'New Mutants' Co-Creator Blasts Film for Misspelling His Name and 'Whitewashing' a Character

New Mutants is finally out in theaters after years of development limbo and re-shoots. But while many comic book fans may be excited to see Magik, Wolfsbane and the film's other mutants on the big screen, their co-creator isn't so happy with the adaptation.

Bob McLeod, the artist and inker who co-created the characters alongside writer Chris Claremont for Marvel Comics in the 1980s, went on social media on Friday to voice his displeasure over the changes that the studio and director Josh Boone made to the source material.

In a lengthy Facebook post, and in several tweets, McLeod explained his issues, which include stylings of the characters, a misspelling of his own name and even an accusation of whitewashing.

"I was very excited when I heard they were making a New Mutants movie. I thought making it into a horror movie was perhaps an interesting idea, but not at all how the characters should be introduced to the public at large. But, hey, my characters in a movie!" McLeod wrote on Facebook. "I never would have thought that would actually happen. But then, I was disappointed when they didn't give Dani braids, although I like [actress] Blu Hunt. I was disappointed when Rahne wasn't a redhead with spiky hair, although I adore [actress] Maisie Williams. I was disappointed that Sam isn't tall and gawky, although I do like [actor] Charlie Heaton."

The biggest problem with casting and styling, though, involves the Afro-Brazilian character of Roberto da Costa, a.k.a. Sunspot. In the film, he's played by a light-skinned Brazilian actor, Henry Zaga. "Mainly I was very disappointed that Roberto isn't short and dark-skinned. Yet another example of Hollywood white-washing. There's just no excuse," McLeod wrote. "So basically, [director] Josh Boone erased everything I contributed to the way the characters look."

Perhaps most insulting of all to McLeod is the fact that, even though this movie has been stalled and sitting on the shelf for a very long time (filming took place way back in 2017), his name is misspelled in the movie's credits. He wrote on Facebook: "And now, the movie has come out at last, and apparently they've credited someone named Bob Macleod as co-creator. They couldn't even be bothered to check the spelling of my name sometime in the last three years. And that can't be fixed. That will be on the movie forever. I think I'm done with this movie."

Newsweek reached out to 20th Century Studios regarding the mistake, but did not receive comment in time for publication.

There's obviously a lot to unpack in McLeod's post, but the casting decisions for New Mutants have been a topic of conversation ever since the casting of the movie was first announced years ago.

The subject of Zaga's casting as Roberto was mentioned to writer/director Josh Boone (who previously directed the 2014 teen-weeper Fault in our Stars) in a recent interview with i09. The filmmaker was asked if he understood where the criticism over the casting comes from.

"You won't have any argument from me. It's like my thing was my goal was to cast a real Brazilian and I saw 300 of myself black, brown, lighter-skinned," Boone said. "I saw every shade of the sun. It was the same case with Blu Hunt. It's like we looked at 300 Native American people and people very close ties to the Native American community."

Boone continued, saying, "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. There was nobody who [held] 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."

When asked if the comic book version of Sunspot's skin color didn't fit his version of the character, Boone explained how he saw the character in the film.

"I didn't care so much about the racism I've heard about in Brazil, about light-skinned versus dark-skinned," Boone explained. "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."

New Mutants is in theaters, finally, starting today.