Like many comic book fans and geeks, I am very excited for the upcoming DC comics film, "Suicide Squad," starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and Jared Leto. I have been really looking forward to this movie, and the main reason why is because of the ethnically diverse cast and characters, something which is sadly not very common in superhero movies.
I have nothing against previous DC comics films or any of the Marvel movies; in fact, I really enjoyed those films and can watch many of them several times in a day. But it is clear to see that these movies have a primarily white cast, playing characters that are canonically white. Occasionally there are ethnically diverse characters, like War Machine played by Don Cheadle or Falcon played by Anthony Mackie, but these characters do not tend to get the spotlight, nor do they have their own film franchises. That is why it is great that Black Panther, played by Chadwick Boseman, will be starring in his own film in 2018.
"Suicide Squad," coming out in August this year and only the third film in the DC cinematic universe, is already full of diverse characters with a diverse cast portraying them. Black actor Will Smith is playing Deadshot, an assassin who is canonically white in the comic books. Latino actor Jay Hernandez is playing Diablo, an ex-supervillain with fire-based powers. Native American actress Adam Beach is playing Slipknot, a master of indestructible ropes. Japanese-American actress Karen Fukuhara is playing Katana, a sword-wielding superheroine. Suicide Squad has an incredibly diverse cast that has not been seen in any superhero film before it.
And why does this matter? Is the ethnicity of actors really such a big deal? I would have to say yes and no. The ethnicity of an actor does not determine whether a movie is good or not, nor does their ethnicity say whether or not they are the best to play a particular character. But such a diverse cast does matter to an audience. I'm Mexican American and there are not many Mexican or Latino characters out there in mainstream comic books, and even fewer in superhero movies. To have a Latino character like Diablo star in "Suicide Squad" is fantastic because it is like my existence, and the existence of others like me, is being acknowledged.
That is especially why I hope that future superhero films take notice of "Suicide Squad" and include more diverse characters and actors. "Suicide Squad" is not really being marketed toward kids, and I really want other superhero movies that are targeted to a younger audience to have a diverse cast of characters, so that those kids can have heroes like them as an inspiration.
