MJ is sassy. She's sexy. She's self-confident. She's the jackpot that Peter Parker just hit.
Nothing in that description, to me, dictates MJ as being any particular race. Being red-headed is pretty iconic, visually, but — well, heck, if Scarlett Johansson can pull off the red-headed Black Widow, I'm pretty sure Zendaya can make that work, too. She's the actress that's been cast as MJ in the new Spider-Man: Homecoming film.
As to her not being as lily-white as John Romita, Sr. first drew her, based on the actress Ann-Margret — I really don't see the problem. I don't think of Mary Jane as Peter's white girlfriend. She's his red-headed girlfriend, or his model girlfriend, or his girlfriend after Gwen Stacy gets killed, or even Peter Parker's girlfriend who becomes his wife (deals with the devil notwithstanding).
Maybe it's because I've been seeing so many stage productions — esp. of Shakespeare — where race / ethnicity (and, where not germane, gender) has been something ignored in favor of talent and being able to perform as the character in question. So, too, I see no barrier to a mixed-race woman being able to capture the sexy, independent, challenging nature of Mary Jane Watson; indeed, a woman who's not what one would expect would fit the role all the better.
‘SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING’S DIVERSE CASTING IS A WIN – “LET’S FACE IT TIGER, YOU JUST HIT THE JACKPOT!”
Marvel blew the roof off of Hall H this past San Diego Comic Con. It was a month ago, but it feels like yesterday that we were screaming our heads off at Marvel’s killer slate of films, exclusive content, and star studded casts. Not the…
I see no problem with MJ having her race changed. Hardcore comic fans need to understand that times have changed. Of course, Mary Jane and Johnny Storm and Nick Fury and a billion other characters in comics were white. That's just the way it was back then. You had Black Panther, Storm, and Luke Cage. Just about everyone else was white.
As long as she can act and bring the character to life on the big screen, I'm happy.
Off the top of my head, the only off-race casting challenge I could see in Shakespeare is Othello…
If "diversity casting" is done in service of story, or the actor killed the audition, great. There's plenty of examples of the latter, e.g. Duane Jones as Ben in Night of the Living Dead, Amy Madigan as McCoy in Streets of Fire, Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien. I'm totally willing to buy that this happened here.
But I'd also love to see the studio just say "yeah, MJ is a redhead white girl, so we're going to have our Peter fall for a non-MJ non-Gwen character". Why not? We had MJ in Raimi's movies, and Gwen in the Amazing movies, and I think both actresses did a great job. There's room for a new Spidey love interest. Joe Quesada apparently thought so. And you can write this awesome, strong, cool, popular character and not have to make her MJ, even if Joe couldn't.
I feel like Batman Beyond did a great job of this. Moving the Batman story into the future let them cast an Asian girlfriend and a black best friend for Terry, without needing to rehash Bruce's roster of girlfriends. It was just how things were, and Max and Terry got plenty of characterization (Dana less so, but not all writing is perfect).
I love the idea, +Bill Garrett but do you know the huge stink that would cause? The New 52 comics caught grief for a lot of things but one of the major issues was Clark hooking up with Wonder Woman while Lois Lane remained just a friend. No studio is going to want that hassle.
As far as fans are concerned, Clark always ends up with Lois, Barry Allen always gets Iris, and Peter Parker falls in love with Gwen Stacy and MJ. I think these are rules carved in stone somewhere.
I think the studio that made Rocket Raccoon happen on a big screen can take something unconventional and win over the fans, especially if Zendaya can sell the character. They're bettering a good chunk of the movie on her as it is, so I imagine she could. 🙂
Obviously nothing we say here is going to change hearts and minds or alter anyone's script, but it's fun for me to think about as a comics and genre-film fan.
i'm honestly perfectly fine with that, given that this is technically going to be the first movie for this incarnation of spiderman. what i would absolutely hate is if they started with a white woman and recasted it to a black woman in the next appearance. i hate recasting.
+Bill Garrett See, I'd feel more uncomfortable about a Peter Parker story where Agnes Smith was his true love, than one where MJ (or Gwen, or both) weren't white. The individuals in the plot are part of the mythos;there's no need to change that unless you are replacing it with something even more meaningful. It would be like setting Spider-Man in a small Nebraska farm town. — you can tell that story, and it will be interesting, but it's not a "real" Spider-Man story.
Agreed that Othello is a big exception in Shakespeare, because his being a Moor is integral to his character and story. It would be similar to having the Black Panther be white; the core of his story is as the head of a fabulously advanced African nation, and changing his race alters a significant part of it.
(Arguably you could change Luke Cage; growing up a Kid in the Streets / living in the Ghetto could be done with practically any race. That said, until there are a lot more colorblind productions and opportunities for non-whites for stars, it would feel distinctly counter-productive.)
+Marty S. I would have given the New52 less flak over that if it hadn't been more along the lines of NOBODY IS IN A SETTLED RELATIONSHIP BECAUSE THOSE ARE ICKY AND BORING and hit the reset button.
(Along those same lines and bringing it back to the article, I was irked by the same attitude, on a more limited scale, of hitting the reset button on Peter and MJ. Still am.)
+Sunapi Thnati That usually bothers me, too, though the realities of running a multi-million dollar franchise for several-plus years too often means that actors become unavailable or have other problems where they need to be replaced.
+Dave Hill the reset button is actually one of the reasons I'd rather see a new character. I've seen the Peter-MJ story across three movies. I've seen the Peter-Gwen story in two. Now we're going to undo all of that? I get why Marvel wants a clean slate from the other studios' films, but I think they're missing their chance on doing what clean slates do: giving you room to maneuver.
+Bill Garrett But by that measure, why make another Spider-Man movie at all, but start with a clean slate altogether?
Marvel's not "undoing" what's been done before (in two different movie series) as much as telling a variant on the story, setting it younger, mixing things up a bit. That can become boring, yes, but it can also allow new nuances to the retelling.
Actually, taking it back to stage productions, how many times do we need to see Othello? It's like they don't even change the words or the plot at all. Movie remakes actually do more to provide new insights into rebooted / remade stories through themes and variations.
I just watched both the 1974 Lumet version of Murder on the Orient Express, starring Albert Finney, and the 2010 version portrayed by David Suchet. Both are entertaining. I have definite preferences over the variations made in them. But both are telling essentially the same story, changing up enough details to make it fresh and interesting. And now Kenneth Branagh has announced he's making his own version — and I'm looking forward to that, too.
Circling back to the topic, I don't think Marvel's intent was specifically, "What if Mary Jane Watson weren't a white girl?" If that were the case then, yes, maybe we have Peter fall for Glory Grant. I don't have a problem, if we are doing a Spider-Man story, with having the standard surroundings and attributes of a Spider-Man story — an MJ, an Aunt May, a J Jonah Jameson. I hope they do something fresh within that framework (and perhaps make minor tweaks to the framework itself). I see that happening here, and I'm fine with that.
Fair enough. 🙂
hey, while talking about recasting characters, can we talk about the trauma associated with the new Aunt May? I'm used to reading about a little old lady with her white hair in a bun and now I have to get used to the lovely Marisa Tomei as Peter's aunt. I have issues, people. I might never recover. 😉
+Marty S. Yes. It's … disturbing. (http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/001/122/741/522.jpg)
+Marty S. Or, visualized another way: https://goo.gl/dL8hcZ
+Dave Hill , oh my god! Marisa Tomei is 51? I might have to lie down.