The world’s media shook for a few days. This was nothing to do with the Syrian migrant crisis or Sepp Blatter and Michael Platini’s FIFA suspensions, but rather the suggestion that Hermione Granger, intelligent, shrewd, heroic Hermione Granger could be, of all things, black. After the casting of Noma Dumezeweni in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, due to hit the West End stage next year, cynical fans ignored the 2005 Olivier Award winner’s impressive stage credentials and were instead outraged that Dumezeweni’s skin colour was not the same as Emma Watson’s.

J.K. Rowling, in true legendary style, shot down critics, pointing out on Twitter that in the books Hermione is described as having “brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever.” Most importantly, “white skin was never specified”. But despite Rowling’s efforts, the very fact that people have questioned Hermione’s casting asks a bigger question. Why do people, or perhaps more specifically white people, automatically presume that characters in books, plays or films are white?

I am not saying that I’m by any means exempt from this. I too, perhaps wrongly, assumed that Hermione was white and, now that I think about it, apply this to most characters I come across. This is what years and years of type-casting and white-washing has done to us. Black, Asian and other minority ethic characters are frequently an anomaly, an unexpected surprise or subversion of the norm. And this is dangerous.

Yet the tide finally seems to be turning. After years of complaints from journalists, actors, writers and directors, the norms are starting to be chucked out of the window for good. This year, along with Dumezeweni, John Boyega’s casting in the new Star Wars films has to be the highlight. People threatened to boycott the film due to Boyega’s role, complaining that a Stormtrooper couldn’t possibly be black, the same illogical criticism that Dumezeweni is currently facing and that Quvenzhane Wallis experienced following her casting as Annie. Yet thankfully for Boyega, J.J. Abrams, and humanity, the boycott threats have been a whimper in what has been a storm of praise for the film, from critics and audiences alike.

And it’s not just with race, but with also with gender where things are beginning to change. Tilda Swinton, who has been defying type-casting for years, landed the male part of the Ancient One in Marvel’s Dr Strange and played the inverted role of Mason in 2014’s Snowpiercer, originally described as “a middle-aged man”, as a woman. It was also revealed this year that the makers of Sicario, a film about the drug trade in the United States, had been put under significant pressure by producers to rewrite the main character, a FBI operative played by Emily Blunt, as a man. Ten years ago this probably would have happened. Instead, director Denis Villeneuve and his team stuck to their guns and Sicario ended up being a smash hit, grossing $80 million worldwide and is shaping up to be a big contender at this year’s Oscars.

In theatre, The Manchester Royal Exchange production of Hamlet, with Maxine Peak as the eponymous lead, received rave reviews last year and was screened in cinemas across the UK. Even in our very own ADC, Robbie Taylor-Hunt’s production of Othello swapped the gender of the main roles, receiving 5 stars from critics in the process.

Of course, while innovation in casting should be encouraged, there are boundaries. For example, had Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave cast white actors as slaves and black actors as plantation owners, I suspect people from all sides would have had something to say. When it comes to history, sometimes things are better left alone.

Yet when it comes to fiction, and even other genres, type-casting needs to be subverted, otherwise we risk an entrenched, white view of the world, the ultimate cause of this outrage. Just because a character's description says white female, why can’t an Asian actor be cast? If a script has only male characters, why not change them all to female ones? Why shouldn’t Tilda Swinton play David Bowie in a biopic? The more people ask these questions, the better. Casting will become more diverse, people less ignorant, and hopefully, in some distant future, Hermione Granger’s race won’t be such a contentious issue.