History RaceLift / DiversifyingACast

* The movies of ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' diversified the entire pure-human cast. In the book, all of them are assumed white and the ones Bella interacts with the most are all blond or brunette white people. The movie makes Angela Hispanic, Eric Asian, and Tyler black. In the movie, one of the vampires is black, but in the books, it's made perfectly clear that when you become a vampire, you become white-skinned.

** As of May 2014, ginger-haired ComicBook/WallyWest has been reintroduced as half-black -- though ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' later subverted this by revealing that the original Wally is still around and that the new Wally is in fact a younger cousin of his, both of whom are named after their great-grandfather.

** Winslow Schott, the Toyman of the comics, was played by African-American [[Series/TheJeffersons Sherman Hemsley]].

* ''Series/LoisAndClark'' :

* ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'':

* In ''ComicBook/DCComicsBombshells'', ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} is half-Jewish and half-Romani, while Characters/LoisLane and her little sister Lucy are half-Cuban. In the sequel series, [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark]] are both introduced as Nisei Japanese-Americans, with Cassie being biracial.

* In ''Girl Taking Over: A Characters/LoisLane Story'', Lois is biracial with a Japanese mother, while Cat Grant is Filipina.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyAdventuresWithSuperman'', ComicBook/JimmyOlsen and Perry White are black, Characters/LoisLane is Asian-American, while Livewire is AmbiguouslyBrown (possibly Pakistani-American given her voice actress). All of these characters were originally white.

** Spider-Man has a lot of these. There's Pavitr Prabhakar from ''Spider-Man India'', as well as Izumi (Japanese) and Anansi (African) from the ''[[ComicBook/MarvelFairyTales Spider-Man: Fairy Tales]]'' anthology.
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanSecretIdentity'', Characters/LoisLane is modernized as the Indian American reporter Lois Chaudhari. She ends up marrying Superman and producing two mixed-race daughters who become their Earth's equivalents of ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}.
* Likewise, the ''ComicBook/SupermanAmericanAlien'' version of Lois is Asian-American, while ComicBook/JimmyOlsen is black.

* The publisher of ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' (not cartoonist Scott Adams) colorizes the Sunday strips and picks the race of minor characters. This results in UnfortunateImplications as when they made a corrupt security officer black (he's white in later reprintings). This happens because there isn't ''anyone'' in ''Dilbert'' who isn't either corrupt, an idiot or severely flawed in some other way.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'', [[Characters/SpiderWomanTitleCharacter Jessica Drew]] is African-American, with her voice provided by Creator/IssaRae. Lyla, Characters/SpiderMan2099's A.I. assistant, is also changed from a Creator/MarilynMonroe-like [[EveryoneLovesBlondes blonde bombshell]] to an Asian woman.

* This was emphasized, and possibly parodied, by State Farm when they updated their ongoing "Jake from State Farm" campaign in 2019 with a new "Jake from State Farm" that was Black. They did this by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9pwSF8qrfU doing a new version of the original "Jake from State Farm" commercial]] where the new Jake asks the agent in the cubicle behind him about the situation. The agent in the cubicle behind him is the ''original'' Jake from State Farm.

* In UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, Rick Jones (the KidSidekick of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk) belonged to a group of youths who called themselves the Teen Brigade. The more recent ''[[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers: The Origin]]'' limited series {{Retcon}}ned two of the boys into being black and Asian-American respectively.

*** Colonel Lauren Haley, based on a blonde [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' character, is African-American.

* ''Series/TheBabySittersClub2020'': The majority of the cast in the books are white or assumed to be white if not stated otherwise. (It's a big deal that Jessi is black, and she's stated to be the only black student in the whole of the sixth grade.) The Netflix 2020 adaptation makes the members more diverse. Mary-Anne in the books is white (and in fact so pale she can't ever tan) but is mixed (half-black and half-white) in the adaptation, and Dawn in the books is a blonde white girl and is changed to Hispanic in the adaptation.

* ''ComicBook/TheBabySittersClub'':
** In ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'' books, Jenny Prezzioso was white. In the graphic novels drawn by Raina Telgemeier, she's AmbiguouslyBrown.
** Logan is AmbiguouslyBrown in the graphic novels instead of white like in the books.

* ''Series/TheBabySittersClub2020'': Majority of the cast in the books are white or assumed to be white if not stated otherwise, but the Netflix 2020 adaptation makes it more diverse. For example, Mary-Anne is white and in fact so pale she can't ever tan in the books but is mixed (half-black and half-white) in the adaptation, and Dawn is a blonde white girl in the books which contrasts with her Hispanic roots in the adaptation.

* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005'' is an interesting case. Ford Prefect is played by rapper/actor Mos Def (An American playing an [[HumanAlien extraterrestrial]] living in England and speaking English to British people who don't have a ''BabelFish'' in their ears). It doesn't really come up in the original radio series, though since Arthur evidently lived in a quite rural part of the UK in the 1970s one can draw certain inferences, but the books describe Ford as white -somewhat [[UnintentionalUncannyValley unnaturally so]] even- with wiry ginger hair. The TV series, incidentally, completely ignored this. Of course, Mos Def's portrayal of Ford was InNameOnly ''anyway''...

* Aside from race-specific roles and shows like ''Theatre/{{Aida|JohnRice}}'' or ''Theatre/MissSaigon'', Broadway's casting is remarkably color-blind. Black/non-white actors have had major roles in nearly every Broadway show around. For example, ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' (Velma/Roxie/Billy Flynn), ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' (Javert, Mme Thenardier, Fantine, Cosette, Eponine), ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' (Fiyiero), ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' (Belle), ''Theatre/MissSaigon'' (John) and most notably Robert Guillaume (on tour) and Norm Lewis (on Broadway) as the titular ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. Even applies when such casting would result in BlackVikings or be otherwise implausible--like a black/Asian Eponine playing the daughter of the white Thenardiers in ''Theatre/LesMiserables''. There have even been some cases where a white actress has played Young Eponine or Young Cosette and a non-white actress has played the older versions of those characters, or vice versa.

** Elphaba from "Wicked" can be played by any actress, no matter her race, considering that she has to be painted green anyway. Actually, [[DumbBlonde Glinda]] is the only character from Theatre/{{Wicked}} explicitly required by the plot to be white. [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpj4gn0gqM1qbj784o1_250.jpg Not that it stopped Japan]]. [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/38c14f716b623e39709852a7d3bbf4ed/tumblr_myujelef1k1ri8bqro1_1280.png It also didn't stop South Korea]].

** the titular merchant was Latino.
** The only significant characters played by Anglo actors were the clown Gobbo and his son (played by a pre-stardom Philip Seymour Hoffman).

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania}}'' animated series changes Isaac from a pale-skinned redhead to a Black man.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'', [[Characters/SpiderWomanJessicaDrew Jessica Drew]] is African-American, with her voice provided by Creator/IssaRae. Lyla, Characters/SpiderMan2099's A.I. assistant, is also changed from a Creator/MarilynMonroe-like [[EveryoneLovesBlondes blonde bombshell]] to an Asian woman.

** Plastique is a white Canadian in the comic books. In the show she was played by the half-black, half-white [[Series/TheSecretCircle Jessica Parker Kennedy]].