Web-Slingers

Guardians of the Galaxy Director Calls Out Critics of Colorblind Casting for New Spider-Man Movie

Rumors that Zendaya was playing an iconic character sparked the usual dumb-yet-predictable backlash.
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Zendaya attends the "Fresh Faces" party, hosted by Marie Claire, celebrating the May issue cover stars on April 11, in Los Angeles, California.By Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Marie Claire.

The cast of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the third live-action Spidey reboot in the past 20 years, is the franchise’s most diverse yet. Tony Revolori, Laura Harrier, and Donald Glover will be buddying up with Tom Holland for the film as director Jon Watts moves forward with his colorblind casting. This week, actress and singer Zendaya was cast in an unknown role, but people quickly hypothesized that she’d be playing the iconic Mary Jane Watson. And those hypotheses quickly sparked backlash among some.

On Friday, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn published a lengthy Facebook post in which he called out the “fans” who were making such a ruckus and who couldn’t understand how a black actress could play a character who, in the comics, is white. “I do not believe a character is the color of his or her skin,” he said. “Yesterday, a rumor broke out that the character of Mary Jane was being played by a young black woman, Zendaya, and all hell broke out on the Internet (again). I tweeted that if people find themselves complaining about Mary Jane’s ethnicity they have lives that are too good.”

He didn’t confirm Zendaya’s casting, explaining that he still had no idea who she’d be playing, and that he was speaking hypothetically about how ridiculous it is that people get hung up on a character’s race. He did say that he thought Zendaya would be good for the role: “For me, what makes MJ MJ is her alpha female playfulness, and if the actress captures that, then she’ll work. And, for the record, I think Zendaya even matches what I think of as MJ’s primary physical characteristics – she’s a tall, thin model–much more so than actresses have in the past.”

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We’re very excited to see whom Zendaya will be playing, regardless of whether she’s MJ. Spider-Man: Homecoming will swing into theaters in 2017.