Mary Jane casting revealed for new Spiderman movie

http://www.slashfilm.com/spider-man-homecoming-mary-jane-casting/

OMG POLITICAL CORRECTNESS HUUUUUUURRR!!!

Can't be worse than Kristen Dunst was.

So . . . casting a black actress to play a character who's been a lilly-white redhead since she was introduced fifty years ago is fine, but casting Scarlett Johansson to play a traditionally Asian character in Ghost in the Shell is a crime against humanity. Got it.

Asian people in Asian countries totally don't give a shit.

They actually haven't confirmed Zendaya.
...but, they knew who Nu-Han and Nu-Spidey were, so....

Why is it always a black actress? Why not Asian? Indian? Native American?

Well, one thing, your Halloween/convention costume possibilities are expanding.
Iron-Man, Spidey's girlfriend, Starship commander, Rocketeer....

Well...you could before, but now it's canon.

On a related note, I remember being upset one Halloween when I was 6 because the mermaid outfit my mom bought me came with "pink" skin and being the perfectionist I was, I wanted to match. Its the only time I really remember ever hating my skin color growing up. We got around it by putting a pink sweater under the costume since it was cold anyway.

But I'm beyond glad other little girls won't have as many struggles for costumes like that.

I don't care that she's black. I care that it's Zendaya. My kids watch that stupid KC Undercover show all the time. She's horrible.

Never heard of the girl, but don't really care if she plays MJ as long as the movie as a whole is entertaining. I MUST BE ENTERTAINED.

It's the third reboot of Spderman in 15 years, so....not likely

The only real criticism I've seen of the Scarjo casting was that Asian actors in Hollywoo have so few leading roles in movies already, so giving this lead to a white actress felt like a kick in the teeth.

Christopher Reeve was similarly annoyed when they made a movie about a quadriplegic detective and hired an able-bodied actor for it.

This exactly.

Cloud Atlas is another example, with the main Asian girl from future Seoul being cast with an actual Asian after they couldn't get Natalie Portman in the role.

Asians in Asian countries don't give a shit, but Asian actors looking for roles outside of being the brainy one in any given group or playing a massage girl sure as fuck do. Why aren't we whitewashing those roles?

Because black lives are the only lives that matter.

I honestly think these people are race baiting as some bizarre combination of viral marketing and virtue signaling. This is what, the 4th? 5th? spidey reboot in 15 years. I like the character but fuck, I don't want to sit through another fucking origin story. They did the same thing with Johnny Storm/the human torch in the recent Fant4stic flop and all it did was drive off the ever-shrinking comic book fanbase from seeing the movie because they are getting tired of the fucking identity politics.

Yes. For two reasons: Because MJ's role was never connected to the colour of her skin, just to being an American teenager/tween in highschool and college, whereas Ghost in the Shell is about a specifically Japanese girl/woman; and because we want more, not less diversity.

So in her own words...

I don't understand how you take attach an image from a comic showing a red headed white girl and then claim that the role was never connected to the color of her skin?

Yup, lilly-white redhead, just like I said. But hey, any actor can play any role, right?

You honestly think stupid things.

Really? You don't understand it?

Let's try this. Here's a simple comprehension test for you.

I. This scene surprises Peter and the reader. How?

A) The point of the scene is that Peter wasn't wild about going out with MJ, but then he saw, to his amazement, that she was a gorgeous young woman.

B) The point of the scene is that Peter wasn't wild about going out with MJ, but then he saw, to his amazement, that she was white.


II. MJ says: "Face it, Tiger... you just hit the jackpot!" What does she mean?

A) She is confident that she will make an excellent date.

B) She is confident that her hair is red.

C) She is confident that she is a white girl.


III. Beyond this scene, Peter has shown interest in a number of women, many of whom have some traits in common. Choose all that you find indicative of Peter's character.

A) Peter likes his women young.

B) Peter likes his women pretty.

C) Peter likes his women courageous.

D) Peter likes his women kind.

E) Peter likes his women Caucasian.

Here's a simple comprehension test for you, Packard. Ready?

A fictional character in a fairly successful mass media work has been portrayed with a consistent look for over fifty years. Now someone has decided that that character needs to be different, because reasons. Fifty+ years of established continuity is ignored.

Maybe it's because MJ is a supporting character and not the hero that you feel that the previous version was "not good enough" and needs to be changed?

Not the case for MJ, or most other characters. But carry on.

Not in evidence. Many aspects of MJ have changed again and again, in the comics, and in the movies, and will have to change each time any actress is chosen to play the part. For instance, MJ in that picture is about half a head shorter than Peter, and both are quite tall. Casting an actress that is as tall as Peter or a whole head shorter than him wouldn't indicate that "someone decided the character has to be different".

It's only a change that ignores 50+ years of history if race was a defining characteristic of this character. I argue it isn't.

Does her being black change any facet of Mary Jane's role as Spiderman''s girl next door that he's had a crush on since forever (or helps him through Gwen Stacy's death and then falls for her, depending on the canon)?

Did Quenzhane(sic?) Wallis' casting as Annie take away from the story of a little orphan girl that changes the life of a callous billionaire?

Would a white Johnny Storm have fixed any of the other pressing issues that made the latest attempt at a Fantastic 4 movie suck even worse than the last two?

What did black Hermione change from all the rest of Harry Potter canon in the new play?



EDIT: OTOH, if someone wanted to do "Anne of Green Gables" with a transgender Latina with coal black hair, I would argue against that decision because many of the book's story did revolve about the fact that Anne Shirley hated her red hair and freckles and in a lot of ways, she *was* defined by that feature within the series.

Okay, okay, I get it. Respect for the source material doesn't matter to you guys. Fine. I don't wanna hear any complaints when Gilbert Gottfreid is cast to play the Black Panther in that movie.

My childhood!

Oh god, enough with the race switching. She's a white redhead, get over it!

What you're saying is incredibly disrespectful to the actual source material.

This whole post is a flaming pile of stupid. The only comprehension I got from that little snippet of comic was that MJ was a white red head. Anything else is pure conjecture.

Did you bitch and moan this much when Wolverine wasn't as short as he should be? Or when Professor X had a British accent? Or when Magneto didn't have a European accent? Or when James Bond was suddenly blonde, or Scottish, or not Scottish? Or when nuSulu was obviously Korean?

Or is your only problem with the darkies forcing themselves into your entertainment?

Then you are an idiot, and clearly proud of it. Personally, I am glad that Marvel movies are made by people who will at least go to the trouble of reading the content of speech balloons when recreating a comic book.

Oh god, enough with the obsessing over race. She's still a hot redhead, get over it!

More than that; it's clearly a much huger problem when the person is supposed to be a love interest for a Caucasian. Otherwise, we'd have had this conversation over Nick Fury years ago.