❓WHAT HAPPENED: Netflix has cast a non-white actor to play a historic Swedish king in a new drama series.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Actor Jihad Abdallah, who now goes by Alexander Abdallah, and Netflix.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Announced in September 2025, drama set in 18th-century Stockholm, Sweden.
🎯IMPACT: The casting reflects an ongoing trend of casting non-white actors as white historical figures, possibly influenced by award criteria pressuring filmmakers to force diversity into inappropriate settings.
Actor Jihad Abdallah, who goes by Alexander Abdallah, will portray King Gustav III of Sweden, a historical figure who was a white man, in Netflix’s upcoming romantic drama series The Von Fersens, set in 18th-century Stockholm, Sweden.
This casting decision follows previous instances where Netflix has cast non-white actors to portray white historical figures with diverse actors, including Edward VI of England, who was portrayed as a gay black man in a wheelchair, and the last pagan king of Norway, who was portrayed as a black woman.
The casting may have been in response to Hollywood’s efforts to force diversity into all productions, even ones based in historic settings where it would be inappropriate, by making eligibility for certain awards dependent on minority representation.
Forced diversity is also increasingly common beyond the entertainment world. For instance, Britain’s BBC, funded by a compulsory television licence, has produced history education content for children, claiming falsely that black people have always been a significant presence in the country, and certain artificial intelligence (AI) image generators, such as Adobe Firefly, have often portrayed historically white people as other races, including America’s Founding Fathers.
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