Posted on 08/22/2016 2:09:22 PM PDT by drewh
Spider-Man has many powers: Wall-crawling, web-slinging… and race-bending.
According to a story posted by The Wrap, 19-year-old Disney Channel star Zendaya is set to play Mary Jane Watson in next year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, a re-reboot that will see young British actor Tom Holland as a high school-aged Peter Parker.
This is a great idea. It’s 2016, why couldn’t – or shouldn’t – Spidey have a love interest who isn’t white? And many people agree, with Twitter and Facebook full of responses from folks who think a black Mary Jane is a fantastic choice.
But, as always, there are pockets of dissent, ranging from stubborn fans to outright racists. Which is puzzling, frankly. Not that this kind of ignorance still exists – you need only look at the U.S. presidential campaign to see that racism has been emboldened by a candidate who thinks prejudice and xenophobia are acceptable, and even commendable.
Rather, it’s that people are still freaking out over comic book colourblindness.
Off the top of my head, I can think of five black actors who’ve played characters that were traditionally white in the comics – Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin and Will Smith as Deadshot. Some of them were good. Some were great. All gave us a different perspective on the character.
None, as far as I’m aware, brought about the apocalypse.
The “it’s not how it’s written in the comics!” refrain just doesn’t wash. A film is not a slavish recreation of its source material, and thank goodness – had Captain America: Civil War been faithful to the Civil War comics, it would have been a bloated, incomprehensible mess.
From the comic book page to the movie screen, costumes get changed. Powers get changed. Backstories get changed. Characters’ physical appearances get changed. These are creative choices made in service to the film.
Do they always work? No. But in the case of Marvel Studios, who are co-producing Homecoming with Sony Pictures, these decisions are being made by people who are very, very good at what they do, and spending very, very large amounts of their own money on the process. As frustrating as it may be to hear, they know better than we do.
I admit, I always had a thing for Mary Jane, with her luscious red hair and impossible curves. But just as the talented Kirsten Dunst didn’t look like the MJ in my mind when she played the character in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, the biracial Zendaya will bring a different look to Mary Jane in Homecoming – if that is indeed the role she’s been cast in. And that’s really cool.
Does Zendaya have the acting chops for what might be a relatively meaty role in a major superhero movie? I’m not sure. She’s got great energy and plenty of talent, but we’ll have to wait and see. Does indie film director Jon Watts have the directing chops to be behind the camera for a major superhero movie? I’m not sure. His film Cop Car was really good and he’s a smart guy, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Yet, oddly, he isn’t subjected to the same amount of Internet scrutiny.
Kind of makes your Spidey senses tingle.
I thought Zendaya was mixed race, black father and white mother. She's all black now?
-PJ
Martin Luther King Jr. never took a single step to legally change his name from MIKE —Mike King. His dad did, however, and everyone called him that.
He also plagiarized over 1/2 of his PhD thesis, so was he a Doctor..? Hmm....
I’ll conceed he was very charismatic and I do believe what his ideas were proper.
Martin Luther King Jr. never took a single step to legally change his name from MIKE —Mike King. His dad did, however, and everyone called him that.
He also plagiarized over 1/2 of his PhD thesis, so was he a Doctor..? Hmm....
I’ll conceed he was very charismatic and I do believe what his ideas were proper.
Well, since they have a gay Spiderman, why not a guy?...........
“...need only look at the U.S. presidential campaign to see that racism has been emboldened by a candidate who thinks prejudice and xenophobia are acceptable, and even commendable.”
Nice to see the journalists in Canada are every bit as much the mentally-deficient retards that American journalists are. Oh...was I insensitive?...how about intellectually challenged developmentally-disabled, that works as well.
I have it on good authority that the doctor was a good dancer.
just like Obozo. once she becomes really famous the whute half slips away and she becomes all black to the liberal media
I don’t have a problem with it if they’re at least consistent and open up traditionally minority roles for whites.
Another Spiderman reboot? Does he run on Microsoft Windows?
I wish they would just cast an actually attractive woman for MJ this time around.
Zendaya’s cute.
Great idea since black Johnny Storm was such a huge success
Another utterly unwatchable “I-am-a-Hollywood-Writer/Producer-and-Smarter-Then-the-Original-Creators-of-the-Character/Characters” movie.
I guess when the character is a teenager, they have to refresh the cast every 7 or 8 years.
I just wish the didn't keep retelling the origin story over and over.
-PJ
Gotta be a redhead. Spidey’s nickname for her is even “Red”... which makes no sense unless she’s a redhead.
So unless she dyes her hair, no way.
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