[Ultimatejobber]

io9.com/5549613/the-last-thing-spider+man-should-be-is-another-white-guy

Apparently this article has spurred a Betty White-esque Twitter campaign for Donald Glover. If rumors are to be followed casting the new Peter Parker is very close to happening. I know nothing about Donald Glover, but I wonder, would a black (or non-white) Spider-Man/Peter Parker be a huge deal? I'm not sure how I feel about this, thought it would be fun to hear what y'all think.

MTA:

io9.com/5552684/donald-glover-for-spider+man-why-the-hell-not

The White Candidates:

io9.com/5548720/which-one-of-these-actors-is-the-new-spider+man

[Stu]

If we get a black Spider-man, can we in turn get a white Luke Cage?

[The Canadian Content]

Jun 2, 2010 11:11:13 GMT -5 Stu said:

If we get a black Spider-man, can we in turn get a white Luke Cage?

And orange Nightcrawler?

[Deleted]

A non-gay Thor?



Seriously, I don't think I would have a problem with it. Stan Lee's comment about him being able to "be any race because he wears a head-to-toe suit" works for me. Granted, I know nothing of Donald Glover, specifically, but even being a die-hard Spidey fan, I could accept it. If Nick Fury can be black, so can Spidey in my opinion.

[Stu]

Seriously, I don't think I would have a problem with it. Stan Lee's comment about him being able to "be any race because he wears a head-to-toe suit" works for me.

Yeah, but that's basically saying the race of SPIDER-MAN doesn't matter. But what about Peter Parker? Let's face it, the nerdy science geek teen type character isn't one typically portrayed by black actors. No reason it can't be(and I'm not familiar with Donald Glover, so I don't know if he can or not), but it's just more typically white actors who play that sort of thing. Sam Jackson didn't have to play Nick Fury as he is in the regular Marvel U, he played him as Ultimate Nick, who was written to be Sam Jackson anyway.

There'd be an obvious bit of product placement if he was black though:

[Deleted]

HAH!

And for the record, I know a black guy who fits your nerd description to a T. They're out there, just few and far between.

[Lucky]

Being white/black isn't especially connected to Spider-Man. You COULD have a black Spidey and not really change anything. Except of course that you WOULD be changing a 50 year idea of what Spidey looks like. If you have a good reason to do it, I say go for it. Michael Clarke Duncan was a perfect fit to play Kingpin and was one of the few actors in the world who could pull off the physical needs of the character and bring some acting chops to the table. And Nick Fury didn't get changed by Iron Man filmmakers. Almost a decade earlier a black Nick Fury was established and for the entire team people anticipated Sam Jackson as Fury.

So if they have a REALLY good reason? If they think Don Glover can play Spider-Man better than any white dude they're talking to? I could live with the change. But you're screwing with a 50 year image of an iconic character from a visual medium that has been done time and time again in TV and film the same way. Make the change at your own risk. This is "Ledger as Joker" times a million and the real problem you have is that no one will be able to see if Glover has the chops to justify the move for a long time. They'll just sit around on messageboards like this forming opinions.

Actually the REAL problem I have with this is that its clearly designed not to get Glover as Spidey but rather to get a black Spider-Man. Colorblind casting is something I wish existed in Hollywood. This is an agenda and when you do that with an iconic character you best be prepared for backlash.

I also don't actually like Glover for the role as I don't think he has the acting chops, but I've only seen him in Community.

[Deleted]

They need to re-make American History X with Ice Cube in Ed Norton's role.

[Lucky]

And now Glover has gone online and hinted that those of us who object are racist. Which is always a good way to make people like me wonder if you might be a gaping tool.

[Stu]

Why not make him Korean, implying his family name was originally Park, and they changed it slightly to sound more american?

[Deleted]

I think black Koreans are a tad more difficult to find than black Americans.

[Stu]

Exalt

[salmonjunkie]

I wouldn't want a black Peter Parker in the same way I wouldn't want a blonde Peter Parker or a heavily-built Peter Parker, or a Peter Parker that's tatted up. Just would not work for me, because of the 50 years of Peter Parker being a thin clean cut brunette guy.

[Deleted]

Donald Glover:

Thin?... check
Clean-cut?... check
Brunette?... check

I'm failing to see your issue with him, Thai.


I do see what you're saying, though, and I mostly agree. But a couple of those things I don't feel are as integral to the iconic character we know and love. I also wouldn't want him tatted up or heavily-built as that flies completely against the integral "nerdiness" to his persona. But I could definitely more easily tolerate other cosmetic differences such as ethnicity or hair color as I don't feel they're as integral to the character, himself.

[Stu]

Jun 3, 2010 23:52:02 GMT -5 salmonjunkie said:

I wouldn't want a black Peter Parker in the same way I wouldn't want a blonde Peter Parker or a heavily-built Peter Parker, or a Peter Parker that's tatted up. Just would not work for me, because of the 50 years of Peter Parker being a thin clean cut brunette guy.

How did you react to Sagat being a Native American in the Street Fighter movie?
If he was black, would they have to rethink doing the black suit storyline because of the connotation of "Black=Bad"?

[salmonjunkie]

Jun 4, 2010 14:25:49 GMT -5 Stu said:

Jun 3, 2010 23:52:02 GMT -5 salmonjunkie said:

I wouldn't want a black Peter Parker in the same way I wouldn't want a blonde Peter Parker or a heavily-built Peter Parker, or a Peter Parker that's tatted up. Just would not work for me, because of the 50 years of Peter Parker being a thin clean cut brunette guy.

How did you react to Sagat being a Native American in the Street Fighter movie?
If he was black, would they have to rethink doing the black suit storyline because of the connotation of "Black=Bad"?

I didn't give a shit because it was a dumb movie about fucking STREET FIGHTER, a silly but awesome (come on, the characters and storyline were silly as hell ) game that was only out for 5 years at that time that starred Jean Claude Van Damme at his worst as a character who wasn't even the main character of the game. There were many more things about the movie I thought were stupid, and none of them had to do with actors looking the part. I loved playing Street Fighter but I had no attachment to the story or characters in the way I do for Peter Parker, my favorite super hero of all time.

And despite not being Thai, at least Wes Studi looked the part.

Sorry, after 50 years of Peter Parker being a white nerdy kid, I can't see him as a black guy. And I was absolutely ok with a black Kingpin for Daredevil, a tall Australian dude as Wolverine, and a gay old man as Magneto.

[Ultimatejobber]

So this thread turned out to be a bunch of hype about nothing.

www.superherohype.com/news/articles/103264-its-official-andrew-garfield-to-play-spider-man

Here's a picture of the next Peter Parker:

[Stu]

He was good in Doctor Parnassus. I don't think he did a terribly good american accent in a Doctor Who story he was in though. I hear they're setting this in college now instead of high school, which he works better for.