We’ve seen a growing trend of a vocal minority of fans/culture war media figures sharing their bizarre outrage that women and minorities are getting the spotlight in various superhero projects (for some, simply existing in those spaces has become increasingly triggering). Most recently, James Gunn‘s “Superman” (covering the alien immigrant’s journey and heroics) and Marvel‘s “Ironheart” have been targets of right-wing ire, leading to folks like Kevin Feige, head of Marvel Studios, to remind those folks that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is simply reflecting the diverse world we live in and mirroring audiences.
Feige told a roundtable of journalists (via The Wrap), “I said this before ‘woke’ and ‘DEI’ became a thing, and I’m still saying it after: Marvel is the world outside your window…It’s not Gotham City and Metropolis. This is New York and L.A.. And yes, there’s also Wakanda and Asgard, but it is all made up of the people who make up our world.”
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This mantra of diversity-is-our-strength saw its biggest push from Marvel once former overseer Ike Perlmutter, who had once been blocking projects like future billion-dollar hits like “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel,” was removed from creative decisions on the film side of the company as Kevin Feige took the reigns (eventually becoming the chief creative officer of Marvel).
Some of the more recent signs of Marvel not slowing down the commitment to audiences comes as we saw Florence Pugh‘s Yelena Belova and Hannah John-Kamen‘s Ghost taking key roles in “Thunderbolts” as they’ve become “The New Avengers,” Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson’s transition to the new big-screen Cap in “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Letitia Wright taking up the mantle and introducing audiences to an Indigenous version of Namor played by Tenoch Huerta) spinoff series “Ironheart” taking a page from those films by exploring Chicago/black culture in a meaningful way, their “modern day” “Blade” reboot is still kicking around, and “The Fantastic Four” leader Pedro Pascal‘s Dr. Reed Richards is the expected to become a huge part of the greater MCU moving forward, starting with the Earth-616 connection in “Avengers: Doomsday.”
That said, fans and Kevin Feige shouldn’t be shocked when bigots sound off on something like the big “X-Men” reboot on the horizon, as right-winger culture war distractions to frame ANY use of women and minorities in entertainment as a negative thing. As the story of human leadership going to war with mutants as a concept is an obvious allegory to the civil rights movement and inclusion, as they are vilified, as many vulnerable groups have throughout history and today.
We already know that “Black Panther 3” is being developed by Ryan Coogler and “Shang-Chi 2” is said to be in the works from Destin Daniel Cretton, with actor Simu Liu returning to the character in “Avengers: Doomsday” with other folks like Iman Vellani reprising the Ms. Marvel role. Although we’re still waiting on word about the involvement of Tatiana Maslany‘s She-Hulk alongside a handful of other characters, and we’re still waiting for an official announcement concerning Mackie’s “Captain America 5.”
Their future lineup suggests that Marvel doesn’t seem influenced by the internet’s darker or bigoted feelings about the MCU, allowing space for all sorts of characters to be adapted or explored.
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