The Reason Spider-Man Is Always White and Straight—It’s in His Contract
Fans of Donald Glover—former star of Community and rapper known as Childish Gambino—petitioned for the actor to portray Spider-Man when Sony took over the franchise in 2011. The role went to Andrew Garfield for both incarnations of The Amazing Spider-Man series, but now we know that Glover never had a chance at the role—because he’s black.
A contractual agreement between Sony and Marvel details mandatory traits for both Spider-Man and the man beneath the suit, Peter Parker. WikiLeaks released 276,394 files and emails from the Sony hack this week, which revealed that Peter Parker must be white, straight, and live in New York City, Gawker reported.
There are different rules for the person who dons the suit and Parker himself—there is no race requirement for Spider-Man, although his heterosexuality is spelled out as well—but as Peter Parker has been the man behind the mask for the past decade of films, they’re one in the same. And for the past five films, with the Columbia Pictures trilogy and Sony’s two films, audiences have seen practically the same character.
While contracting traits of a make-believe person may seem more than a smidge biased, outdated, and limiting, choosing a straight white male to play a superhero is far from surprising. Scan through the latest string of leads in superhero movies—Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Superman, Batman—white men play them all.
Print versions of the comics have made more strides in diversity, with a woman taking on the role of Thor this year and a black latino teen, Miles Morales, wearing the Spidey suit for the past five years—and Glover voices him in the animated TV series. But the blockbuster film versions are noticeably lacking in diversity.
Underrepresentation of actors of color is not limited to superhero movies. For the top-grossing films of 2013, 75 percent of the actors were white, with black actors making up 14 percent and Asian and Hispanic characters less than 5 percent.
Before cochair Amy Pascal stepped down in the wake of the Sony hack, she said the studio intended to make a Spider-Man film every year. Last year’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a bit of flop, leaving murmurs among the entertainment crowd of whether a third film would follow and who might play Parker.
So, Why Should You Care? This revelation could do some good in when it comes to making the next casting decision, as the studio has now been called out for its biases. When the emails revealed pay disparity between male and female actors, Charlize Theron allegedly used the information to negotiate a salary equal to her male costar for The Huntsman.
With more films featuring the web-throwing hero in the works—and plans to include Spider-Man in upcoming Avengers and Captain America films—Sony and Marvel might be inclined to lighten up on the race requirements.
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Original article from TakePart
