While Fusion writer Isha Aran lauds newly released box-office smash "Spider-Man: Homecoming" for a supporting cast that "consists of biracial women, a Latinx actor as well as a Filipinx actor," she does take issue with one rather large casting aspect.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
"[W]hy is this movie still centered around the same old white people we’ve seen a million times?" she asks.
Aran points to a Los Angeles Times piece that reveals director Jon Watts was after a racially diverse cast from the start and wanted Peter Parker's hometown of Queens, New York, to look like it does in real life: "one of the most diverse places in the world."
In that spirit, the Times said Watts modeled Parker's Midtown High School after places like Brooklyn Technical High School, a school for gifted students focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.
“It’s like a magnet school where all kinds of kids go, they just have to be really smart and test to get in,” Watts told the paper. “We thought if we made it that kind of school, then you were going to have a really interesting mix of people.”
But he told the Times diversity “is not part of the story" because in real life, diversity in that New York City setting is normal.
Still the problem, Aran noted, is that Parker — as well as Michael Keaton's villain — are white guys.
Michael Keaton (Image source: YouTube screenshot)
In fact, the Times piece notes that at Parker's school, he's "often one of the only white kids we see."
"We’ve already had two white Spider-Men," Aran writes. "The current Spider-Man in the Marvel comics is Miles Morales, an Afro-Latinx kid. And the internet made itself pretty clear all the way back in 2010 that they wanted #DonaldGlover4Spiderman. (Donald Glover is in the film as Aaron Davis, who in the comics, is Miles Morales’ uncle, so perhaps we may get to see Miles in a sequel or two, but still.)"
She concludes: "I get that progress is slow, and we’re just now figuring out that not only do people of color like seeing themselves in media, but the elusive straight white men demographic enjoys diversity too. But after seven Spider-Man movies in 15 years, and a more diverse source material, maybe it’s time to change things up a bit."
Here's a interview clip on the diversity subject — albeit the cast views it in a positive light:
