Once upon the golden age of television, many networks and streaming channels made fantastic make-believe worlds come to life on the flat screens of living rooms worldwide. Together they warred in competitive harmony, vying for the most significant slice of the content pie. There was room for everyone in this prosperous kingdom that threw money at scripts sometimes before even an initial read. It was a beautiful bubble of storytelling opportunity. But it couldn’t last forever. One day a shadow would fall…

Science fiction is one of the most profitable genres in film, grossing billions of dollars annually, even without including countless superhero films. Many of these popular sci-fi adventures take place in the future, and most, as you are probably aware, paint a future that most people are not rushing towards. But saddle up, my friends, because today, we have a date with destiny!

In a recent interview, Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett both revealed that their Oscar-nominated lead roles in Tar and Everything Everywhere All at Once were originally written for a man. Speaking in completely binary terms, it wasn't until recently that female characters started taking their equal share of leading roles across all the available genres.

In some cases, like Emily Blunt's character in Sicario and Sandra Bullock's in Gravity, the writers/directors involved were asked to change the roles in the opposite direction for a more successful movie. These movies did fine, and one could even say, were highly lauded and successful without the switch. Several character gender swaps have taken place though, that have brought on brilliant results that we could hardly see any other way today.