Spider-Man: Homecoming

[George]

@Dessa : thank you for sharing that! I was kinda hoping for this 'cross-over material',because the Tinkerer is also the link between Iron Man...and the Beetle - one of my favorite underrated villains from the Spiderman comics that received much of his tech from the Tinkerer for his flight suit.If I were ever to make a costume,it would have to be either The Beetle MKII or the Scorpion (as drawn by Sal Buscema).

@AJTaliesen : outrage? no.Just saying: I prefer authentic as much as possible.
I'm curious enough to want to go see the movie anyway.

 

[FirstPick]

I just want my MJ to have red hair and be totally out of Peter's league (in looks). If she can nail the personality, I have no problem with this casting.

I feel bad because Zendaya was so young in the show my kids watched, but tell me she's not pretty?

 

[JediHomer]

red hair is a must, don't care if she's not caucasian... and she has to carry herself as MJ, period.

 

[FirstPick]

red hair is a must, don't care if she's not caucasian... and she has to carry herself as MJ, period.

And has to be hot. Our last Mary Jane was not hot.

 

[Father]

View attachment 656937
I feel bad because Zendaya was so young in the show my kids watched, but tell me she's not pretty?

She looks manufactured... like one of those Bratz dolls... which I guess is perfect for playing a comic book character.

 

[ObiWan_Knievil]

She looks fine to me, and to echo another I thought she was probably Puerto Rican myself. I had no idea of her ethnicity until it was posted here. I will say I get tired of this one way Politically Correct street. It's seen as progressive to cast a traditionally white character as a different race, but good gosh o'mighty let them cast a white or hispanic actor as Shaft or Falcon and the Politically Correct culture would tear itself apart.

-OWK

 

[JD]

She looks fine to me, and to echo another I thought she was probably Puerto Rican myself. I had no idea of her ethnicity until it was posted here. I will say I get tired of this one way Politically Correct street. It's seen as progressive to cast a traditionally white character as a different race, but good gosh o'mighty let them cast a white or hispanic actor as Shaft or Falcon and the Politically Correct culture would tear itself apart.

-OWK

Ben Affleck in Argo.
Johnny Depp in The Lone Ranger.
Russell Crowe in Noah.
Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton in Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Jake Gyllenhall in Prince of Persia.
Liam Neeson in Batman Begins.
Casey Mulligan in Drive.

 

[cboath]

Ben Affleck in Argo.
Johnny Depp in The Lone Ranger.
Russell Crowe in Noah.
Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton in Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Jake Gyllenhall in Prince of Persia.
Liam Neeson in Batman Begins.
Casey Mulligan in Drive.

I don't recall all of them, and frankly, some of them are far from normal public knowledge. Not saying they're secrets, but people in general have no clue to the race of some of those.

OTOH...

Huge deal was made of Depp as Tonto.
Small deal was made of Noah, but everyone views those characters differently.
Much bigger deal was made over Gods/Kings
Issues were raised with Prince of Persia.

Issues were raised with Liam Neeson, but not many.

No one in 300 was greek (i dont' think, the stars sure weren't) - that barely got any comments. Turning the Persians into weirdo's got more play.

Casting Emma stone as a Hawiian got loads of negative press.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Ironically, Depp is part Cherokee (like a lot of Americans) and the Apache Nation made him an honorary member because he did his research and depicted the character accurately and respectfully. I take the stance that you can't get outraged on behalf of an ethnic group you're not part of -- especially if that ethnic group is cool with what's been done.

Then there's the issue of just generally bad movies. Like, the ethnicity of Noah in Noah... It sort of blends into the background noise of all the other problems I have with that movie. So in that respect, that, Prince of Persia, and Exodus are less of a glaring issue for me.

300 and Gods of Egypt are fairy-tale legend-y sorts of stories, so detached from reality, I have no issue with ethnicity one way or another.

My biggest issue out of any of the ones listed in the last couple posts was Liam as Ra's al-Ghul. I know the reason was to avoid having an Arabic person be the villain, but the solution created its whole own problem. I also have a problem with the character depiction in the film. I would have been happier with an Arabic actor portraying Ra's the anti-hero rather than any depiction of Ra's as villain. Liam started out okay, but then went over-the-top moustache-twirly. A film that had been doing a wonderful job of pitting anti-hero against anti-hero in a very shades-of-gray tale of whose questionable morality was the righter ended up reverting in the third act to straight up good guy versus bad guy bland.

All that said, I have no problem with this actress as Mary Jane. Her ethnic background has never been an integral part of her character, as far as I can tell from my spotty association with the Spider-Man comics. over the years.

--Jonah

 

[JD]

I remember some discussion about Depp/Tonto - not a "huge deal." Most of it was just laughs... The others? I don't recall anything being mentioned... And nothing like some of the reaction this has gotten. (I still don't like Johnny Storm's change).

Let's add a few more to the list:

Jennifer Lawrence in the Hunger Games.
Emma Stone in Aloha.
Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek Into Darkness. (Ok, it's been talked about)
Tilda Swinton in Dr Strange (ok, it's been talked about)
Mena Suvari in Stuck.
Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow.
Everyone in Ghost in the Shell.
Max Minghella in Social Network.
Chiwetel Ejiofor in The Martian (they even changed his characters first name to sound less foreign).

 

[JD]

Ironically, Depp is part Cherokee (like a lot of Americans) and the Apache Nation made him an honorary member because he did his research and depicted the character accurately and respectfully. I take the stance that you can't get outraged on behalf of an ethnic group you're not part of -- especially if that ethnic group is cool with what's been done.

Actually, Depp says he's Cherokee - but has offered little back it up. He was ceremoniously adopted by the Comanche Nation and received a Navajo blessing.

I agree with the director of the American Indian Museum, it's not offensive.... Just weird.

 

[Father]

Chiwetel Ejiofor in The Martian (they even changed his characters first name to sound less foreign).

Having read the book first and not knowing all of the casting I was definitely disappointed to find out that Irrfan Khan wasn't available for play that role as they actually did want him.
I also imagined William Hurt playing the part that Jeff Daniels played. Daniels was ok though.

 

[JediHomer]

She looks manufactured... like one of those Bratz dolls... which I guess is perfect for playing a comic book character.

that's not a great shot of her, i'll agree there. was on Dancing with Stars and she's pretty smokin....




kind of funny... but this 'issue' is absolutely fn stupid:

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/social-media-reacts-after-gma-hosts-colored-people/nsKFP/

"Robach’s reference to “colored people” came during a segment about actress Zendaya potentially playing Mary Jane in an upcoming “Spider-Man” reboot. Mary Jane is a character traditionally filled by white actresses, and Zendaya is half black and half white."

stupid

 

[dascoyne]

Putting on my Marvel apologist hat here.
I'm looking at her and thinking she could actually be a very spiritually faithful version of Mary Jane. In the comics MJ was introduced as a party girl - the complete opposite of Gwen who was the perfect girl next door. They created MJ because the writers thought Gwen was too perfect and boring. The wild MJ created a great tension and contrast with Parker. As much as I love Ramie's Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst wasn't MJ from the comics - she was more like Gwen but with red hair. A lot of folks forgot (or never knew) what MJ was supposed to be all about. I don't feel like this is a play for making MJ more ethnic. I sincerely think she impressed them at the audition by being as strong a presence as MJ was supposed to be - not that wilting flower from the earlier movies.

 

[JediHomer]

yup, the party girl to contrast his previous love interest of Gwen

 

[Laspector]

Is there going to be a Gwen in this new reboot? Or is it just going to be all Mary Jane like the Raimi stuff? I just don't see how you can do Spider-man without Gwen. Her arc with the Green Goblin is as important to SM lore as his origin, yet they've tried twice now to do the Green Goblin (both with and without Gwen) and neither one was done right. I dunno, maybe it is just time to stop beating that dead horse. I certainly don't want another origin story.

As much as I would love to see a Green Goblin/Gwen story done right, let's be honest, most readers nowadays have never read that story anyways. You ask the average SM reader today about Peter's main love interest, they are pretty much always going to say MJ.

 

[JD]

Having read the book first and not knowing all of the casting I was definitely disappointed to find out that Irrfan Khan wasn't available for play that role as they actually did want him.
I also imagined William Hurt playing the part that Jeff Daniels played. Daniels was ok though.

Not to get this topic further off topic, but... Jeff Daniels all the way!

 

[KrangPrime]

She looks fine to me, and to echo another I thought she was probably Puerto Rican myself. I had no idea of her ethnicity until it was posted here. I will say I get tired of this one way Politically Correct street. It's seen as progressive to cast a traditionally white character as a different race, but good gosh o'mighty let them cast a white or hispanic actor as Shaft or Falcon and the Politically Correct culture would tear itself apart.

-OWK

pretty much this.


I understand that the reason they do this, is because there are so many white male characters in comics that it would look kind of ridiculous in today's culture to keep it that way. but, I wish they would create NEW characters. Retire some of the old ones if you have too.. especially ones who have had the same story repeated a dozen times over in so many reboots.

what's the other excuse people use on the change being ok? 'being white has no effect or meaning to some characters background?' if you change a persons race and have them grow up in the same situation in any time in history, I bet it'd have a big influence on their history and how that person develops into who they are!


anyway, didn't mean to get serious....but i'm just tired of PC/progressivness stuff when it comes to established fictional characters. sad part is, I guess it still works as intended, cause hollywood keeps on doing it. I hate it when it happens to any character too. so glad so many people where pissed off when they tried to make shredder white in the new ninja turtles movie so they could erase all japanese history from the franchise...ugh.

 

[Axlotl]

The only time I ever got really angry about casting a different ethnicity for a role was when Jennifer Garner was cast as Elektra.
No one else gives a crap, but it made me furious.
You know who would have been an amazing Elektra?
Indira Varma.
Yes, I know she's not Greek, but she looks Greek, and she's not a flipping pretty red-haired white girl.

I don't have an issue with Zendaya as MJ, as long as she brings the personality.

 

[JD]

Let's remember one thing... the MJ casting hasn't even been confirmed and there was at least one report that said this wasn't true.

I didn't like Michael Jordan's casting as Johnny Storm (I still don't) - I felt it threw too much of the FF off kilter - Johnny and Sue are brother and sister. Zendaya as MJ? Not a big deal for me.... sure, there are 50 years (first appearance in November 1966) of established history with MJ. I don't think it's odd to modernize these characters - things have changed in 50 years. The Civil Rights movement basically came to a head with the Civil Rights Act of 1968 - so it would've been very unlikely for this to happen during the beginning of all this - it was a different world and a different time.

I don't think the moviemakers are being "progressive" or have some sort of agenda. They're just being realistic and contemporary.

But, all that said. My pick for Mary Jane Watson is still Bella Thorne - who ironically is friends with Zendaya and starred together on a Disney show.