It was announced late last week by the Wrap that Zendaya, star of Disney Channel's "KC Undercover and Shake it Up" is set to play Mary Jane Watson (Spiderman's love interest) in what is sure to be next summer's hit blockbuster “Spider-Man: Homecoming". Though it has not officially been confirmed by Sony, Marvel or Zendaya, two sources close to the project revealed the information.
If the sources are right, Zendaya will be the first black woman to play Mary Jane in Spider-Man comic book and movie history. Mary Jane was most recently played by Kristen Dunst from 2002-2007 during the Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man era. This is a big step for Marvel as they are beginning to "diversify" their movies. One character that has been brought up in the discussion to diversify the films is Miles Morales. In the Marvel Spider-Man comics Miles has African American and Puerto Rican descent. He has been featured in the comics since 2011, however his character hasn't been featured in the movies. Maybe he"ll be in "Spider-Man: Homecoming".
While many people were thrilled to hear that Zendaya is more than likely playing Mary Jane and voiced their support on Twitter of course racist haters and Twitter trolls attempted to make it seem like such a HORRENDOUS thing. Surprising?...NOT REALLY!
Exhibit A.....
Since Mary Jane is being played by a Black woman, can MLK be played by a White man in a next movie about him?
— Jason Bergkamp (@keksec__org) August 19, 2016
Exhibit B: A perfectly happy person excited to see Zendaya play Mary Jane then the comment that follows #MakesNoSense....
Zendaya is going to make an absolutely perfect Mary Jane Watson in the new #SpiderMan movie. PERFECT. https://t.co/F1ykeoNACC@JarettSays Really? How can she be perfect when MJ is white and red haired? #MakesNoSense.
— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) August 18, 2016
— Matt Blake (@mattblake94) August 19, 2016
Don't worry though we know that hate can't overcome love and trust me the love and support that Zendaya is receiving is what really matters!
Love Tweet #1
ALL RACIST PEOPLE OUT THERE MUST BE SHOOK. MARY JANE WATSON IS BLACK AND ZENDAYA WILL SLAY THE ROLE
— lia (@zensbieber) August 19, 2016
Love Tweet #2
The TL when they found of @Zendaya was gonna be playing the role of Mary Jane Watson in the new Marvel Spiderman pic.twitter.com/qHA0pBHo6d
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) August 19, 2016
Love Tweet #3
When POC been whitewashed in movies left and right, but you hear @Zendaya gon be Mary Jane pic.twitter.com/RWoZ8gmdYB
— #FreeBreshaMeadows (@ILLCapitano94) August 19, 2016
Seeing Zendaya on the big screen as a young black woman and black woman in general provides much needed representation. Since Mary Jane is Spider-Man's love interest having a black woman play that role for the first time is a huge deal. Try and honestly think about the amount of black women that play love interests in movies that are not deemed "black movies" and yep it's pretty hard. Zendaya will have the chance to share #blackgirlmagic on screen with British Actor Tom Holland who will play Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and more importantly with all the moviegoers around the world.
And for the record Zendaya looks amazing with red hair...(She looks BOMB all the time)
