So the whole point of this conversation is that we had Blacks and other minorities in ancient times/early centuries in the UK but they werent as prolific as some films/TV shows may lead us to believe. Or at least no one can accurately tell us the correct numbers.

@Innovator said:

My whole point was to show that it was possible, not prove that it was accurate. If you're looking for accurate, you're not going to find that in any movie ever.

Fair enough. My point is that as it's pretty damn unlikely that there would be BAME people about, their inclusion is more to do with the creators wanting to avoid accusations of racism.

@OddRob said:

So the whole point of this conversation is that we had Blacks and other minorities in ancient times/early centuries in the UK but they werent as prolific as some films/TV shows may lead us to believe. Or at least no one can accurately tell us the correct numbers.

Pretty much, but as well as the point above I feel that the unlikely inclusion of so many ethnic minority characters detracts from the way ethnic minorities have been mistreated over the centuries, and also is an unfair spread as the minority that represented is almost invariably the Black one. Plus no-one bats an eyelid at films/shows set in other countries where no need is felt to include other races. Going back to Mulan: China has been trading with the west since before Christ. It's not impossible that westerners settled there.

@M.LeMarchand said: Pretty much, but as well as the point above I feel that the unlikely inclusion of so many ethnic minority characters detracts from the way ethnic minorities have been mistreated over the centuries, and also is an unfair spread as the minority that represented is almost invariably the Black one. Plus no-one bats an eyelid at films/shows set in other countries where no need is felt to include other races. Going back to Mulan: China has been trading with the west since before Christ. It's not impossible that westerners settled there.

To be fair, the number of black people in most those movies are 1 or 2, 4 in the case of Cursed and a sprinkling in Britannia with only 2 prominent black actors and a few background ones occasionally seen (both series takes place during Roman occupation and Romans thus making them more likely), so they aren't exactly prevalent.

As for Caucasians in movies set in Asia, I (I'm 1/2 Asian born in Asia) and most other Asians will tell you, it's not that we care that Caucasians are in those movies. What we're sick of is the tendency to make them White Saviors in Asian films that includes them (Great Wall, Last Samurai, etc.), the same goes for films with a Black majority cast (outside of Blaxploitation films of the 70s where Caucasians were always the villains). Black Panther bucked the trend by not making Martin Freeman the hero of the movie (and yes there were a number of Asians and Caucasians in that film, and there will probably be Caucasians in Shang-Chi as well).