Anthony Mackie entered the MCU as Sam Wilson/Falcon in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was the first of his seven Marvel Studios movies. Sam became the new Captain America in Avengers: Endgame, and he’ll soon appear in buddy-comedy form alongside Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes/Winter Solder in Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but Mackie’s not afraid to call Disney and Marvel Studios out for their shortcomings in the diversity realm. Mackie did so while chatting with Snowpiercer star Daveed Diggs “for Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” quarantine video interview series, and these remarks should resonate.
The Hurt Locker actor declared that he’s got the ability and the platform to raise these issues, and that’s why he’s openly wondering why “every producer, every director, every stunt person, every costume designer, every PA” in nearly every Marvel movie that he’s worked on has been white. From Mackie’s point of view, the issue became even more glaring when Black Panther became the “only” exception in the MCU:
“We’ve had one Black producer; his name was Nate Moore. He produced ‘Black Panther.’ But then when you do ‘Black Panther,’ you have a Black director, Black producer, a Black costume designer, a Black stunt choreographer. And I’m like, that’s more racist than anything else. Because if you only can hire the Black people for the Black movie, are you saying they’re not good enough when you have a mostly white cast?”
Will Disney and Marvel Studios issue a formal response to Mackie throwing down the gauntlet? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, Mackie also told Variety that Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier will feel like “a six or eight-hour movie.” That’s fantastic news, as is the tentative release date: August 2020. Not 2021! 2020.
(Via Variety)