New Mutants co-creator Bob McLeod says the film erased all his contributions

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

After numerous delays, THE NEW MUTANTS has finally arrived, and judging by the reviews, it doesn’t seem as though the film is the diamond in the rough that many were hoping it would be. One person who doesn’t exactly love the film is Bob McLeod, the artist who co-created The New Mutants along with Chris Claremont.

McLeod took to Twitter to express his disappointment in the film, which stems from the white-washing of characters and the misspelling of his own name in the credits.

Although Henry Zaga (who plays Roberto da Costa) is a Brazilian actor, the character was created with a darker complexion, with the anti-Black racism he experienced in Brazil playing directly into his origin. While speaking with io9, director Josh Boone acknowledged the criticism but stood by his casting choices. “My goal was to find the best actor who, because they’ve done so little work, was at least the closest to kind of what I saw in my head for the character,” Boone said. “There was nobody who hold a candle to Henry. It’s like maybe if Henry didn’t exist, I would have found somebody who was darker skinned who exemplified what I needed. But it was never about the color of their skin for me. I didn’t care so much about the racism I’ve heard about in Brazil, about light-skinned versus dark-skinned. To me, it was I wanted to represent Brazil in a positive way and I wanted to find somebody who seems like he could look like a guy who’s had the silver spoon in his mouth, who has like a really rich dad and [Henry] just exemplified all these things.“

THE NEW MUTANTS is now playing in select theaters, so be sure to check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray!