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Thursday, August 25, 2016 10:13am ET by  

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Comic book legend on Zendaya joining Spiderman cast

Comic book legend Stan Lee has revealed that Zendaya would be an "absolutely wonderful" addition to the new "Spiderman" cast, despite what some people think

During an interview with the Toronto Sun, Lee explained that just because Peter Parker's love interest, Mary Jane, is traditionally red-haired and white doesn't mean that has to carry over to the next incarnation of the film. He said that the role should go to an actress who could bring life and energy to it, which is something he believes Zendaya could do:

"If she is as good an actress as I hear she is, I think she'll be absolutely wonderful. The colour of their skin doesn't matter, their religion doesn't matter, all that matters is that this is the right person for the role."

He went onto add that it's fine if characters are transformed when they move from the pages of comic books to big screens, adding that black actor Michael Clarke Duncan was cast as Kingpin in 2003's "Daredevil": "In the Daredevil movie, the Kingpin – who had been white in the comics – he was a black man playing the role, and he played it beautifully."

On August 19, director James Gunn posted an open letter on Facebook about the portrayal of comic-book characters on film and said that race shouldn't even come into this discussion:

"People get upset when something they consider intrinsic to a comic book character changes when adapted for a film. I get this. There are movies I dislike because I think there's a basic misunderstanding of the story or the character when the comic is transferred to film (I still hate how in the first Batman movie the Joker was revealed as the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents, for instance.)"

He added: "Yesterday, a rumour broke out that the character of Mary Jane was being played by a young black woman, Zendaya, and all hell broke out on the Internet (again). I tweeted that if people find themselves complaining about Mary Jane's ethnicity they have lives that are too good. (For those of you who think this means I'm confirming that Zendaya IS playing MJ, realise that although I've read the Spidey script, and I've met the actress in question, I have no idea what her role is. There's a good chance someone told me at one time or another, but, if so, I can't remember. I'm going to find out when I go into Marvel this afternoon, but I feel free to speak until that time because it's about the concept about a black woman playing Mary Jane, not the actuality or hypothesis of it.)"

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Watch Zendaya in action below:

 

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