'The Walking Dead' is under fire for whitewashing iconic 'Moonlight' poster

Skybound Entertainment, one of the production companies behind AMC’s monster hit The Walking Dead, is reeling from backlash after it posted a (now-deleted) advertisement for the show that was styled after A24’s Oscar-nominated film Moonlight.

In what could be described as a misguided attempt at riding Moonlight‘s Oscar buzz, @TheWalkingDead tweeted out an image of Carl, a young, white Walking Dead character that was stylized after the Moonlight poster featuring the film’s three black leads.

While the original Moonlight poster is meant to represent how the film follows the the life of a gay man in three stages of his life, The Walking Dead riff displayed how Carl’s grown over the show’s seven seasons. In place of the original poster’s placement of the film’s name, Skybound’s poster has the word “eyesight”—a reference to the fact that Carl gets shot through the head with an arrow and loses an eyeball in season six.

Fans of the show were quick to call the Twitter account out for using a poignant black movie for the sake of a not-so-good Twitter joke and whitewashing the original actor in the process.

When I reached out to Skybound for comment about the gaffe, no one was available to answer why the odd tweet was ever made in the first place and no apology has been posted to The Walking Dead’s Twitter account in the two days since the image went up.

Perhaps the most offensive thing about this whole thing, though, is the fact that Carl still has both of his eyes in the picture. If you’re going to ape a fantastic movie for likes, at least commit to the bit you’re going for.