Marvel is known for its remakes: the Spider-Man movies and animation shows, the recasting of The Hulk, and now Fantastic Four. Remakes have the possibility of being hits, “movies of the summer,” and so much more, but Marvel’s downfall is their lack of representation. With such a powerful company, the ability to impact change in society is incredible, especially if it is in the movie business.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man has already been remade as a movie once, with Andrew Garfield replacing Toby McGuire. It told the same story of a gawky, white nerd-boy causing mischief and ending up with powers. Andrew Garfield realized the lack of representation that Marvel has grown accustomed to, and attempted to convince the director and producer to make his character, his version of Peter Parker, bisexual in one of the upcoming movies. They denied this, choosing to stick to the exact same plot and circumstances. Now, they are planning on remaking Spider-Man again, and keeping it all the same—they announced the new actor to play Peter Parker, and it is Tom Holland. There is no change, no representation, and that will become Marvel’s downfall as society continues to evolve with more open-mindedness.
The beauty of characters like Spider-man, and the reason that this superhero resonates with so many, is that the person behind the mask could be anyone. They could be a woman, an immigrant, someone in the LGBTQ community, someone with a disability, someone struggling with mental illness-- anyone who currently has very little representation in mainstream movies. Marvel could be taking advantage of this, reaching out to communities that need and would love strong representation, but they are unfortunately sticking to the same, to what they know: a nerdy white boy.
Fantastic Four
This movie is possibly the real tragedy of the Marvel Franchise. Don’t get me wrong, I love Marvel and the entertainment that the movies offer, as well as the innovativeness that the comics possess, but remaking Fantastic Four, which was a flop the first time, was a horrible mistake on their part. This summer would have been the time to debut a much-needed, representational movie with any form of minority as the main lead—this is the key word, main. There have been too-many-to-count leads with a white male and we need a main lead who represents the minority, not just one of the main leads. Fantastic Four attempts to get away with this by casting Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm, but this does not suffice.
We don’t want a supporting character as the only representation of minorities anymore; we demand and deserve a minority as a main lead, and until Marvel responds to this, they will continue to go downhill.
