Hollywood is slowly embracing more diversity and representation in the biggest projects to come out of Tinseltown, something a lot of people believed to be long overdue. And as the largest franchise in the business, it wasn’t a surprise to discover that the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be at the forefront of an industry-wide push for a greater sense of inclusion.
Obviously, it did take the long-running superhero series a while to get there. Black Panther was the eighteenth entry in the MCU and the first with a title hero of color, it took until the twentieth outing for Ant-Man and the Wasp to get a female hero in the title, and the studio’s next release saw Captain Marvel become the first solo female lead.
The original iteration of the Avengers were all white folks, too, unless you count Bruce Banner’s green-skinned alter ego, but insider Daniel Richtman claims that the MCU is reportedly planning to put together a team comprised entirely of actors and actresses of color, though he doesn’t say which heroes may be on it.
Now, this is obviously going to generate accusations of pandering and falling victim to the dreaded ‘woke culture’ that a lot of people have issues with, and it could definitely come off as cloying and heavy-handed if not handled carefully. Still, there are certainly enough candidates to choose from for the lineup.
Be it Sam Wilson’s Captain America, Shuri’s Black Panther, Monica Rambeau’s Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi, War Machine, Ironheart, Ms. Marvel, Valkyrie or even half the cast of Eternals, the studio can easily put together a formidable team, but we’ll just have to wait and see where they debut and who ends up being featured on the roster.
Published: Jan 19, 2021 02:37 pm