The “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” has opened last week, but has already caused quite a controversy even before its opening due to casting issues. Despite the movie having a Persian setting as well as Persian characters, the production crew has cast a white actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, for the role of Prince Dastan. This casting for the lead role to the white actor has caused a lot of stir because aside from the Prince Dastan being a pure Persian, c is not from a Persian or Middle Eastern heritage.

According to blogger Jehanzeb Dar, “This part really needed to go to someone who's Persian...It's not only insulting to Persians, it's also insulting to white people. It's saying white people can't enjoy movies unless the protagonist is white." Despite the jaw-dropping special effects and great fighting scenes, the casting of Gyllenhaal has caused a stir to fans who were great followers of the game and a lot of protests were heard before the movie opened.

So far, Disney hasn’t given a comment yet about the issue.

Another movie that has caused a lot of controversy with casting call is the upcoming Nickolodeon movie “The Last Airbender”, which has a cast of mostly white actors, when in the orginal cartoon series, the characters and all were purely Asian---martial arts to iconography alike. But director M. Shyamalan casted Noah Ringer as the lead role and other major roles to Nicole Peltz, Jackson Rathbone (of "Twilight" fame), and " Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel-----which, obviously are not from Asian descent. If one will find Asian actors, they are only found on minor characters, which is very unfair for fans who love the cartoon series.

Michael Le of Racebending.com criticized Paramount’s decision on the casting and labeled it as “white-washing”. Paramount, on the other hand, countered the criticism, saying that "Night's vision of 'The Last Airbender' includes a large and ethnically diverse cast that represents cultures from around the world."

So far, “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” has done good enough in the box office, while we have yet to see how “The Last Airbender” will fair this coming July. But despite the great trailers, big fans still can’t help but be disappointed when it comes to the casting.