It's funny, when the spoilers leaked months ago, people like James Gunn rushed to defend the casting, saying that what makes MJ who she is, isn't her red hair or the color of her skin, it's her alpha female persona. Ironic that I absolutely agree with the man and yet they ended up giving us the absolute opposite of that.
yep.
MJ without red hair is like Spider-man's costume not being red and blue. At least to me anyway.
I agree. Or like Superman's costume colors not being red, blue, and yellow/gold.
MJ's red hair is her iconic, identifying physical trait.
if you saw images from a new Spidey comic or cartoon or film, and you saw a readhead at Peter's hs or college, your first reaction would be that she's MJ because that's how iconic and identifiable her red hair is.
and that's why, for me, it's not quite so easy to change her race ( as it would be for other characters ). Red hair just doesn't quite look natural on non-white skin colors, imo.
but putting that aside, if you are going to race change the character and take away her iconic red hair, then you better damn well get the rest of her character right - the playful alpha female personality which James Gunn correctly asserted.
In Homecoming, however, we are getting neither the iconic look for the character nor the correct personality for the character. Hell, we aren't even getting the actual character herself, but some new original character who looks and acts nothing like Mary Jane Watson but who has the same initials "MJ."
and that's not some "small change" as some "defenders" here try to dismiss it as. That's not making Aunt May younger/cooler or Flash less macho or even fusing Ned/Ganke.
No, it's going far beyond that, to the point where a new original character has hijacked the name or initials of one of the most popular and iconic Spidey characters, which in turn makes it far less likely that the real Mary Jane Watson will be used in the new franchise.
and that's a huge double slap/insult to us Mary Jane Watson fans who have been wanting them to FINALLY do a more comic accurate version of the character.
