‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ And Zendaya Are Major Steps For Marvel Diversity

I’ll go on and throw up a SPOILER WARNING for Spider-Man: Homecoming, because I’m gonna get right into it. You ready? You sure? Okay: Zendaya is playing MJ.

Initially Zendaya was cast as a character named Michelle, a name that sounded like a placeholder. Rumors started circulating almost immediately that the Disney superstar was actually playing Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker’s primary love interest (and, for a very long time, his wife) in the comics. MJ was previously played in the original Spider-Man trilogy by Kirsten Dunst. Marvel squashed those rumors, saying Zendaya was not playing Mary Jane. They were technically right; as Michelle reveals in her last scene in the movie, her friends…call her MJ.

Whether her name is Michelle Jane or Michelle Janet or Michelle Jenny or something else doesn’t matter. What matters is that at the end of the film, we get Michelle’s preferred initials and a romantic spark between her and Peter Parker. That’s enough to solidify her as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Mary Jane” and a major player in the next Spider-Man film.

This is a big, big deal for Marvel when it comes to diversity. Like Captain America and Iron Man, the studio has had a very hot and cold relationship with diversity. Many white characters have been adapted as characters of color for the MCU, but most of them have been supporting characters. MJ is the most high-profile Marvel Comics character to get a modern, diverse adaptation. (Sidenote: Fox cast Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch in the non-MCU Fantastic Four, not Marvel Studios) MJ’s not a superhero, but she’s incredibly prominent and has appeared in thousands of comics, TV episodes, movies, video games, and more.

This is a major, long-awaited step for Marvel. As the premier superhero franchise, one enjoyed by millions of people across the world, fans need to see superheroes that reflect themselves. Since the bulk of Marvel’s canon was developed in the ’60s, most of the main characters are men and almost all of them are white men. That ratio, which favors white men, is still in play in the MCU, but it’s not as severe as it was 50 years ago. Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and Luke Cage (Mike Colter) have all taken prominent roles in the MCU, with the latter two heading up their own film and TV show, respectively.

Marvel also chose to adapt the Nick Fury featured in their Ultimate comics line, the one modeled after Samuel L. Jackson, instead of going with the David Hasselhoff-esque white Nick Fury that’s been in the comics since the ’60s. So that’s good! Marvel loves diversity! Eh… not so fast.

The problem is that Marvel rarely takes that step with A-list characters. Civilians like Miriam Sharpe (Captain America: Civil War) and Blake Tower (Daredevil) are played by black actors Alfre Woodard and Stephen Rider. Marvel sometimes casts aliens as people of color and doesn’t cover them in paint (Djimon Hounsou’s Korath, Benicio Del Toro’s Collector). Other times they go with diverse casting, but the roles are minuscule (Michelle Yeoh’s Aleta and Ving Rhames’ Charlie-27 in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2). When it comes to headliners like Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man, Marvel makes sure they look a lot like their comic book counterparts. That’s a problem, and that’s why it’s taken Marvel until 2018’s Black Panther to launch a feature film with a non-white lead.

Still, some big characters have been updated for the MCU. Originally a pencil-thin blond in a bowtie, Jasper Sitwell was instead played by Maximiliano Hernández in three MCU movies, two MCU short films, and on the ABC series Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. That same TV show also diversified the superhero Quake by casting the half-Chinese Chloe Bennet in the role. And Doctor Strange, which was just a whole mess of trouble, did cast Chiwetel Ejiofor as the villain Baron Karl Mordo. None of these characters were guest stars. Quake is arguably the lead of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Mordo has been set up as Strange’s primo nemesis.

They aren’t the only major white comic characters to be cast with non-white actors. Asgard proved to be a diverse place when Marvel cast Idris Elba as Heimdall and Tadanobu Asano as Hogun. Netflix’s Daredevil also modified Elektra and reporter Ben Urich. Elektra being played by a French Cambodian Elodie Yung is a big deal, because Elektra is a major comics character, one that’s been around for 30 years and has lead a number of her own series. She even had her own movie, but let’s not talk about that. And both Heimdall and Elektra are resilient characters; Thor: Ragnarok may not spend much time in Asgard, but Elba’s still coming back. And Elektra defied death (just like in the comics) and will wreck shop once again in Netflix’s The Defenders.

But even though Marvel has diversified their casts here and there over the past 9 years, they’ve also gone the other way–at least once. Maybe more, depending on what canon  you believe.

First, there’s Maria Hill (played by Cobie Smulders in a few S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes, two Avengers movies, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier). She’s one of the most prominent women in the MCU and also a grade A badass. She also might be whitewashed? Or maybe not. Maria Hill’s ethnicity has never been addressed in the comics, and she’s often been depicted as white. Of course, characters of color are often colored either white or light-skinned in comics. Hill had a darker complexion in the cartoons, which has led some to believe she’s Latina. Her creator Brian Michael Bendis answered this question on Tumblr, saying Maria Hill is one quarter Latina (no joke). Whether or not you think Maria Hill was whitewashed depends on how you interpret a cartoon based on the comics or a Tumblr answer given by her creator.

Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch (and also her brother Quicksilver, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are in a similar situation. A number of fans were upset when the characters weren’t played by Romani actors, considering the Maximoff twins’ comic origins… even though it’s almost impossible to nail down their origins. The characters were originally white, then they were retconned into being the children of Magneto. At that time, Magneto was of Romani heritage, and so were Wanda and Pietro. Then Magneto was retconned into being Jewish, and the twins were retconned into not being Magneto’s kids at all! The characters are back to being Romani in the comics (a change made after the pair debuted in Captain America: The Winter Soldier) but that could change at literally any moment.

Yeah, Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One was a big ol’ whitewash. The character in the comics is a Tibetan man, and they reimagined him as a Celtic woman. That’s the definition of whitewashing. Marvel Studios said they did it because the original depiction of the Ancient One was racist. They aren’t wrong, but course correcting by taking a major Asian character and making him white was not right–especially because the Marvel movies have yet to have an Asian character with as big a role as the Ancient One (Thor’s Hogun and Doctor Strange’s Wong are sidekicks and Age of Ultron’s Helen Cho was only in a few scenes). Marvel could have cast Swinton as the Ancient One, and, perhaps, an Asian actor as Doctor Strange (John Cho, Daniel Dae Kim, Dev Patel), but they didn’t do that either because they still resist changing the race of their lead heroes–even when it really could fix the cultural appropriation inherent in a character (the same problem happened with Netflix’s Iron Fist, who many felt should have been Asian American but instead stayed a white guy).

This is why Spider-Man: Homecoming and Zendaya are a step in the right direction.

For one thing, Zendaya ain’t the only character of color in Homecoming. Midtown High looks like a real high school in Queens would look: incredibly diverse. Instead of casting white actors to play white comic book characters MJ, Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, and Ned Leeds, Homecoming cast Zendaya, Tony Revolori, Laura Harrier, an Jacob Batalon. The film doesn’t stop there, either. Two supervillains, Shocker and Scorpion, were played by Bokeem Woodbine and Michael Mando. This isn’t just one diverse casting of a lesser-known Marvel character like we’ve seen in the past; this movie has six–six–very prominent Marvel Comics characters all played by actors of color in one movie. Flash Thompson is a big deal. Scorpion is a big deal. Shocker is a big deal. MJ is a huge deal. The Spider-Man franchise was born in the ’60s, but it looks like today.

Of course, Peter Parker is still white.

But also, Mary Jane/MJ–a character that’s appeared in over 1300 comics over the last 50 years–is now half-black. I gotta reiterate: MJ is not just a supporting character. MJ is iconic. She’s been the lead of her own comic many times and, to be honest, you could say she had equal billing with Spider-Man for the duration of their comic book marriage. She’s as iconic as Lois Lane when it comes to supporting characters, and Homecoming sets the stage for her to be a major player in the sequel. This is a big step towards inclusion, representation, and diversity. Now let’s hope Marvel takes the next step when they cast their next lead character. Aisha Tyler for She-Hulk. Riz Ahmed for Nova. Stephanie Beatriz for Spider-Woman. Oscar Isaac for Wonder Man. Go for it, Marvel.