Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse started the month of June hot as the Sony animated film made over $650 million worldwide overall. This is coming off a financially weak first film. Many audiences were skeptical about Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and opted to skip it. However, the first film had rave reviews and beat The Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks The Internet for the Best Animated Film Oscar. Into The Spider-Verse found life on Netflix, and gained a huge following that resulted in such huge box office numbers so far.
What’s amazing about the film is that despite being immersed in the Spidey-verse, it feels fresh and original. That’s thanks to Sony taking a huge risk by going with Miles Morales. Despite getting his powers in the same way as Peter Parker, the character feels like his own man and can easily stand side-by-side with Parker without being overshadowed. Miles Morales is an example of how to properly bring diversity to the big screen.
Race Swapped Characters Often Feel Like A Lazy Storytelling Device That Passes As Representation
Black Panther made 1.3 billion at the box office worldwide. That film truly set the benchmark for diversity. That gave studios the green light to introduce characters of color to a wider audience. To Hollywood’s credit, they have. Representation is currently at its strongest and a big part of that is due to the success of Black Panther. However, it’s been notable that studios like Disney have race-swapped characters.
That brings us to The Little Mermaid. The Disney live-action film didn’t do too badly in theaters. Given its $200 million production price tag though, $569 million was not good enough. One reason is that fans aren’t particularly happy about the decision to swap races with Ariel by casting Halle Bailey. Ariel is a fictional character, so it may seem silly for people to get upset over this notion.
On the flip side, it’s understandable. Ariel’s character isn’t rooted in an African-American background. Representation and diversity are important. However, there’s a loss of identity when characters are race-swapped. It’s even more disappointing when there are plenty of diverse characters in the comics that deserve their shot to be seen by a mainstream audience. Miles Morales hopefully opened the gate by highlighting that originality is just as important as diversity. His mythology may be rooted in Peter Parker’s origin story, but his life and personality never feel the same as the original character.
The Success of Miles Morales Means That Studios Could Take More Risks With Diverse Characters
This notion isn’t just for superhero films. In general, it often feels that representation feels like a quota more than anything else. Again, diversity is extremely important. There is a need for films and television that represent different cultures and ethnicities. The Farewell showcases the familial differences between China and America. Jon Favreau‘s Chef highlights the Latino culture through food. Crooklyn documented a Black family in Brooklyn in 1973. There are so many examples of great films that naturally tackle the subject of diversity without smacking you in the face.
More importantly, these are original films and characters. We don’t particularly have as much diversity in Hollywood these days. Even though diversity is stronger than ever. The biggest issue is that diverse characters often feel like they’re written within the script at the very last minute. Black Panther already proved that diversity works if it’s done right. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse re-enforces that notion.
There are plenty of names in comics that deserve a shot at being given the big-screen treatment. One of the biggest is Static Shock. Rumors have swirled about a live-action film happening, though nothing of note has taken place. Static Shock, Nova, and Tremor are just a short list of names that represent original characters that studios should take more of a risk on. Hopefully, the rise of Miles Morales allows for proper representation. Give original characters their spotlight, instead of race-swapping names to piggyback on the past success of old characters.
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