The recently announced film, Gods of Egypt, has continued Hollywood’s infatuation with whitewashing Egypt or Kemet. The Alex Proyas film, which is set for an early 2016 release, stars Gerard Butler as Set, Brenton Thwaites as Bek, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Horus, and Geoffrey Rush as Ra. The only Black actor, Chadwick Boseman, plays Thoth.
Hollywood has historically whitewashed Egyptian set films since the early days of cinema. Films like The Ten Commandments (1956), Cleopatra (1963), and more recently the 2014 Ridley Scott film, Exodus: Gods and Kings, turned characters that were historically African and Middle Eastern into people with western European features.
Exodus: Gods and Kings was a financial flop, a critical failure with a rotten tomatoes score of 27 percent, and the film was banned in Egypt for its “historical inaccuracies.” Christian Bale played Moses, Joel Edgerton played Ramses and Sigourney Weaver played Ramses’s mother, Tuya because director Scott believed he could not sell a film with a “Muhammad So-and- So” as the star.
The film suffered from a Twitter backlash that chastised the whitewashed cast and the casting of Black people as slaves, thieves, and background characters. It appears Hollywood has not learned from its mistakes. Twitter has let it be known that this should not be happening in 2015.
And look at these extras. You can blue screen Egypt in the background but can't cast real Egyptians??? #GodsOfEgypt pic.twitter.com/RR8mTuK4wP
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) November 12, 2015
If you need sunscreen while filming for #GodsOfEgypt it's probably not a historically accurate casting ?
— vimto mami (@lunarnomad) November 13, 2015
*rubs temples in they threw in a token black guy to shut us up* #GodsOfEgypt pic.twitter.com/r6Umx33IQn
— Zoé S. (@ztsamudzi) November 12, 2015
May the #DeathNote movie fail and fail hard af. Might as well throw #GodsOfEgypt in there for good measure. pic.twitter.com/h4LO4gso88
— FangirlMagic (@fangirl_utopia) November 13, 2015
This looks terrible. I hope it flops big time. #GodsOfEgypt pic.twitter.com/2ecuOw6nGC
— Suleiman (@Payitforward87) November 12, 2015
#GodsOfEgypt take notes, dammit. pic.twitter.com/N7O6sTLcjT
— Taylor A. Jackson (@ThatJacksonGal_) November 12, 2015
Do better, Hollywood. Actually, just shut down you're totally incompetent. #GodsOfEgypt
— Horus the Kingslayer (@Jhoratio) November 12, 2015
Dear Hollywood, Egypt is in Africa. Northern to be exact. Why is that so hard to grasp? Stop gentrifying African countries. #GodsOfEgypt
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) November 12, 2015
In all seriousness, no wonder POC complain about diversity in Hollywood when movies like #GodsOfEgypt get made. Egypt isn't in Europe, guys
— AKA Dan Entwistle (@Garcian_Smith) November 12, 2015
Basically the movie. #GodsOfEgypt pic.twitter.com/0HK71Q137Q
— honey chai (@lepetiterobot) November 12, 2015
The Pyramids were made to store Kale and Pumpkin Spice Lattes. #GodsOfEgypt
— Tony Snark (@Latinegro) November 12, 2015
I'm so glad #GodsOfEgypt has a majority white cast. My people have *so* little of our own history so it's good we can borrow someone else's.
— AKA Dan Entwistle (@Garcian_Smith) November 12, 2015
Why does the Egyptian extras from #GodsOfEgypt look like they're from a Seth Rogen movie? pic.twitter.com/y4Rm4eyjYA
— BlackGirlNerds (@BlackGirlNerds) November 12, 2015
yall really think we're white? ancient egyptians werent white, current egyptians arent white so wyd? #GodsOfEgypt
— Nouran (@NuranEmad) November 12, 2015
