Jamie Bell might be in talks to play Spider-Man for the new reboot, but it’s Donald Glover who’s really gotten the most attention of any actor vying for the role. His fan campaign for an audition certainly got a heated discussion going in Comic Vine’s community, didn’t it? It was really only a matter of time before Stan Lee would have to comment on the matter. And comment he did, calling MTV’s Splash Page blog to specifically talk about the prospect of Mr. Glover playing Spidey.
You can hear Stan’s statement below, but here are some choice quotes for those living outside the US...
“…as far as I'm concerned ... anybody should have a chance to audition for the role. I certainly think [Donald Glover] should have a chance to audition. 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 people had seen these characters — 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."
Stan stressed that he’s not presuming to tell Marvel how they handle anything with these movies, as he’s been very pleased with how Spider-Man done on screen. I’m not sure how directly attached Stan is to Marvel these days, anyway, let alone Sony. He’s been “Chairman Emeritus” for years now, which I’ve always understood as being more of an honorary title than anything. I’m sure he’s already too busy with his five hundred (or so) POW! Entertainment projects. == TEASER ==
Still, he felt compelled to comment on this discussion since he received so many questions about it from his Twitter followers. The Facebook group for this might have close to 12,000 members, but Twitter’s really been the arena for this discussion. The whole thing started with the #donald4spiderman trending topic so it's not surprising that Glover tweeted in response to Stan’s statement.
@MrDonaldGlover: If you'd told me Stan Lee would one day be talkin about me in Spider-Man,it wouldn't have happened cause I would have died happy right then
Sure enough, Stan isn’t the only Spidey writer to comment on this. Bendis has joined in, as well.
@BRIANMBENDIS: i support this!! RT @ chrischuang: Hey @ BRIANMBENDIS, @ mrdonaldglover wants to be spider-man! #donald4spiderman
So certainly a lot of discussion over something something Glover probably started with tongue in cheek. Regardless, like I’ve said, this has done wonders to raise the guy’s profile. I’ve never heard of him before this and now I want to check out the Junior Detectives MYSTERY TEAM movie he did - - it looks hilarious.
Anyway, as I promised, here's the audio of Stan's statement.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Studios and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. HYBRID BASTARDS! is available here and UNIMAGINABLE is available here for pre-order on Amazon.com.