Let’s be real, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like an unfortunately large number of cultural forces, is still dominated by white men. Sexy, snarky, charming white men, but white men all the same. That said, in recent years there has been an appreciable effort to mix things up as the Infinity Saga came to a close. Captain Marvel made a billion dollars. So did Black Panther and he got Best Picture Oscar nom in the process. Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk are coming to Disney+. Blade, Shang-Chi, and The Eternals are going to get movies. Black Widow finally got a movie.
The MCU, however corporate, did get more diverse. And now we know that if it hadn’t it might’ve just ceased to exist.
It’s wild how much attention we have to pay to Hollywood executive politics to truly understand colorful superhero movies. But we do. And therefore we know that Kevin Feige’s current role as basically Marvel’s overlord came after multiple hard-fought battles. Feige initially reported to Marvel’s leadership but felt stifled under their strict timid creative control. And after appealing directly to Disney, Feige won his freedom to make bigger, weirder, and ultimately more successful movies.
And now, according to an interview on The Independent with Hulk actor and notably progressive celebrity Mark Ruffalo, the lack of diversity is one of those battles that nearly caused Feige to quit the company following the smash success of The Avengers.
Unsurprising given his reputation as a penny-pinching Trump supporter, Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter had no interest in pursuing films starring women, PoC, and LGBT folks as superheroes. Along with the bigotry, Perlmutter incorrectly assumed these movies wouldn’t make money. Feige correctly saw that fresh new faces in the MCU were the only way it could financially survive into the future, while hopefully also recognizing that it’s just a good and worthwhile thing for more folks to see themselves as heroes.
“He changed the whole Marvel universe,” said Ruffalo. “No other studio is being that inclusive on that level.”
Your exposure to diversity in film shouldn’t begin and end with superhero flicks made by a massive entertainment monopoly. Capitalism isn’t suddenly okay just because your action figures are becoming more varied. But product being sold to the world should at least try to accurately reflect that world.
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