As any Spider-man fan-or human who's ever been on the internet- knows the lovely actress Zendaya has been cast in the upcoming movie, Spider-man: Homecoming. Up until recently, though, no one had any idea as to what her role would be. But now we’ve got rumors flying that she very well may be our next Mary Jane.
However, as to be expected, there is quite the dramatic uproar about this possibility. Why may you ask? Well, the Mary Jane in the original Spider-man comics was depicted like pretty much everyone else in older comics, as white. Fans like to argue that her red hair was a “defining quality,” and the concept of a black actress portraying her is the end all be all. In response to this uproar, I have compiled a short list of similar situations that all but destroyed franchises.
First off, let’s talk about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This one was a double whammies. Not only did it depict a female Jedi as the main character, but it included a black stormtrooper. Both of these things are inconsistent with the rest of the franchise, and my oh my it is just a wonder that the movie made it to the big screen. Not to mention the film made over two billion dollars. It’s almost as if those things didn’t affect the plot and actually diversified the film.
Similarly, the new Ghostbusters movie included an all-female cast. But that’s not all! The film cast actresses that weren’t cookie cutter Barbie-doll types. You heard me. Females. With curves. A variety of appearances. Ridiculous, I know. Plenty of totally-not-sexist-but-just-giving-an-opinion fans shared how these women would totally destroy the film prior to it even being released. However, for some reason, after the film’s release plenty reviews described how the film held up the true spirit of Ghostbusters. Obviously, if Zendaya is cast to depict Mary Jane the Spider-man franchise will be destroyed in similar ways.
Last but not least we cannot forget the debauchery that was casting a black actress as Hermione Granger in the play Harry Potter & The Cursed Child. Yeah, you heard me! A character that had previously been portrayed by a white actress is now being portrayed by a black one! Blasphemy! Again, this totally completely definitely affects the actual story, and this problem has been reflected in tickets sale. You know the sales of the show that was entirely sold out until just recently when they released another 250,000 tickets that are in ridiculously high demand.
So, in conclusion, we can all obviously see that changing super duper plot important things like gender and race can completely demolish a franchise, and obviously casting Zendaya as Mary Jane would have a similar effect. My dearest grievances to Spider-man fans, for clearly everything is ruined.
