A black actor playing Spider-Man? Stan Lee doesn’t necessarily think it’s a bad idea, but he thinks it might be confusing for those watching.
Spider-Man creator, Stan Lee, has offered his take on Community actor Donald Glover auditioning for the part of Spider-Man, and more generally on a black actor playing the character. Speaking in a telephone interview with MTV, Lee said that it wasn’t a race issue, simply that people know Spider-Man as a white character. He also made it clear, however, that this was just his opinion, and it wasn’t his job to try and influence Marvel, or tell it what to do regarding movies.
“He’s a great actor,” said Lee. “I’ve seen him, and he’s terrific … I certainly think he should have a chance to audition. [But] here’s the point: We’ve already had the Kingpin in ‘Daredevil’ portrayed by a black man, where he was white in the comics, and we’ve had Nick Fury portrayed by a black man where he was white in the comics. “
“[But] not that many moviegoers are familiar with them. Everybody seems to be familiar with Spider-Man, so I say that it isn’t that it’s a racial issue – it’s just that it might be confusing to people. But that’s a matter for the people at Marvel to take into consideration. I certainly don’t want to weigh in on it in any way, except to say I think Glover is a fine actor,” he added.
The campaign to get Glover an audition for the part of Spider-Man in the the upcoming movie was born on science-fiction blog io9, and then spread to Twitter, Facebook, and even the Washington Post and New York magazine. So successful was the campaign, the “#Donald4Spiderman” hash tag was one of the top ten trending topics over the memorial day weekend. Glover, who spearheaded the campaign, made it clear that he didn’t want to be handed the part, he just wanted the chance to audtion.
Source: io9
