Tim Burton's Filmography Will Always Be Haunted by This Controversy

Thanks to his signature visual style and unique characters, Tim Burton is widely considered a beloved filmmaker in Hollywood. Ever since the world fell in love with Pee-wee's Big Adventure, audiences have returned time and time again to see what Tim comes up with on the big screen. However, not everything about the director might be as wonderful as it sounds.

Tim Burton has been surrounded by the same controversy during different times of his career. Both members of the press and viewers have been urgent to point out a constant aspect of Tim's productions. What is the controversy that hangs over the projects produced by Tim Burton? Here's what we know about the problem identified in the artist's filmography.

It's been pointed out by several sources that Tim Burton constantly casts white performers for the major roles in his movies. This doesn't mean that people of color don't appear in the titles. But, as HuffPost's DeLa Doll pointed out in an open letter, the situation happened so often to the point that Tim's preference for white performers couldn't be denied any longer.

After Tim worked on Big Eyes, it was announced that the director was going to bring the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children book to the big screen. The novel, written by Ransom Riggs, tells the story of a young boy who uses a collection of old photographs to find a mysterious location.

The first trailer for the movie showed a mostly white cast, featuring stars such as Eva Green and Asa Butterfield. This wouldn't be the last time a similar incident was reported in Tim Burton's career. In 2020, the Venice Oarsman published an article calling out the problem, also recalling offensive remarks Burton had made about diversity in film.

After Miss Peregrine premiered in theaters, Tim Burton took some time to respond to the accusations made against him regarding the people he cast in his movies. The director told The Washington Post that he: "grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, that’s great. I didn’t go like, OK, there should be more white people in these movies".

The problem didn't go away for Tim. After delivering a controversial response to what people were saying about him, the director introduced a questionable concept to his highly-anticipated sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. At some point during their adventures in the afterlife, Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and Lydia (Winona Ryder) came across the Soul Train.

The vehicle was featured as a tribute to soul and hip-hop, but it was also the only time Beetlejuice Beetlejuice featured people of color. LADbible recounted that social media users called the sequence outright racist due to its depiction. Will Tim Burton be able to fix the damage he has done to several communities with his casting? Or will audiences get tired of the filmmaker's mistakes?