2015’s Fantastic Four, amongst others, seemed to herald a new dawn in terms of representation, imagination, and opportunities for black thespians. However, the truth is a lot more complicated. 

Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz (1978) is a thoughtful examination of the American Dream through the eyes of the black experience and thus represents the best of race-swapping as a method of highlighting inequality in cinema. However, one is then compelled to ask if contemporary instances of race-swapping, such as Lupita Nyongo playing Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s 2026 The Odyssey function in this way? If such high profile race-swapping is merely decorative, it risks becoming a form of just checking a diversity box, rehashing old IP, or race-baiting.

Race-baiting has historically been used in the political context to describe the deliberate, malicious use of coded language, stereotypes, or inflammatory actions regarding race to provoke anger, fear, or resentment, and to influence political outcomes or social attitudes. Historically, it is a tactic used in politics to mobilize or drive away voters by exploiting racial prejudices. Media critic Eric Deggans contended in 2012 that due to the fragmented state of the media, media outlets use racially coded discourse to foment passion and generate revenue [1]. It is obvious that this approach has been embraced by studios, and expanded to include actors in roles that are canonically white, being played by black people to gin up controversy and draw attention to a work of visual media. The casting of the Velaryon family in HBO’s high fantasy series House of the Dragon (2022-) as black not only raised eyebrows in many quarters, but unleashed a steady stream of racist vitriol. And while supporters of this example of race-swapping argue for its representational value, it functions more as “race-baiting,” and constitutes what Kristen Warner categorizes as “plastic representation,” [2] since it does not lead to an expansion of the narrative architecture in meaningful ways that highlight the black experience. 

In her 2017 essay, “In the Time of Plastic Representation,” Warner argues "Swapping in and out racial groups with little adjustments to the parts themselves retains the original work as the primary driver and as a result marks the work as superficial by proving that anyone can [be a royal in the Game of Thrones universe]. As a consequence, the performances feel like hollow experiences produced in a laboratory, they feel plastic. (32)                  

Warner warns us not to fall for what she calls “the ease of visibility,” and in this case of this black family who’re now riding dragons with the Targaryens, the seductive, easy appeal is obvious. But a closer look at the characterization of this family reveals nothing especially illuminating about their racial conditions in the world of Westeros, and it has been the black fans themselves, on platforms like Twitter and elsewhere, who have had to imbue them with a blackness that is absent on screen.

George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood, the source material that was adapted into House of the Dragon already contained a fan favorite nonwhite character, Nettles. Because of the somewhat unreliable nature of the text, it would have been quite plausible for her to be black, brown, or something in between. When the show was announced, fans were excited to see Nettles onscreen but as it progressed, it seems clear that she has been written out, and her storyline handed to Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell). On its face, it can seem churlish of fans of Nettles to be critical of this since Rhaena is black. However, a crucial element of Nettles’ story is that she befriends the dragon sheep stealer and becomes the first person in Westeros to ride a dragon who is not Targaryen. The revolutionary potential for this is immense, and it is not dissimilar to that moment in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) when Rey (Daisey Ridley), someone not of noble Jedi birth, has access to the force. Sadly, both moments are foreclosed, as Rey (in response to negative fan reaction), is later revealed to be the granddaughter the Dark Lord Palpatine, and Nettles is erased, and her story given to a royal, Rhaena the daughter of Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). In addition, this thoughtless race-swapping also had unintended consequences. When Vaemond Velaryon (Wil Johnson) objects to the presumptive heir Rhaenyra Targaryen’s claim to the throne because of her children being illegitimate, his head is quickly dispatched by Daemon Targaryen, and his family stripped of their manor in favor of Rhaenyra’s son, Lucerys. The imagery of a black family losing their home to a white one was not lost on fans of the show, leading to one of my all-time favorite tweets, which highlighted the humor behind the situation: 

Warner speaks of fans doing the heavy lifting of inserting blackness into thinly drawn characters, and the fans of this series have been more than up to the task. The memes of the Velaryon dragons wearing Kente cloth and dashikis have been hilarious, but they also point to the lack of any kind of depth in this family’s ethnic portrayal. In short, as far as the story of the Velaryons are concerned, we’re just happy to be along for the dragon ride, but is this really enough?

One recent race-swapped show that successfully creates a fully black world is Forever. Released in 2025, it is a Netflix drama that reimagines Judy Blume’s classic novel from 1975 as a story about young black love in Los Angeles. Mara Block Akil, a veteran of black television, showruns this series, and is largely responsible for its textured, beautiful adaptation. From the cast, Wood Harris as a caring, loving father, Karen Pittman as an equally loving, no-nonsense mother, and the lovebirds in question, newcomers Lovie Simone and Michael Cooper Jr., to the music, style and costuming, Forever is a show that is unequivocably black, and incredibly refreshing. The Los Angeles it depicts is multicultural, complex, and filled with opportunity. Its aesthetics are reminiscent of another great black show set in the same city, Issa Rae’s Insecure. And like this show, Forever dives into mental health challenges faced by young black men, since the male lead, Justin Edwards, played by Michael Cooper Jr., is neurodivergent. Forever shows what can happen when black creatives are given a chance to tell their own stories, and aren’t just merely slotted into a story that lacks the narrative space, or willingness, to flesh them out as characters. 

In his presentation at the 2026 Black Media Studies Conference, titled “Making a Meal out of Crumbs: Blackness and Partial Reception,” Alfred L. Martin Jr. reminded us of the ability of black audiences to make the most out of very little, in celebration of black creative enterprise. When you’ve been frozen out for so long, you take what you can get. That said, projects such as the 2015 third season of HBO’s True Detective, and even Hulu’s frothy Tell Me Lies (2022-2026), through the race-swapped characters of Wayne Hays and Evan Donovan, played by Mahershala Ali and Brandon Cook respectively, are examples of race-swapping done thoughtfully, with holistic, flawed, human black characters. Why have crumbs, when we can have the whole meal? 

Notes

[1] Deggans Eric, Race Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation,

St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

[2] Warner, Kristen J, “In the Time of Plastic Representation, Film Quarterly 71, no. 2 (Winter 2017).