Be careful Sony/Marvel

The Producer is back after a 10 day vacation and getting back into the swing of things with this news broke by The Hollywood Reporter that Donald Glover has been cast in the new Spider-Man movie: Homecoming- hitting theaters in the summer of 2017.

Donald Glover to cast in Spider-Man Homecoming

Now this type of casting would not make much of a ripple except for the history that Donald Glover has with Spider man and Miles Morales.  Back in 2010, Donald Glover openly campaigned for the role of Peter Parker as Sony was looking to reboot the Spider-Man franchise after the disastrous Spider Man 3 starring Tobey Maguire.  Glover did audition tape, had an on line petition, and even Stan Lee himself was open for Glover to audition for the role. I thought this was a great idea at the time.  Donald Glover is a great actor, funny, and he has a love for the character.  All that being said, not one fiber in my body in 2010 thought it would happen.  Sony was already reeling from Spider-Man 3 and to take a gamble on a character as beloved as Spider-Man... Hollywood don't do business like that.

And naturally, White fan boys were losing their minds at the possibility of one of their favorite all time characters being Black.  All the typical, "Peter Parker is white", "Why are they doing this?", "Its Obama's fault" rhetoric came out.  And this is long before the Sony Email leak/hack where Sony was very clear that Peter Parker HAD to be White( and straight)

So the thought of Donald Glover as Peter Parker died when Sony did the typical thing and cast a British dude, Andrew Garfield, as Peter Parker for the two Amazing Spider-Man movies( how'd that workout for you?)

In the interim tho,  Miles Morales was introduced in the Ultimate Universe in Marvel Comics.  The character, who is of Black and Hispanic descent, takes over for Peter Parker as Spider-Man in the Ultimate Universe and people fell in love with the character. It definitely gave people of color a Spider-Man that was different and people flocked to him- making him one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe.

Since the character became so popular, there was hope by Blerds that Sony would give Miles Morales a run as Spider-Man in the relaunch of Spider-Man( again) after the disaster that was the Amazing Spider-Man.  Of course, Sony and Marvel with their new partnership, was not going to take a chance and make a Miles Morales movie so they cast a British dude, Tom Holland, as Peter Parker( sound familiar).

That leads to the news today... on top of the previous cast leaks of Zendaya and Laura Harrier in unknown roles.  Plus, even though its whitewashed, they cast for the role of Ganke Lee- Mile's best friend.

So where you going with this, Sony/Marvel?  Donald Glover at this point is way too old to play the role of Miles Morales- who is a teenager. Once this leaked today, all the stories about him wanting to be Spider-Man are going to pop back up. That is on top of him doing the voice work of Miles Morales on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.  Are you casting these characters of color for significant roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?  Could Zendaya and Laura Harrier possibly both play love interest of Peter Parker as Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy?

Are you casting Donald Glover as Jefferson Morales, dad of Miles Morales, and introducing Miles Morales in this movie?  That would be great, but you do realize there needs to be a huge payoff for that! People, including myself, are not gonna be satisfied with seeing Miles Morales name get called in class. We are going to want to see him in a movie AS SPIDERMAN!  Do not try to get cute with this and play this game.  Fans of the character want to see Miles giving a chance to be Spider-Man in his own movie- not playing Peter Parker's sidekick.

I hope ya'll know what you are doing because you are playing a high stakes game of chicken here. By casting people of color for this film, the expectation is they will have significant roles in the movie- playing characters that casual and comic book fans will be familiar with.  Be careful... Ya'll just earned back some trust based on Hollands performance in Civil War.  Don't throw it all way trying to be clever.

The Producer