Even before it wraps up production, the Harry Potter spinoff "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" has already come under fire for hiring only an all-white cast.
The lead star is Oscar-award winning actor Eddie Redmayne, and his co-stars include "Steve Jobs" actress Katherine Waterston, singer turned actress Alison Sudol, "True Detective" star Colin Farrell, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" actor Ezra Miller, and comedian Dan Fogel, among many others.
Now, producer David Heyman has come to the film's defense, saying that they are in no way limiting the cast to all-white actors and actresses. He told Entertainment Weekly that they simply put into consideration the social setting on 1920s New York to make it more realistic.
"Like all of Jo Rowling's works, 'Fantastic Beasts' is populated with a variety of people and that will be the same in this series over the course of the films," Heyman said. "There will be people of various types of ethnicities. In New York in the 1920s, there was a segregation between white and black, the neighborhoods were largely separate, and that is reflected in (the film). But the wizarding world is a much more open and tolerant society where people of color and different ethnic backgrounds exist harmoniously together. There are people of color filling this world in an organic way."
Even Rowling herself cannot deny the criticisms being made by some individuals. When a Twitter user named Dee wanted to start a Twitter revolution to get Rowling's attention about the all-white casting, she came to the movie's defense.
"Everyone tweet @jk_rowling about this! It's really damn upsetting that everyone in #FantasticBeasts is WHITE," tweeted Dee.
For her part, Rowling replied, "@Vividscarletsky Everyone in #FantasticBeasts is not white."
Previously, it has been learned that American wizards during that time live terrified of muggles (in the movie, they are known as 'No-Maj') particularly because of the impact of the Salem witch trials.
For "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," there would even be a new group called New Salem Philanthropic Society (a.k.a. the Second Salemers) led by Mary Lou (Samantha Morton) that is doing everything in its power to expose the wizarding community.
While "Harry Potter" had the Ministry of Magic, the American wizarding community has a Magical Congress led by a wizarding president.
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" will be released on November 18, 2016.
