Donald Glover for Spider-Man
- Thread starter The Stig
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Solo4114
Master Member
Really? Because given how studios seem to operate, I find it ENTIRELY believable, and that's a pretty sad commentary on the movie making industry these days.
How much of a stretch is it for a studio to make a play like what I described? Apparently, plenty of people think "not much." We already know they want to reboot the series to focus more on a teen and pre-teen demographic by making Spidey younger, so it's entirely possible that they'd try to capture the "urban" market or some other demographic. Maybe they'll keep Spidey as a white kid, but just have him do a hip-hop number in the middle of the film. Hell, when you start specifically changing things to target a given demographic, anything's possible.
P.S. I hear Wolverine is gonna be played by Kristen Bell in the next film. Yes, she isn't particularly muscular, male, or hairy, but she IS short, and they really want to capture the geek demographic while simultaneously infusing some much needed sex appeal into the story. Plus, they're hoping that tween girls will identify with her when she takes time to paint her nails AND her claws.
What was that for?
Superman was created by a Canadian and American so he is half Canadian based on that...sheesh.I like Donald Glover a lot in Community but it would be tough to take him seriously as Spiderman, but maybe he could pull it off. I too think it's too soon for a reboot and enjoyed the Tobey McGuire movies..well..2 of them.
Qui-Gonzalez
Master Member
"What Spider-Man stands for"? LOL...look, Peter Parker is white. He is a nerd in high school. He isn't black, he isn't hispanic. He is white. Being hispanic and not really having any heroes, I would STILL object to this kind of change, which would be just for change's sake.
jarvis
Sr Member
Just because they used a peach tone to shade in the ink drawings on the comics? Why does that matter so much to you guys? It's just a color, and it doesn't affect anything else, so why not cast based on charisma and acting?
Qui-Gonzalez
Master Member
Alright, let's let a white man play Martin Luther King Jr., hmm? Skin-tone doesn't matter, since it's the message that is important.
I know it is a silly reach, but this is the kind of thing it is. These comic book heroes are as much a part of American culture as MLK or Malcolm X, or JFK.
jarvis
Sr Member
Different races to play biopics? I think you know that doesn't apply to this scenario. Spiderman is fiction, his charecter has nothing to do with his race, as in: spiderman was not a black civil rights activist who is also a super crime fighter, he's a kid that got bit by a radioactive spider. So would it affect any of the charecter development, or story archs if he were a different race? No, so why single him out as "Must be played by a white kid" for no reason other than he was white in the comics?
Solo4114
Master Member
Oh come on, dude. Get real.
It's part of who the character is. That's not to say you couldn't have an equally effective super-powered do-gooder of a different race, but Spiderman -- as in Peter Parker -- is white, just like John Shaft is black, just like Liu Kang is Chinese, just like Katana, Doctor Light, and Silver Samurai are Japanese, and so on and so forth. It's just part of who they are.
Now, sometimes you can mess around with this stuff and it isn't a big deal, but I think it really depends on the character. Also, the notion of "Let's just make Peter Parker black with no real explanation" is far different from, say, creating an entirely different character like the new Mister Terrific or John Stewart -- one of the Green Lanterns -- are both black. But those are different characters entirely. Different people donning the mantle of a given hero. Like everyone knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne (white, by the way), but for a brief period in the early 90s, some french (or Quebecois? I forget) guy who went by the name Azrael ended up taking over the role. I heard Dick Grayson recently donned the cowl too, but all that is while Batman is supposedly dead (right. I'm so sure).
Regardless, the point is not "what they stand for", but rather who the character is. The further you get from that, the less you have to do with the character and the more you might as well just do a new character. There's nothing stopping Marvel from creating ANOTHER Spider-man. I mean, they've done it before with the Ben Parker clone. But that's a separate and distinct character from Peter Parker. Peter Parker is Peter Parker in all his whitebread glory, just like Superman is not an Aztec (never mind what you saw in Infinite Crisis...). Unless you can provide some in-universe explanation for the change (IE: Psylocke became asian after she was killed an reincarnated by the Hand into an asian body), don't mess with the hero's identity.
Solo4114
Master Member
How about for that very reason? He was white in the comics. Not just the comics, but pop culture in general.
I know. Let's get the guy who played Terry Tate: Office Enforcer to take over the role of Gambit in the next Xmen movie. Let's get James Hong (you may know him as Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China) to play Superman. Let's get Cathy Bates to play Wonder Woman. Let's have Patrick Stewart play Conan the Barbarian. Let's have David Duchovny play Carrie Bradshaw in the next Sex and the City movie. What? Are you saying that a guy who has already proven his own ability to act in drag can't play a woman in a movie? That's sexist! Besides, Duchovny could play Carrie with every bit of the same shoe obsession that Sarah Jessica Parker does. Oh, by the way, we're casting James Earl Jones as Samatha. Hey, if he could play a Lion, he can play a cougar, right?
Look, no one's arguing that one race is superior to another, but there comes a point where you just don't **** with a character, and ESPECIALLY not just for the sake of nabbing a new demographic.
jarvis
Sr Member
Demographics aside (this sprung about with the community guy joking around that he wanted to audition for spiderman, not some studio saying it needed to change spidermans race)
If they did choose another race to portray peter parker, you're right, it wouldn't be a 'straight from the page' translation of the comic, but I would have no problem with that if the actor they picked delivers a good performance, as much as I had no problem with the organic web shooters. I just don't see race as an iconic part of who spiderman is. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
If they did choose another race to portray peter parker, you're right, it wouldn't be a 'straight from the page' translation of the comic, but I would have no problem with that if the actor they picked delivers a good performance, as much as I had no problem with the organic web shooters. I just don't see race as an iconic part of who spiderman is. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
Qui-Gonzalez
Master Member
DING DING DING!
In my opinion, arguing for this change is just as preposterous as my changes to MLK. I mean, since it's just what he stands for that is important, it should not matter who plays him.
SSgt Burton
Sr Member
I am truly disturbed that you know Sarah Jessica Parker's character's full name from Sex and the City... I didn't even know her first name.
In fact I'm certain I'll never be able to read your posts the same way again. :unsure
(Joking... well sort of. :lol)
Kevin
Capn_Jack_Savvy
Sr Member
Whoa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Solo4114
Master Member
I'm pretty much just gonna agree that you're wrong and leave it at that.
I'm fine with relativism up to a point, but past that point...you're just wrong. Organic web shooters is a far cry from "He's black." P.S. For those saying "Oh yeah? What if they did a white version of Shaft?!" They did. And this was the result:
Are you kidding? That show was INVALUABLE for research purposes, as far as understanding what makes women tick. Plus, I'm comfortable enough with my masculinity to admit that I found it kind of entertaining at first. It got old after a while, though.
jarvis
Sr Member
Don't you see the dissimilarity in these comparissons with MLK. He was a black historical figure, if you change him to a white guy in a movie about him, it totally messes up the plot so to speak. The fact that black people had a strong leader that was standing up for their rights, rights which they did not have at the time, would be a completly different story if it was a white guy. If you change spidey to something other than a white guy, the plot stays the same.
So that's my argument, I don't think spidey's 'whiteness' is part of the charecters iconography, and I don't think changing his race will effect anything else about the story.
So that's my argument, I don't think spidey's 'whiteness' is part of the charecters iconography, and I don't think changing his race will effect anything else about the story.
Agreed.
The character's nerdy whiteness is key from which he came.
Yes, it's a stereotype. Nobody does nerd like whitey.
I refuse to be guilted into supporting race changing casting in the name
of color blindness. Characters are written in such a way that you cannot do that sometimes. Just the way it is. Take it case by case.
Peter Parker does not qualify.
oh man i saw this thread and cant stop laughing. altho him as spider man will never happen, its still a funny idea. He is really funny comic, met him 2 week ago in NY, super funny but he could play spider man if it were like a total spoof. haha I agree with everyone tho, will smith as captain america? no, Donald Glover as spiderman? nope.
SSgt Burton
Sr Member
(Sorry I just had to).
For the record I wouldn't be interested in an actor playing spidey that wasn't white... or skinny... or a nerd... or wore glasses.
Listen I "get" the point you are trying to make in that the colour of the character's skin is not intergral to the makeup of the character itself---
However for me Spider-Man/Peter Parker has always been a teenage, acne-ridden, nerdy white kid.
Kevin
JunkSabers1138
Sr Member
Worst idea since Beyonce was rumored to be cast as Wonder Woman....
I can see why the whole "what the character stands for" would be valid.... but HONESTLY, just go ahead and re-write everything and have Parker or Diana be born as an african (yeah, just imagine that in an ancient Grecian culture)... the story can never be the same, the life experences that character will go through will be so different it wont even even be the same character by the end of the day.
for instance, if you make Peter Parker born a poor black kid in a thug-ridden ghetto, hes likely not going to have the education or smarts that the original Peter had, hes going to be descriminated a LOT more than the original Peter, and thus the character's atitudes and worldview are going to be radically different.... its almost as if becoming spider man is just some freak accident and is the only thing that has to do with the original comics...
I can see why the whole "what the character stands for" would be valid.... but HONESTLY, just go ahead and re-write everything and have Parker or Diana be born as an african (yeah, just imagine that in an ancient Grecian culture)... the story can never be the same, the life experences that character will go through will be so different it wont even even be the same character by the end of the day.
for instance, if you make Peter Parker born a poor black kid in a thug-ridden ghetto, hes likely not going to have the education or smarts that the original Peter had, hes going to be descriminated a LOT more than the original Peter, and thus the character's atitudes and worldview are going to be radically different.... its almost as if becoming spider man is just some freak accident and is the only thing that has to do with the original comics...
Should Blade be played by a white guy?
Hell no to that as well.
Some characters are what they are. Let them be what they are.
Hell no to that as well.
Some characters are what they are. Let them be what they are.
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