James Gunn, director of Marvel‘s Guardians Of The Galaxy and the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming, has stepped into the swirling vortex of internet comments sections to defend the choice to cast Zendaya in a key role.
Zendaya, an African-American actress, was previously billed in the role of a girl named ‘Michelle’. Recently, however, rumours began circulating that she will actually be playing Spidey-slash-Peter Parker‘s love interest Mary Jane Watson.
Official sources have not yet confirmed or denied the casting rumour, and Zendaya’s IMDB still lists her role as ‘Michelle’. That said, outlets such as The Wrap are claiming that Zendaya is definitely the new MJ, based on the word of ‘inside sources’.
Kirsten Dunst famously played Mary Jane in the Sam Raimi films, locking lips with an upside-down Tobey Maguire, but certain sections of the internet are upset that the character, traditionally depicted as white, will now be portrayed by a black woman.
Earlier this week, Gunn sent out a Tweet poking fun at people for getting bent-out-of-shape at the rumours:
If you’re complaining about the ethnicity of Mary Jane your life is too good. https://t.co/b6XDUpRQ3i
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) August 19, 2016
Perhaps not surprisingly, he received an overwhelming number of responses to the Tweet. Some of these, he said were positive and supportive, some were negative but still “thoughtful”, and some were simply “flat-out racist”.
In a follow-up post to Facebook, Gunn said that he understands a certain amount of fan backlash when there are changes made between the page and the screen, but that ultimately, characters should be more than the colour of their skin.
While he likewise refused to actually confirm whether Zendaya will be playing Mary Jane, he said of the situation:
“People get upset when something they consider intrinsic to a comic book character changes when adapted for a film. I get this. There are movies I dislike because I think there’s a basic misunderstanding of the story or the character when the comic is transferred to film (I still hate how in the first Batman movie the Joker was revealed as the murderer of Bruce Wayne’s parents, for instance.)”“That said, I do not believe a character is the color of his or her skin. When Michael B Jordan was cast as Johnny Storm I didn’t understand the uproar. The primary characteristic of Johnny was not, to me, that he was white, or that he had blonde hair, but that he was a fiery, funny, big-mouthed braggart of a hero. I was happy that he was going to be played by one of the finest and most charming young actors out there.”
It’s a pity that Fantastic Four turned out the way it did, but we take his broader point.
Gunn went on to say that he’s not going to respond to the racists – because he’s “not ever going to change their minds” anyway – but for the benefit of everybody else, he added:
“For me, if a character’s primary attribute – the thing that makes them iconic – is the color of their skin, or their hair color, frankly, that character is shallow and sucks. 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.”“Whatever the case, if we’re going to continue to make movies based on the almost all white heroes and supporting characters from the comics of the last century, we’re going to have to get used to them being more reflective of our diverse present world. Perhaps we can be open to the idea that, although someone may not initially match how we personally conceive a character, we can be – and often are – happily surprised.”
You can read his full post below:
Spider-Man: Homecoming, which stars Tom Holland, is out in July 2017.
Source: Vulture.
Photo: Kevin Winter / Allen Berezovsky / Getty.
