The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Villain Will be Electro, Might be Played by Jamie Foxx

It’ll take approximately four seconds on average. I’ll even start it off.

AUGH this is so unfair!! he’s WHITE not BLACK!! why do people always want to be so politically correct! this country is going down a PC shithole! SO WHEN WE WHITEWASH IT’S BAD BUT BLACKWASH IS OKAY????? Thats reverse racism!!!!11 Im not racist I just dont want him black!

Personally, I’d rather get pissed that we’re more likely to see POC as villians than as heroes (much less superheroes), but one thing at a time. Your cynicism is well warranted.

Now that that’s out of the way, this looks like very fun casting. Emma Stone was a good pick, and I’m thinking Jamie Foxx will be, if nothing else, entertaining. Maybe squeeze in a musical number.

I believe some characters are too iconic to be changed (Peter Parker has to be white, no matter how brilliant Donald Glover is) but the vast majority of them aren’t. Nick Fury, Wasp, Heimdall, Electro… The comic world is so white that you have to make some choices to include everybody.

I’d hate to see this turn into the Heimdall debacle again because come on now. Is there really anything about Electro’s character that hinges on him being a white dude? There isn’t even the excuse with Heimdall where you can at least argue that having a black guy playing a Scandinavian God is kind of weird (and honestly that never bothered me anyway because Idris Elba nailed that part).

I’m sure Foxx will own this role. Now if we could work towards getting some more heroes of color as well….

It’s less about a black person being cast in an originally white role, and more about people of color almost always being cast as villians while all the heroes (and usually most of the ‘good’ supporting characters) are white.

Right. And I highly doubt most people were even aware of Fury prior to Sam Jackson anyway.
Side note I’ve love if they race lifted Wasp in the movies like they did in the Ultimate ‘verse.

So, Electro is a third tier Spider-Man villain, right? I just don’t see them being able to do anything interesting or original with him no matter who they cast.

So, Electro is a third tier Spider-Man villain, right? I just don’t see them being able to do anything interesting or original with him no matter who they cast.

Is that actually true though? Thinking about it, on the hero side we’ve had Storm, Nick Fury, Lucius Fox, and Heimdall. Whereas the only non-white villains I can think of are that Chinese guy in The Dark Knight and the Asian terrorists in Iron Man (and the Mandarin in the upcoming sequel). Seems to me most of the people of colour in superhero movies have been playing heroes. (Regardless, we could use more on either side.)

That’s another good point, actually. POC are also often relegated to supporting roles.

Heimdall was a supporting role. Nick Fury was a supporting role (as well as the token black guy). Lucius was a supporting role. Storm was a supporting role. The main characters for all those movies? White guys.

The pattern is pretty pervasive. People of color as villians is common when it’s not a bunch of supporting roles when it’s not a bunch of background extras when it’s not complete erasure.

I never really understood the ‘he’s Scandinavian so he can’t be black’ argument. It seems like people are more willing to suspend their disbelief when it involves Thor falling in love with a journalist (remember that from the myth?) than switching the race of a god.

Heroes of color is a yes. I am still crossing my fingers for a Static Shock movie!

I’m worried they’ll try to make him some sort of mastermind criminal. Electro was not a mastermind, he wasn’t even smart. He was your run of the mill thug that got superpowers.
The good news is that we might get to see some brains behind the mask because Electro isn’t the kind of villian you can just repeatedly punch into submission.

Hey, remember when Darwin died and was like the only casualty in the whole movie and his whole superpower is that he doesn’t die, and also he was the only black guy? Good times.

Ugh.

I remember previewing that movie, and groaning when I saw that. Then the mixed black chick ran off to the ‘bad’ side and disappeared for most of the movie, so I just had to resign to my monochrome cast early on.

Man, you people who didn’t love Webb’s Spidey just don’t make any goddamn sense to me. :p

All kidding aside, while Electro certainly isn’t the most exciting Spidey villain, he’s at least one of the Sinister 6, and despite knowing multiple-villain movies almost invariably end in tears I can’t help but still hope to someday see Spidey take ‘em all on in one giant River Tam Beats Up Everyone-esque throw down flick. Plus: Jaime Foxx. I don’t really care who he’s playing because I know he’ll knock it out o’ the park.

Nevermind, “Oh yeah, I totally remember how Loki was Thor’s brother and Odin’s son…wait.”

Does it matter what skin color the actor has? King Pin was White in the comics and was played very well by Michael Clarke Duncan in Dare Devil. As long as the movie doesn’t suck, who cares!

Weren’t they all aliens in the original myths, too? Or am I missing something…