Some of my family’s favorite movies were the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Growing up, we watched those films fairly regularly. Afterward, I and my siblings liked to play out scenes, especially fights, from those movies as Aragorn, Legolas, and whoever else we chose that day. We did the same with other movies. Although I was not aware of it back then, I and my two sisters almost always ended up playing white, cis, straight men. Usually, there were no other characters to choose from who were not part of that group of people.
Now, however, it seems that things have changed. Characters like Black Widow, Eleven, and Imperator Furiosa, are definitely characters that I and my sisters would have loved to play as children. Non-white and queer characters are also becoming more common, although the film and TV industry is still struggling with characters who are not cis.
Films like Black Panther and TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy or Legends of Tomorrow are trailblazers with fairly diverse characters.