NetFlix Winx Club Live-Action Series Is Being Whitewashed

I knew this would happen. It happens so often when a book or cartoon is adapted to live action. For some reason, we have to whitewash a character with no explanation.

Netflix released the trailer for the upcoming live-action adaptation of the cult classic Winx Club titled Fate: The Winx Saga. In this dark and gritty retelling, they are taking the bright and colorful cartoon many have come to love and turn it into a knockoff of Riverdale or Sabrina. And to make matters worse: they decided to make some strange casting choices.

As far as the main cast is concerned, Tecna is not listed or shown in the trailer. Bloom, Aisha and Stella all look accurate to their cartoon counterparts. The real issues come in with Musa and Flora (now known as Terra). Musa is an Asian-coded character as pointed out by Twitter user @spd_emergenciez:

Let me start with Musa. I KNOW y’all casting directors DID NOT SAY MUSA WAS WHITE!!!! Musa is heavily Asian-coded with her mother often wearing clothes similar to a cheongsam and other traditional Chinese clothing. It’s safe to say Musa IS Asian. pic.twitter.com/8WBPb00db4
— nelly / FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸 (@ghoulia_irl) December 10, 2020

Next up, Flora or now known as Terra who is being played by Eliot Salt:

Next, let’s look at Flora/Terra. Terra is Flora’s parallel in that Terra literally means “earth” and Flora’s name is derived from the Latin word for “flower”. Speaking of Flora, did you know she was designed based on Jennifer Lopez, who is Puerto Rican? pic.twitter.com/f29KpAaSwA
— nelly / FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸 (@ghoulia_irl) December 10, 2020

In the case of Flora/Terra, they probably thought of having a plus size actress in the role, that would absolve them from whitewashing the character. I think most fans would have preferred a plus-size Latina in this role. Especially since the creator of the show used Jennifer Lopez as a reference, it would have made more sense to use a Puerto Rican actress that was plus-size.

I am unsure if I’ll watch this. They did cast Aisha correctly. I’m actually surprised by that fact. Usually the Black characters are the first to be whitewashed. We’ll have to wait and see how this “project” turns out. Check out the newly released trailer below: