It seems that Twitter is all the twitting about a grassroots campaign to get Mystery Team/Community actor comedian Donald Glover an audition for the role of Spider-Man/Peter Parker in Sony’s attempt to reboot the franchise.
While the whole thing is a gag, and Glover himself doesn’t see it happening, it’s got some buzz and does make you think. 3k people are fans of the Facebook page illustrating the campaign and #donald4spiderman was the third highest trending topic on Twitter for a while there.
I don’t know if fans would accept a non-white Spider-Man, but I don’t really care. It’s not an affirmative-action move. It’s asking the question: is there anything inherently white about Spider-Man’s story? Yes, Stan Lee wrote Peter Parker as a white character, but is there anything about that character’s story that wouldn’t work for a man of any non-white ethnicity?
And I couldn’t agree more. While some characters are built around their ethnicity, Spider-Man is not one of them. In the end I still think they will cast some white kid, but its worth considering.
Do I think it should be Donald Glover? HELL NO.
While Spider-Man is not a comedian or a comedy flick, his snappy banter is a part of his appeal – but I just can’t see Glover doing it. But they want a high school Parker, and this guy is 27. He doesn’t have Ralph Macchio’s boyish looks to play a high school student at that age. College kid maybe. Still, my opinion against him has nothing to do with him being black.
Could they make a black kid play Peter Parker? Why not?
I think the reboot is a fine idea and I am not against it. Without Raimi you might as well start over, because moving forward without those actors and without Raimi, its going to be a whole new feel to Spidey anyways.
They want to go younger, gloss over the origin and have him still in highschool. That’s fine. None of those things say he can’t be black. Or hispanic (Superman was played by a hispanic actor) or even an Asian. It doesn’t matter.
As long as he has Parker’s insecurities, MJ is a hot redhead, Flash is a bully, Osborne is kind of a prick and we have an agile superstrong hero in spider pajamas cracking the wise… It’s Spider-Man.
But as mentioned in the Collider article, its going to be hard to get people interested in this if they dont show something fresh.
For me it depends on how much I care about the character. Spider-man, Superman, Batman should all be white. Antman, Captain America, Flash, I don’t care.
Its just a gag so some people need to lighten up about it. I wouldnt be for it personally but I do enjoy Donald Glover’s character on Community. I know Rodney will take this as a dig and it isnt meant that way but Fury is a horrible Nick Fury period.
I guess if you are a fan of Samuel Jackson you think its cool, but if your not his character portrayal of Nick Fury is unbearable and I am not the first person to say so. Well, I may be the first person at this blog to say it, but not at the comic forums I frequent.
Just sayin.
This will definitely not work. Period.
Great…and while we’re at it, let’s make a film on Obama starring Tom Cruise.
Peter Parker’s adventure is about a highschool boy who gets bit by a radio active spider giving him the proportionate strength and agility of a spider. I dont see anything in that story that says he has to be white.
The story of the First Black President? Yeah, you would have to be a retard to think a white guy would play that role.
Nothing saying Peter Parker MUST be white… your comment oozes of your ignorance.
Unless it was Robert Downey, Jr. I think he could play Obama.
“Yeah, you would have to be a retard to think a white guy would play that role.”
But don’t go FULL retard!
no, RDJ should get that part, not tom
“While Spider-Man is not a comedian or a comedy flick, his snappy banter is a part of his appeal”
Very true. Tobey Macguire could NOT pull off this element of the role. We need this next one to be someone who can–black or white, I don’t care. Just don’t cast a weepy-eyed loser with no comedic talent again. A younger Ryan Reynolds, for instance, would have nailed it.
My how far we’ve come. A while back when there were wispers about Will Smith being considered Captain America (unfounded rumors of course) people were up in arms about Cap not being white. Or maybe they just didn’t want Smith….
I dont really care so much about the color of Spider-Man however when I heard the rumors of Will Smith being considered for Captain America that was retarded. Historically speaking, that would have never happened. The tensions between whites and black during the 1930’s and 40’s may have haven a back seat to the Depression and WWII but the government wouldn’t have picked a black person for the super soldier program. Please don’t get me wrong this IS NOT a racist comment nor am I. Im simply stating a fact about our country and the social status it was at during that time. When Hollywood goes for changes like this it really pisses me off. Certain things should be left as is. Granted this was only a rumor and it didn’t happen thankfully.
What if they didnt want to test the serum on a white guy? It seems plausible that they would have used a black guy as a guiene pig.
Steve Rodgers was the guiene pig. The US Government was going to manufacture the serum for more super soldiers but there was a Nazi spy who killed Dr. Erskine, which is why Rodgers is the only one.
Yes but would it not be plausible that would test it on a black guy first?
That story would make sense to me. If it worked on the black guy then they could it on white guys. That wasn’t the story but I don’t see how that would drastically change the story.
In 2003 there was a miniseries that outlined a Hero named Isaiah Bradley who was a black test subject of the Super Soldier serum, and he did have similar abilities but never became the symbol that Cap was.
The basis that Cap was more than a super soldier, and rather a SYMBOL of the American fight is why they will go with a White guy playing the role. They would not have elevated a black test subject as a symbol in that culture that accepted blacks as second class.
Well stated Rodney. Cloud, you gotta understand the social and political situations going on during that time. Blacks and whites barely fought together side by side during WWII. The blacks that did join the military were put in their own platoon with other blacks or they had other types of jobs that didnt consist of fighting. As barbaric as it is for today’s standards the world was completely different back then. It wasn’t until Vietnam that blacks and whites fight side by side. (Perhaps the Korean War Im not sure because I don’t know too much about that but I know for sure about Vietnam)
Adaptation.
I’m sure they wont have Captain America set up as a leader anyway.
I could be the most racist person in the world but if I am caught under fire with no way out, and someone comes to save me, I don’t care what color they are.
I dont see what assumption you are going under that they wouldnt make Cap some sort of leader.
He has always been a leader.
I mean put in place as a leader. He will come to lead through action, not because the army had this symbol they wanted to lead.
If they DON’T have him in place as a symbol and a leader in his own film and in Avengers then they are missing the point. Cap was created not just to be a superior type of soldier, but to stand as a symbol – which is why they have him in the garish uniform laden with the flag. He IS a symbol in action and presence. That was what Cap always was.
And despite repeating your assumption you still havent said why you think they WONT make him a leader and a symbol when that is an integral part of his storyline and origin.
When the director talked about the costume he said that they put him in the USO show and that he goes AWOL.
He also says that cap uses it as a symbol. So that makes it his choice not the people that created him.
And maybe I did or maybe I didn’t but I thought I said the USO thing already and the comment got deleted.
He was fully aware from the start that his mission was to fight and protect America. By doing that he is a symbol.Furthermore, the government told him what their intentions were. What may happen in the story, as you are saying, does not reflect who he eventually turns out to be.
I am saying they don’t want him to fight(adding with white soldiers right here doesn’t seem to make that much of a difference to me) but he goes AWOL and proves through his action that he is a leader. Despite the plans the army had in place for him.
I got to say i never thought of a black spidey but i have no problem with it and i have seen this kid on tv before….he would make a brilliant young spidey IMO…like the other poster said “better then the other 5”
I orginally read this as Danny Glover….
Batman? Really? Boy oh boy. This is why the character race topic is always a problem.
Meh, it’s better than the other five.
jeje, most sensible thought ive read regarding the new spidey movie
hes going ot be swinging around new york, people are going to think hes BATMAN!!!
Why Batman? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
Spiderman doesn’t look anything at all like Batman… why would they confuse him???
Bow Wow for Spider-man.
Not really though
I have no problems with a black Spider-Man. I’d rather they go with a black person that can act over a white person that can’t. In the end, I just hope they go with the best actor, no matter what race or color he is. Kingpin and Fury are both black in the movieverses now, so why not Spider-Man? Color has absolutly no basis towards who the character of SM is.
Fury was Black in the Ultimates before he was on film. They cast Jackson for that reason specifically because the artist who originally created the Fury image for the Ultimates used Sam Jackson as a reference.
Just sayin.