Director Tim Burton, who has filmed classics such as “Beetlejuice,” “Edward Scissorhands,” and “Ed Wood” is being attacked as a racist for his new hit show “Wednesday,” which premiered with record ratings.
In the show, black actress Joy Sunday plays a bully at Nevermore Academy and black actor Iman Marson plays another bully who is the son of the town’s mayor. That was enough for some critics to label Burton a racist, despite the fact that the lead actress, Jenna Ortega, is Hispanic.
“Don’t get me wrong…I love Jenna Ortega and that she’s playing Wednesday but one thing I hate about this show is that why did they make ALL the black people in this show terrible people?” a viewer carped. “Like how did Netflix see nothing wrong with this? I hate Tim Burton’s racist self.”
Another social media user piped up, “’Tim Burton casts black people finally and makes them pilgrim villains. Y’all can’t tell me that man isn’t insufferable and racist as hell in real life.”
“Why is the Black girl in Wednesday’s school an aggressive bully tho? hmmm Tim Burton is a known racist….. no surprises there…..” a third critic chimed in.
Addressing people who slammed his 2016 film “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” for its lack of diversity, Burton responded, “Nowadays, people are talking about it more. … things either call for things, or they don’t. I remember back when I was a child watching The Brady Bunch and they started to get all politically correct. Like, OK, let’s have an Asian child and a black. I used to get more offended by that than just… I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, that’s great. I didn’t go like, OK, there should be more white people in these movies.”
Actor Samuel Jackson, who appears in the film, stated, “I had to go back in my head and go, how many black characters have been in Tim Burton movies? And I may have been the first, I don’t know, or the most prominent in that particular way, but it happens the way it happens. I don’t think it’s any fault of his or his method of storytelling, it’s just how it’s played out. Tim’s a really great guy.”
“Wednesday has summoned a new record for Netflix. The supernatural series drew a whopping 341.23M hours viewed in its first week on the streamer, soaring to the top of the TV charts,” Deadline reported.