Altered Carbon: Cast and showrunner of Netflix's new series respond to 'whitewashing' criticisms

'I would never say that it's unfair because whitewashing is a huge problem'

(Netflix)

Netflix’s latest series, Altered Carbon, has been getting large amounts of chatter online, many science fiction fans making their way quickly through the 10-part series.

However, there has been some criticism of the show’s apparent ‘whitewashing’, the leading actor Joel Kinnaman playing an Asian hero, Takeshi Kovacs.

The series goes some way to explain why: Kinnaman plays an experienced military person who has the 250-year-old mind of Takeshi put into his body.

"It's always fair to criticise, to question, to engage about things like whitewashing and violence against women and choices of lack of diversity,” showrunner Laeta Kalogridis told The Hollywood Reporter. “All those things are really, really a good thing to talk about. I would never say that it's unfair because whitewashing is a huge problem. It's not a problem that's solved.”

Korean-American actor Will Yun Lee the original Takeshi, who’s seen throughout the series in flashbacks, while Chinese-American Byron Mann plays another version of the character.

"That's actually what happened in the book [Richard K. Morgan's 2002 novel of the same name, on which the series is based]," Mann told the publication.

"That's actually the weirdness about it, because he's actually an Asian guy, but on the outside it's a white guy. So, he's like, 'Oh, that's a little funny.' So, that's part of the duality ... the tension that's in the story.”

The actor also pointed to the rest of the cast and the diversity seen on screen: “I think the show is pretty diverse, hugely diverse, if you look at all 10 episodes," he said. "It's like the United Nations. You've got people from everywhere.”

Altered Carbon has received mixed reviews, many pointing out similarities with Blade Runner. Read our reviews round-up here. The series is available on Netflix now.