Samaritan

The cast features a black teenage actor in the prominent young lead role and a Hispanic actress as his single mother in a financially struggling urban family. The city setting includes diverse supporting characters in gang and neighborhood roles. This fits realistic modern demographics without strong audience-visible identity signaling, quota emphasis, or mismatch with the story world. The central hero remains a white working-class man played by Stallone.

A handful of viewer comments on review platforms criticized the casting of a mother of color and diverse urban characters as feeling like standard Hollywood diversity pushes. No widespread social media campaign, major news stories, or organized complaints framed the film as pushing woke, DEI, or activist content. Most reaction stayed on story quality.

Writer Bragi F. Schut has a track record in horror and sci-fi with no activist history. Main director Julius Avery works in genre films without known social-justice patterns. Some producers have credits on films with diverse leads or mild social themes, but no strong evidence of personal identity-driven or DEI-focused agendas shaping creative choices.