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Fans Want Donald Glover to Play Spider-Man

by Jordan Yerman | June 4, 2010 at 08:34 am

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Donald Glover Fans Mount Spider-Man Web Campaign

Donald Glover, star of Community and former writer for 30 Rock, is the latest subject of an Internet fan campaign. Glover's online fans want him to play Peter Parker in the upcoming Spider-Man reboot.

What separates this from the Betty White-SNL campaign is that Donald Glover is African-American, and Peter Parker is white. Well, Peter Parker is composed of an ink mixture that makes him appear Caucasian on paper.

Mark Webb, who helmed (500) Days of Summer, is directing the Spider-Man reboot, and, as revealed by Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog, the shortlist of new Spideys is currently down to Jamie Bell, Alden Ehrenreich, Frank Dillane, Andrew Garfield and Josh Hutcherson. Jamie Bell, who shot to stardom in Billy Elliot, and is currently starring in the Tintin films, would seem a very safe choice from a studio point of view.

Donald Glover Wants to Audition for Spider-Man

Donald Glover doesn't just want the Peter Parker role on a silver platter, though, and not just because he's black. He wrote,

Some people are mistaken. I don't want to just be given the role. I want to be able to audition. I truly love Spider-Man. #donald4spiderman

So, does race matter when it comes to super-hero flicks? Well... sort of. Peter Parker is white because he was created in the 1960s. What if he were created today? That's what a reboot is: creating Peter Parker today.

And Thor is Scandinavian; kind of hard to get around that one.

But Spider-Man? He’s just a poor smart kid who lives with his aunt and tries to do the best he can with the powers he was given. Nothing controversial in there.

This isn't about colorblind casting for its own sake, though: it has to be the right actor for the right role. (One hesitates to use Will Smith's casting in Wild Wild West as an example, since the movie itself was so awful)

Also, why aren't any of the articles about this story mentioning the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal is playing the title role in Prince of Persia as we speak?

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velalexgtsa

at 13:11 on June 4th, 2010

Jake Gyllenhaal did a good job in Prince of Persia - but the story is awful .Still it's a question mark of who's gonna take over Peter Parker's character. Is it not yet finalized... ???

steve85 (not verified)

at 06:13 on June 7th, 2010

Let's face it, Peter Parker is white and Peter Parker is Spiderman...this is just another reason Twitter mobs don't matter, and you shouldn't pay attention to this. www.weltbranding.com/blog/