The Ancient One is a stereotype, so no one could really blame Marvel Studios for trying to do something different with the character in Doctor Strange.
Tilda Swinton, a white actress, ended up being cast as a female version of the Sorcerer Supreme. There was whitewashing criticism at the time, but Kevin Feige has now addressed the controversy head on by admitting that they made a mistake by taking the Ancient One in that direction.
"We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge," Feige told Men's Health in a new cover story on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu. "We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes."
Marvel Studios had good intentions, but this is clearly an experience they learned from, and may also explain why we're getting Wenwu instead of The Mandarin in Shang-Chi. Talking of that movie, Feige would go on to explain why that franchise is key heading into the MCU's Phase 4.
"Once we finished what we call now The Infinity Saga, we rolled up our sleeves and said, 'Ok, what's next?' What are we going to kick off the next?" he said. "The next sort of evolution of the MCU post- our first big saga, and that's why Shang-Chi was at the very top of that list."
Check out Liu's Men's Health cover to hype Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings below: