*Warning: Spoilers Ahead. Do not read if you haven’t seen “Iron Man 3” or “Star Trek into Darkness.”

A new trend has emerged in Hollywood that could very well change the future of movies for the worse. It is a phenomenon called “whitewashing,” a term used to describe cases in film where white actors are cast in roles that would logically be reserved for actors of non-white descent. Such as John Wayne playing Genghis Khan.

Granted, this has been going on for the past several decades but only recently has it started to become a major problem, especially when you consider the times we live in.

Casting non-white actors in roles of traditionally white characters has become a new trend that seems to be working well and is certainly a step forward for representing minorities in mainstream film. Doing the exact opposite, however, just isn’t a very good idea.

A few examples of whitewashing, which in my opinion have ruined current pop-culture films:

Iron Man 3

Although this film is not guilty of whitewashing in the traditional sense, it still made the mistake of tampering with Iron Man’s arch-nemesis, the Mandarin. In the comics, the character is a Chinese warlord and considered by some to be racist. Granted, casting Ben Kingsley in the role would have already stripped away those overtones and still placed an Asian actor in the role as required, Kingsley is of Indian descent. But instead his character is actually a comical façade utilized by a mad scientist, who is a white man. Some called it ingenious political commentary, while fans complained that wrongfully portrayed an iconic comic book character. In this case, I would have to agree with the fans.

Star Trek into Darkness

Everyone seems to love Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan and therefore do not question his casting, which makes this one of the worst cases of whitewashing. Khan’s character is actually Indian, and even though he was originally played by Hispanic actor Ricardo Montalban, the fact that a dark-skinned actor ended up landing such an iconic role was a major accomplishment during the 1960s. Putting a

Caucasian actor in the role is a huge disrespect to that accomplishment, and the worst part is that the studio used Cumberbatch’s skin color to conceal the character’s identity and generate hype for marketing purposes. Just because he’s a good actor does not justify the casting and it’s partly that mentality that has allowed whitewashing to become as prominent as it is. Worse still, the filmmakers even admitted they cast a Caucasian actor based largely on fear of offending a specific ethnicity.

The Lone Ranger

This case of whitewashing is particularly distasteful because it represents marketing over respect of authenticity. Even the average moviegoer could see that casting Johnny Depp as Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick, was a grave mistake. Native American portrayals in film have been rather unfair in the past and this just seems to add insult to injury.

The character Tonto has often been viewed as degrading by many Native Americans, so this would have been the perfect opportunity to put things right. But alas, Hollywood never does the right thing when money’s involved. Even though Depp explained he was trying to give a respectable and faithful performance that would right the wrongs of the past, what could be better than giving the part to a Native American actor?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

While it may be too early to judge this one in some areas, next year’s live action reboot of the popular franchise is still already guilty of whitewashing. William Fichtner, a Caucasian actor, has been cast as the film’s lead villain, the Shredder. In the original comics, the character is Oroku Saki, a Japanese man who leads a ninja army and murdered martial arts master Hamato Yoshi, indirectly causing the origin of the ninja turtles.

Many cases of whitewashing are done with no explanation but this one has been specifically engineered to address the character’s new ethnicity, as evidenced by his name being changed from Oroku Saki to Erich Sachs in the film, notice the similarity.

There are plenty of more suitable Asian actors who would probably love to play the role of such an iconic character but now they’ve been denied a golden opportunity. Whether it be in fear of offending somebody or a hidden marketing tactic, this particular case is rather perplexing in that it seemingly lacks all reason.