An Update On SPIDER-MAN's Potential MCU Ethnicity

A rumor has been doing the rounds that there's a good chance Spidey won't be white when he jumps ship from Sony to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We didn't report on it initially because it seemed more like speculation than anything solid, but now we have slightly more information to work with...

By MarkCassidy - Feb 23, 2015 05:02 PM EST

Filed Under: Spider-Man

When the Wrap's Jeff Sneider appeared on this week's Meet The Movie Press show, he said he was "95% sure" that Marvel's incarnation of our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man would not be white. He also said he didn't think it would be Peter Parker, and that even if it was he would be "most likely, black", with a chance he could be Latino. Jeff reckoned that with some of the content of those leaked Sony emails being deemed to be racist by many, it would be a chance for the studio to save face by going a more diverse route with this casting.

Jeff's broken more superhero-related scoops that I can count, and there's no question he has good sources when it comes to these type of things, so a lot of outlets picked up on this and posted it as a rumor. To us, the way it was phrased made it seem a bit more like an educated guess so we didn't run with it, but now Jeff has added something a tad more concrete to the story.

White actors are still going out for Spider-Man but their reps are telling me they think Sony is leaning "ethnic."
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) February 23, 2015

Obviously this still needs to be classed as a rumor, as Jeff himself cautions that the reason he didn't run the story on The Wrap is because nothing has been confirmed yet. However, it's now clear that this is something he's actually been hearing whispers about as opposed to a hunch of his. In their report on this, Badass Digest add that they've heard "Marvel is calling most of the shots on this new movie", but that they're "savvy enough, plugged in enough and good enough at PR to at the very least have some black actors considered for the role." It sounds like it could really go either way at the moment, but hopefully we'll hear something official on this over the next while. Thoughts?

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527 Comments

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pucrepeap - 2/23/2015, 5:20 PM

lame

MiniMart - 2/23/2015, 5:20 PM

peter parker or im out.

ruadh - 2/23/2015, 5:22 PM

My kids are half Mexican....I would totally be down with Latino for that reason. Otherwise, waiting for Echo to show up on Daredevil.

DeusExSponge - 2/23/2015, 5:22 PM

"He also said he didn't think it would be Peter Parker"

That goes against what Marvel and Sony said about having Peter Parker as Spider-Man for their first Spider-Man solo movie. As for the ethnicity, I'm going to let our local keyboard warriors handle that mess. But what about that list that included Dylan O'Brien and Logan Lerman? Was that just a red herring?

rockerdude22 - 2/23/2015, 5:23 PM

I think they should start with Peter Parker, and then maybe introduce someone like Miles Morales down the road. I think they understand that Peter is the Spidey that we all want to see interact with the other MCU characters, so I strongly believe he's the first incarnation of Spidey they'll use in the MCU.

Kyos - 2/23/2015, 5:23 PM

I... honestly don't care. We'll see what they decide.

ThatPositiveGuy - 2/23/2015, 5:24 PM

NO!!

Look I love Miles Morales, but it's about DAMN TIME we get a good Spiderman/Peter Parker THE ORIGINAL SPIDERMAN!!!

So NO, NO, NO!

TheLurker - 2/23/2015, 5:24 PM

In 2025, they're allowed to go Miles Morales. Until then, we deserve Peter Parker done right

LEVITIKUZ - 2/23/2015, 5:24 PM

Now I will admit, depending on the character and the actor, I am alright with changing the race of characters. Most of these characters were created between the 30s-70s but solely white writers. It's a completely different world that we live in then they did.

Now in changing Spider-Man's race. If it was going to be Miles, I am alright with it as long as we have that Peter did exist. Having Miles be the MCU main Spider-Man would be like Zack Snyder having Terry McGuinnis as the DCCU Batman.

The whole point of Miles is he is to carry on the Spider-Man mantle. Having him without showcasing Peter's death or Peter existing ruins the character of Miles.

But if it's Peter, part of me feel like they are changing the race just to change the race.

We've seen Spider-Man played by 2 white actors before in 2 series that one was proclaim as the superhero genre's Godfather series in that the first 2 were awesome and third sucked (although I have a different opinion on Spidey 3 but that's a debate for another day). Even Garfield wasn't that bad. I may have hated TASM2 but one of the few pluses I remember was I felt Garfield's performance in that was better than his TASM1 performance.

The point is there are only I would say 5 iconic superheroes. Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Wolverine. I could count Hulk there but Hulk is green and no one would change that. Back to the iconic superheroes, I feel that changing a hero's race that is that iconic for the sole reason of change just feels wrong unless it's an elseworld story or someone besides Peter to Diana or Logan or Bruce or Clark is the hero. Like the mantle was carried on by another.

I mean yea people bring up Elba for Bond but I've always liked the idea of Bond being a title of the spy, not the spy's name so in that case, Bond can be anyone.

When we look at characters who's race were changed. I mean we had Harvey Dent in Batman which was alright. It didn't feel extremely forced plus he was played by Billy Dee Williams. Either way I would not say Two-Face is an iconic villain at that time considering he was really only known for the Batman comics and never appeared on the Adam West show. We had Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White which was great I feel. Liked it. We had Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin. To this day I will forever say that you will never find an actor as good and talented as MCD who physically can come close to Kingpin like MCD can. Rest in peace MCD. There are other examples but the point is none of them were really iconic characters at the time.

I just feel like changing Spider-Man's race would be the equivalent to changing Luke Skywalker's race so to speak or changing Mickey Mouse into a Lion. It just feels forced. Some race changes are ok but doing it to a character who virtually is the face of Marvel, it does feel forced.

But at the same time, when it comes to Marvel Studios rumors, y'all don't believe that. You only believe rumors when it comes to WB or Fox and take them as fact but not taking Marvel Studios rumors that sound bad as facts.

BatHeis - 2/23/2015, 5:24 PM

I'd love it. More for the thread and backpedaling than the race itself. Peter's race doesn't matter.

TheRealUltron - 2/23/2015, 5:24 PM

Are they willing to pull a "B.B. Jordan"? I don't think so! This is Marvel Studios guys! ;) They know what they're doing!!!

MrCBM56 - 2/23/2015, 5:25 PM

Good riddance towards the over-the-top loyalist; annoying "purists" will inbound. Like I said on another article:

Does race matter? YES. But it's 'bout damn time we understand films will take liberties. Unless it's severely [frick]ing deviated from whichever source you most likely won't see me complaining.

Especially when I have comics to sustain whatever gripe. That said, I do wish to live in an awesome world where my favorite characters are brought to life... Respectfully =]

~~Byyee~~

DallasAvenger - 2/23/2015, 5:25 PM

No Peter Parker? I'll spend my money elsewhere.

NolanMarek - 2/23/2015, 5:25 PM

It has to be Peter Parker. No way Marvel finally has Spider-Man and NOT do Peter. If they're so desperate for diversity then have miles or whatever come down the line but not starting off, doesn't make sense.

acorsi11 - 2/23/2015, 5:25 PM

It'll still be Peter Parker, but they might want an actor with some European or Latin American background to make him different from the previous versions, which I'm actually ok with.

Save Miles for after the Spider-Man Trilogy. Then, they can do an Ultimate Spider-Man Trilogy.

LEVITIKUZ - 2/23/2015, 5:26 PM

Personally I'm hoping they don't do Miles or Peter Parker and do Peter Porker.

We need more pig related superheroes in the genre.

TheAmericanPatriot - 2/23/2015, 5:26 PM

Like I said before, there's no point of blackwashing Peter Parker because you need someone of color. You already have Miles Morales. With that said, I love Ultimate Spider-Man but Peter will always be Spider-Man.