A quick bit of Googling suggests that plenty of people did not feel too positively about making a movie with a black lead: https://www.indiewire.com/2021/07/in

A quick bit of Googling suggests that plenty of people did not feel too positively about making a movie with a black lead: https://www.indiewire.com/2021/07/independence-day-studio-refused-will-smith-racism-1234648383/ https://www.indiewire.com/2021/07/independence-day-studio-re... In this case, though, the roles are reversed. The supposedly "woke" studio system didn't want to put a black guy in the lead, whereas the public were more open to the idea.