Marvel's decision to cast Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange raised eyebrows. She plays the Ancient One, which the comic books portrayed as a Tibetan monk. But for the film adaptation, the Ancient One is a European woman. Moviegoers accused Marvel of whitewashing the character. Critics argued that Doctor Strange shows how Hollywood doesn't view Asian actors as bankable stars.

Yet according to a screenwriter, Marvel was more concerned with Chinese viewers. "If you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating 1 billion people," Doctor Strange's C. Robert Cargill said to DoubleToasted.com, according to The Washington Post.

China only allows a few Hollywood films screened per year. That usually means nothing overtly political. Meanwhile, China's centuries-long rule over Tibet remains controversial. Rights groups have accused China of political and religious repression. Cargill says that alienating one of the world's biggest film-watching countries wasn't worth the risk.

Meanwhile, he doesn't think much of the recent outcry stateside. "Everybody kind of pats us on the back for that and then decides to scold us for her not being Tibetan," he said. "We knew that the social justice warriors would be angry either way."