According to a report by The Wrap, the actress who will be playing the role of Peter Parker’s long time lovely redhead of hotness Mary-Jane Watson is Disney Channel veteran Zendaya. At only 19 years old, she is the first time that an age-appropriate female has taken on the role in any version.
Now if you’re like me, you’re asking yourself “Who the hell is Zendaya?” Well, according to good old Wikipedia, she’s an actress who appeared on Season 16 of Dancing with the Stars, played Zoey Stevens in the Disney Channel TV movie ‘Zapped’, and is K.C. Cooper in Disney’s K.C. Undercover. She also has a couple of songs out under Disney… So she’s a Disney Channel “star” that virtually no one over the age of 10 will know but since Marvel is now a Disney property, she’s being given the push usually reserved for other Disney Channel stars like… umm… What’s his name? And What’s her face?
The other thing that you might have noticed is that she is not a WHITE Mary-Jane as has been depicted in just about every version of Spider-Man media since the character was first introduced in 1966’s “Amazing Spider-Man” #42.
Now she has already been claimed as “The Black Mary-Jane YOUGOQUEEN!!” by a few websites, with other sites saying that this news is so out there and revolutionary that it’s going to “break the internet” or at least “break the white culture that dominates comic books“. Remember how this line of hype worked sooooooo well for Ghostbusters 2016 (A movie we reviewed here). Now I’m not going to knock the girl based on something I haven’t seen yet, but thanks to the magic of cable TV and constant repeats, I have seen K.C. Undercover & Zapped. Zendaya is just another Disney Channel actress who wouldn’t have this chance if Disney didn’t own Marvel I’ll put it that way.
Spider-Man Homecoming is currently in production and is due for release on July 7, 2017.