Time for a black or Latino Spider-Man

[Silent_Bob]

As i said in the Prince of Persia thread, the character of Peter Parker has never been defined by his ethnicity. So if they find a brilliant young black or latino actor then i'd have absolutely no issue with them taking the part.

[Hermiod]

For crying out loud, not this crap again!

How many threads do we need on this? There is no reason beyond people trying to make themselves feel better to do this. ""'

[junxon]

i want chinese wolverine!

[Broccoli]

StarTrek1701 wrote:

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Does anyone remember the fiasco around 2003 when story broke out that Lois Lane was going to be played by Beyonce?

I think that had less to do about race and more to do with that it was Beyonce.

[Myasishchev]

^Indeed. Beyonce shouldn't be portraying anyone, including Beyonce.

I guess an ethnic minority Spider-Man would work, although I really don't see anyone doing a better job than Tobey Maguire already did. The reboot is a sham and an abomination and Spider-Man 3 wasn't that bad.

[StarTrek1701]

Myasishchev wrote:

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^Indeed. Beyonce shouldn't be portraying anyone, including Beyonce.

I guess an ethnic minority Spider-Man would work, although I really don't see anyone doing a better job than Tobey Maguire already did. The reboot is a sham and an abomination and Spider-Man 3 wasn't that bad.

You are dead to me.

[StarTrek1701]

Oh and we'll most probably see Al Sharpton blowing his top off if we get a Chinese 'Blade' or Caucasian 'Uhura'.

[DarKush]

As another poster pointed out there are black and Latino superheroes already out there, however, the problem has been in the comics and on the current comic book movie boom not developing and promoting these characters so they can have a movie or franchise. Black Panther has all the ingredients to be a franchise for example, but nothing seems to be crystallizing around putting him on the silver screen.

I would rather see films based on these characters than just browning or blackening Spider-Man. However, I wonder if majority white and global audiences could accept the idea of a black or brown hero as an 'everyman' or care about his relationship with Mary Jane, which was a significant part of the previous films.

I am disappointed that a lot of the black superhero/comic characters that have received movies over the last 20 years have been original creations or not tied to original comic book characters. You've had Meteor Man, Blankman, Catwoman, and Hancock in that vein. Only Blade, Spawn, and Steel have been derived from source material. DC, Marvel, or Image hasn't shown much interest in exploring their rich, though often untapped or underdeveloped reservoir of non-white characters, and then reinforcing the movies with more focus in the comics. And there is a tendency to make black superhero movies comedies, underlining the idea that a non-white superhero, specifically, a black one is a joke. And I find that very sad, yet telling.

Potential franchise characters: John Stewart, Black Panther & Storm, Deathlok, Blue Marvel, Static, Icon & Rocket, Hardware, Blue Beetle, Black Lightning & his family, War Machine

Other characters that I would like to see at least get the big screen treatment:

DC
Vixen
Black Manta
Amanda Waller
Cyborg
Cassandra Cain
Lady Shiva
Tattoo Man
Firestorm
Connor Hawke
Atom
Grace Choi
Mr. Terrific
Kyle Rayner

Marvel
Luke Cage (as long as they don't make him stereotypical)
Tarantula
Echo
Isaiah Bradley (Captain America)
Bishop
Jubilee
Night Thrasher

Image
American Way comic series

Milestone
Blood Syndicate

Independent
Black Jack (Arron Day)

[DarKush]

StarTrek1701 wrote:

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Oh and we'll most probably see Al Sharpton blowing his top off if we get a Chinese 'Blade' or Caucasian 'Uhura'.

I always see variations on this answer on boards like this, and I don't agree. Sharpton's head remained on when Angelina Jolie was cast in Wanted, taking the reins of a character that was designed to look like Halle Berry in the comic. Before Snipes and Goyer made Blade popular, he was about as well known among the general public as was the Wanted character so you can't say it was because the Wanted character was unknown. Jolie even put on makeup to play a real-life biracial woman, Marianne Pearl (sp) in a film, and Sharpton has not spontaneously combusted.

Sharpton also somehow managed to hold it together when black characters were switched out of new BSG, both Tigh and Boomer, two significant characters. And the one black replacement, Dualla, was a minor character. Or when McFarlane made Terry a white character back in the Spawn film because there were studio concerns that a majority black cast would make the film a 'black' film and it would not be as profitable. Or when a very fair Rachel Weisz (sp) was Nefertiti in the Mummy Returns.

Whitening of roles isn't as bad as it probably was back in the day, with stuff like John Wayne as Genghis Khan, but it still does occur and there are no civil rights protests about it like you and some other people claim will surely happen if previously black or non-white characters are played by whites.

[John Picard]

StarTrek1701 wrote:

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Does anyone remember the fiasco around 2003 when story broke out that Lois Lane was going to be played by Beyonce?

Oh man, that would've been awesome.

[Shazam!]

Myasishchev wrote:

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^Indeed. Beyonce shouldn't be portraying anyone, including Beyonce.

WTF Halo is an awesome song.

[Gaith]

The Lois Lane of All-Star Superman looks more like Beyonce than Kate Bosworth, skin-tone wise at least.

[Temis the Vorta]

If the choice is between an interesting nonwhite actor or this boring lineup, I'm all for changing Spidey's race!

I don't know why they need to reboot the series anyway, so if they're going to reboot it, then reboot the frak out of it.

[captcalhoun]

Marvel are trying to develop Black Panther and Luke Cage for the movies, Dar. and War Machine is in IM2 lest we forget.

and according to the synopsis i've just seen, Amanda Waller's in the Green Lantern movie played by Angela Bassett...

[Kelthaz]

After the fiasco that was Japanese Spider-man I say we keep them white to prevent anything like that from ever happening again.