It is really great to see the movie industry actively supporting equal representation both on and off the screen. The race is on.
The world has been screaming at Hollywood and by extension, superhero movies to feature greater diversity than they have in the past. Marvel has been actively working to respond to this public outcry by delivering their first female-led film in Captain Marvel and featured the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first openly LGBT character in Avengers: Endgame despite some controversy. Marvel Studios is still on the diversity bandwagon and plans to have a gay lead character in the Eternals.
So over the past couple of years, the MCU seems to be grabbing every headline with its campaign to diversify the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it seems that the DCEU is also working towards having better representation and diversity both on and off the camera. We Got This Covered reported that the DCEU will beat the MCU to two major milestones for the comic book movie genre with the release of Vixen and Traci 13.
To those of you who are fans of the Arrowverse, Vixen should already be on your radar. But for those of you that don’t know, Vixen currently has her own animated series featuring Mari McCabe ( Megalyn Echikunwoke) with her grandmother Amaya Jiwe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) starring in Legends of Tomorrow. Vixen is meant to be a solo film featuring a character with the power to call upon any animal spirit. This would officially be the first superhero movie to have a black female lead, which is obviously a huge deal.
Way less comic book junkies are likely to know Traci 13 since she has never made her way to the live-action realm, but is very close since CW is rumored to be developing a TV show for the character. However, news of this development has come to a halt for a while now and it may be because Warner Bros. is working on a Traci 13 live-action movie. If this movie makes it to cinema screens it will be the first superhero movie to feature an Asian woman as the title character.
Other films are in the pipeline such as Shangi-Chi and Birds of Prey and with rumors of an African-American Superman definitely makes me feel like the future of diversity in the superhero movie genre is bright. Especially with Marvel Studios and the DCEU making an active effort to bring a diverse cast of people to our screens.
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