Michelle, Flash, Liz and Ned

11 Comments

1. Literally the guy playing Ned needs to be an OC or else should’ve been renamed Kenny Kong to mitigate this.

   Peter should not be borrowing elements from Miles especially if Miles will show up later and especially when in borrowing those elements they screw up another character

2. Most of the casting here is pretty laughable. But then again, casting Marisa Tomei as Aunt May should have been the first warning sign that things were not going to turn out well for Spidey with Feige and company in charge.

3. Y’all need to relax a bit. Obviously Ned Leeds doesn’t look like a Bugle reporter–because it’s doubtful that he will be here. Looks more to me like he’s taking the place of Harry Osborn (which, while regrettable, is understandable–we’ve seen his story in the last two film series). I have no problems with a black Liz and neither should you. It’s not that big a deal, and while she was important to the mythos (at two separate times really) she’s been a minor supporting character for many of Spidey’s 40-some odd years. The only problem I really have is with Zendaya portraying either an original character or Michelle Gonzales in a role widely different from the comics. Honestly, I’d much rather have seen her as Betty Brant or something and have Glory Grant be JJJ’s secretary in this series. We’ve yet to see romance with either Betty or Liz and it seems to me they fit the high school version of Spider-Man better than a relatively new character who was really just a flash in the pan, all things considered. Either way, I’m trusting this film for the time being as Feige has yest to turn out a true stinker.

4. @7 it’s the start of what I think is marvel taking the forced race and hero swaps from the comics and starting to slowly plant them in the movies. Which I believe is ultimately going to blow up in their faces in a bad way. These characters are icons some for the better part of 40 years and the hardcore fans are going to start to turn away. And the casual audience most of them don’t even buy comics so it’s a lose/lose for them. I’m already starting to kind of hate the decisions they are making and feel like after infinity war I’m out as far as movies go. I’d never thought there would come a point where I’m looking more forward to the Netflix series more than I am the movies. The latest comic sales are telling and show that the fans are kind of getting event and gimmick fatigue from marvel.

5. Casting fail. This strikes me as race switching just for diversity sake. The actors they chose do not embody the qualities of those characters as written, regardless of their race. Flash doesn’t look like a bully type, Ned doesn’t look like he’s old enough to be working as a bugle reporter. And let’s not forget, these actors will be peters supporting cast in every sequel they do moving forward. And none of these actors have any proven acting chops, none of them earned accolades for any previous film role. I don’t know what they were thinking.

6. This casting IMO is very poor. It reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoon approach of mixing and matching characters that do not match the source material. Not surprising since they already swung and missed with the Aunt May casting.

   From my vantage point, each version of the Spider-Man movies gets further away from the comic, and that I do not believe is a good recipe for success.

7. I’m liking the cast so far, but yeah, they really did go with Ned as the best friend, which is a nice change. Many current readers and followers of Spider-Man don’t know Ned that well.

8. Ned Lee or Leeds so looks like Ganke. I suspect they wanted a best friend for Peter and didn’t want to use Harry again. This works for me but I’d just call him Ganke. The actors seems fun and I hope they keep that.

9. Flash’s casting deeply upsets me. Not just the fact that he’s not white, but Flash is supposed to be your stereotypical high school jock. This guy looks like the kind of person Flash should be bullying. And why is Ned Leeds Ganke?

10. Hmm…Flash doesn’t really look like a jock, but he’s still apparently Peter’s bully so I’m wondering how that’s going to work.

    So…they’re de-aging Ned Leeds into Ganke? Because that’s what it looks like they’re doing.

    Honestly, Harrier as Liz makes the most sense out of all the cast.

    So is Zendaya Michelle Gonzales or an original character? If she were MJ, they probably would have confirmed that by now.

11. Damn I am torn on this casting, the guy playing spidey is phenomenal, but every other casting ranges from eh to please don’t do this. Now that we know the guy who played the bellhop in grand Budapest hotel is flash I get such an uneasy feeling Disney and the comics side of marvel are starting to put in their pandering and diversity tactics into the movies. And I’ll say now if a Chinese man was cast as blade there is no way I could watch it not once that is utter nonsense or a Latin man as amadeous cho I’d shake my head and ask why.