By Travis Johnson
Several sources close to the production of Spider-Man: Homecoming, currently shooting in Atlanta, are reporting that Disney TV star Zendaya is playing future Mrs Parker, Mary-Jane Watson, in the film.
This is an interesting turn of events, given that Zendaya was previously said to be playing a character named Michelle, whom she described as “…very smart, very intellectual, [and] always in her books.” The character was seen in the footage screened at San Diego Comic Con, and reportedly is presented as a typically faux-dowdy Hollywood hot nerd. You put someone like Zendaya in that role if they’re gonna take the She’s All That Route and blossom into a supermodel (not being cheap here – comics continuity MJ is an internationally famous model). If that is the path they’re taking, it does give credence to the notion that they’re really trying to marry the high school drama and super hero genres in this one.
Also worth noting is that Zendaya, who currently stars in the Disney Channel series, K.C. Under Cover, is African-American, so you can expect the sort of awful internet people who lost their minds over Idris Elba’s Heimdall and Michael B. Jordan’s Johnny Storm to start being unbearably horrible any second now.