The Sun newspaper said Whitehall, who is heterosexual, would play a camp man in the upcoming film, starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Emily Blunt.

The film industry has faced growing calls to reflect a greater diversity of characters on screen and reports of Whitehalls role met with criticism on social media.

At best, these stereotypes are tired, at worst they are damaging and homophobic, said Callum Jackson, 25, who took to Twitter to criticize the decision.

By having unrealistic and one-sided portrayals of any community, it forces members of that community to act, think and feel along certain lines, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

That leads to issues of self-acceptance and feeling marginalized from your community.

Some also expressed disappointment that a heterosexual actor had been cast in the role.

There has been a backlash in the LGBT community over heterosexual actors being cast to play gay or transgender roles, a practice some compare to blackface, whereby white performers would paint their faces to play caricatures of black people.

Wed very much welcome a decision by Disney to appoint a gay actor to play the role, said a spokesman for the British media and entertainment union Bectu.

Last month, Scarlett Johansson pulled out of playing a transgender character in the planned movie Rub & Tug, saying she realized her casting was insensitive.

Disneys live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, released last year, featured a fleeting gay romance that was met with applause by LGBT activists but caused an outcry in more conservative countries, with Malaysia threatening to ban the film.

The number of LGBT characters in major films has fallen in recent years, according to the American gay and transgender media advocacy group GLAAD.

It found that just 14 of the 109 releases by the seven largest movie studios in 2017 included LGBT characters.