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| Images copied from Glamour.com and Twitter.com; I don't own the rights to these pictures! |
Why did Marvel cast Zendaya?
When Deadline reported that Zendaya would play a key character in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, I had a feeling that Zendaya was cast as a superhero who would get to fight in the sequels. Since the report said that Zendaya wasn't playing a love interest for Peter Parker in the film, I looked at some reasons why Marvel may have chose her for "Michelle":
- Zendaya auditioned to be in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE and nearly got to play Storm. She was also the frontrunner for the lead in ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL.
- Zendaya plays a teen spy on the Disney show K.C. Undercover. It seems like she prefers action movie and TV roles.
- Zendaya has comic timing, and a dance background in ballroom and hip hop.
Reports also said that Zendaya landed the role after testing with Tom Holland. It's clear that Zendaya and Tom get along well, if you watch them hanging out with Zendaya's friend Deja Carter below:
All together, Zendaya would make a good partner, enemy, or ally for Spider-Man. She would be able to match Spider-Man's wise-cracking jokes while they're both in costume. She's nimble, trained, and would do well in fighting scenes.
By comparison, Zendaya's skill set would be kind of wasted if she was strictly playing a love interest.
By comparison, Zendaya's skill set would be kind of wasted if she was strictly playing a love interest.
The name "Michelle" could be an undercover alias
Zendaya's picture on the set of SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING indicates that her character doesn't want to fit in at school:
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| Image copied from DailyMail.co.uk; I don't own the rights to this picture! |
Just like Ally Sheedy's character in The Breakfast Club, Zendaya's "Michelle" was described as the girl who keeps to herself, reads a lot, is awkward and weird. It's likely that the kids at school avoid her. That would make it easy for Michelle to go unnoticed as a secret agent.
This post explained how Jessica Drew, or Spider-Woman, was one of the catalysts to the start of the Secret Invasion in the comics. Jessica was working as a double agent for HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D in order to get her full powers back, after her powers were stolen by Charlotte Witter (another version of Spider-Woman). The Skrulls, posing as HYDRA, tricked Jessica and kidnapped her when her powers were fully restored. Skrull queen Veranke took over Jessica's identity by copying her DNA, and Veranke pretended to be Spider-Woman in order to infiltrate the Avengers.
It's possible that Zendaya's "Michelle" is trying to get information on S.H.I.E.L.D operations, while she goes to school under a fake name. Also, she could be enrolled at Midtown High because she tracked down the Shocker and the Tinkerer.
Jessica Drew's mother = inspiration for a character name?
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| Image copied from Marvel.Wikia.com; I don't own the rights to this picture! |
Jessica Drew's backstory in the comics starts when she became life-threateningly sick as a child due to radiation. Her father was a scientist doing research on spiders. In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Jonathan Drew injected Jessica with an untested serum made from rare spider's blood. Jessica was sealed in a genetic accelerator room, hoping that she would recover fast enough to escape death. Jessica woke up from a coma several years in the future, finding out that her parents were gone and she had new powers. Jessica was adopted by Otto Vermis, a leader of HYDRA who taught her how to be a spy and a fighter.
Jessica Drew's parents were named Jonathan and Miriam Drew. Miriam is the Hebrew name that inspired other translations like Maryam, Maria, and Mary - which is similar to "Mary Jane".
What if Marvel wanted to have Jessica Drew in the movies? They could've changed the spelling of Jessica Drew, like they did for Betty Brant (adding a D), but comic readers would still know who the character is. If Marvel wants Jessica to start out as a spy that will be revealed to Peter Parker later, then that blows the surprise out of the water.
Changing her first name makes Jessica Drew a new character. It's like calling Mary Jane Watson "Michelle Jane Watson". People probably wouldn't like or understand the reason for changing her name. So far, no one else in the cast of SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING has a changed name from the comics.
A possible way around things is to re-name Jessica Drew's parents as Jonathan and Michelle Drew. If that happened, then what if Zendaya's character is using the alias name "Michelle" as a way to remember her dead mother?
The character's full name is Jessica Miriam Drew, which shows that she was named after her mother. If Jessica's middle name is changed, her full name could become Jessica Michelle Drew.
In both cases, what if Zendaya's character's real name is Jessica?
"Black Widow"
It seems like Marvel took inspiration from Ganke Lee to create the new Ned Leeds in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING. See Ganke, and Jacob Batalon playing Ned Leeds below:
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| Image copied from Inverse.com; I don't own the rights to this picture! |
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| Image copied from Tumblr.com; I don't own the rights to this picture! |
Ganke comes from the Ultimate Marvel version of Spider-Man, where his best friend Miles Morales takes over after Peter Parker dies. Ultimate Marvel is an alternate universe separate from Marvel's "Earth-616". Earth-616 is the comic universe that contains most of the Marvel characters we're all familiar with, including Peter Parker as Spider-Man.
Jessica Drew exists in Ultimate Marvel. In those comics, she's actually a female clone of Peter Parker. Doctor Octopus / Otto Octavius, having a similar name to Otto Vermis, created Peter Parker clones for the CIA. Jessica doesn't have parents like the 616 version of Jessica Drew - technically, Peter Parker is her parent.
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| Image copied from Fanpop.com; I don't own the rights to this picture! |
Marvel could borrow from the Ultimate Marvel universe to create a new version of Jessica Drew, like they did for Ned Leeds. "Michelle" doesn't have to be a clone of Peter Parker, but:
- Marvel could use how Jessica and Miles Morales met each other, to have a similar meeting between Spider-Man and Spider-Woman. In the comics, Nick Fury told Jessica that somebody new had taken on the identity of Spider-Man after Peter Parker died. Jessica found Miles and confronted him about impersonating Spider-Man. The movie version could have Zendaya's character and Peter Parker unmask each other in a confrontation or a possible fight. Then both of them are surprised that they know each other from school, and they're both superheroes.
- Jessica used the alias "Julia Carpenter", the name of a former Spider-Woman, to perform one of her first missions where she went undercover as a scientist at Roxxon. In the movie, Zendaya's character could be using an alias name "Michelle" to pretend to be a student.
- If Marvel chooses to keep the clone origin story of Jessica, then it could work. Zendaya and Tom Holland could pass for relatives, if Zendaya's DNA was filled in with somebody else of African-American descent, in order to make her a girl.
Changes to her ethnicity?
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| Image copied from Papelpop.com; I don't own the rights to this picture! |
The original Jessica Drew is from England, but moved to Transia with her parents. It's probably likely that Marvel would change Jessica's birth country, since it doesn't affect her character. Jessica's origin story could happen anywhere, with the same results of how she got her powers and became an orphan. On the other hand, characters like Captain America and Magneto can't be changed to another nationality. Where there from affects who they are.
When it was reported that Zendaya was playing Mary Jane Watson, Stan Lee had this to say about the racist backlash (emphasis mine):
"If she is as good an actress as I hear she is, I think she'll be absolutely wonderful," Lee told the paper. "The color of their skin doesn't matter, their religion doesn't matter, all that matters is that this is the right person for the role." Lee said it's totally fine for characters to be transformed when they move from the page to the movies, noting that late black actor Michael Clarke Duncan was cast as Kingpin in the 2003 Daredevil movie. "In the Daredevil movie, the Kingpin – who had been white in the comics – he was a black man playing the role, and he played it beautifully,” Lee said.
So much attention was paid to Stan Lee endorsing Zendaya, but not many people talked about Stan Lee indirectly showing his approval for the casting choices of SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING.
The supporting cast has more people of color than we're used to seeing in a comic book movie, which is a good thing. Also, the changes aren't for the hell of it. The characters needed to be tweaked for the movies.
Peter Parker, Tony Stark, and now probably Mary Jane haven't been changed. It's not because the main characters deserve to stay white. It's because they're characters that we need to be able to recognize when we see them on screen, since they're the main representatives of the comics.
I think this is part of why the new Fantastic 4 was so hated. The writers took 2 star characters that tell us who and what the movie is about, and the writers changed the characters beyond recognition, for no explicable reason. That almost never works. It's also a sign that there are going to be fundamental problems with the movie's story, if the writers don't respect the source material enough to give us the characters that made the source material famous. That's the same reason why it wouldn't make sense to let white people play Black Panther or Storm.
Jessica Drew isn't a flagship character of Spider-Man. Some of the issues with her backstory have been discussed in previous posts. Basically, it's too complicated. Also, she was retconned a couple of times. I think she died at one point, but she was brought back to life. The Ultimate Marvel comics did a better job of connecting Spider-Man and Spider-Woman.
If Jessica Drew is another character to get a makeover, then changing her race could be a nice touch. If all of Jessica's history from Europe to California gets cut, then Marvel could make her born and raised in New York. A black super-girl raised in New York is not a farfetched idea.
What if Jessica's father was working on the same kind of spider that turned radioactive and bit Peter Parker? He could be the reason why the spider was loose in the first place. Jessica's father could've been an employee of General Techtronics Laboratories. It's possible to make Zendaya's character, Peter Parker, and Cindy Moon all share a connection, if Zendaya's character is Jessica Drew with a slightly changed origin story.
Possibilities for MCU Phase 4
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| Image copied from JustJared.com; I don't own the rights to this picture! |
- GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.2
- BLACK PANTHER
- Rachel McAdams, who plays the love interest in DOCTOR STRANGE
- Tilda Swinton, who plays the Ancient One in DOCTOR STRANGE (another controversially race-swapped character)
- Brie Larson, who will play the lead role Carol Danvers in CAPTAIN MARVEL
Does Marvel have an actress to play Spider-Woman already, or will Zendaya be playing the role that kick-starts the Invasion? If the story is going to happen, somebody has to play Spider-Woman. So far there aren't any actresses cast that I'm aware of.
What do you think about Zendaya playing Spider-Woman? Who do you see her playing in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING?
Sincerely,
A Comic Girl
@ZisSpiderwoman
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