‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’: Stan Lee endorses Zendaya as Mary Jane Watson

Stan Lee, the man who created the Mary Jane Watson character, approves of the decision to cast Zendaya as Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) love interest in the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming. But since Zendaya is best known for acting on the Disney Channel until now, this would have been her biggest test as an actress no matter what her character was.

It’s said, according to their sources, a twist was to be featured at the end of the Spider-Man: Homecoming where Zendaya’s character tells Peter to call her “MJ”. Regardless of skin color, he’s just eager to see how the actors portray his characters. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about fans over the years, it’s that there will always be somebody around to complain about everything. Much like the current Marvel comics’ newest Civil War storyline, the debate is heated on both sides of the aisle, so Mary Jane’s creator himself, Stan Lee, stepped in to offer his two cents to the Toronto Sun.

The Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott also applauded Zendaya’s rumored casting on Twitter, driving home the point that Mary Jane’s race is irrelevant to her character.

In a lengthy post on Facebook, he added: “A rumor broke out that the character of Mary Jane was being played by a young black woman, Zendaya, and all hell broke out on the Internet (again)”.

“In the Daredevil movie, the Kingpin – who had been white in the comics – he was a black man playing the role, and he played it beautifully”, he said. “All that matters is that this the right person for the role”, Lee concluded. “For me, what makes MJ MJ is her alpha female playfulness, and if the actress captures that, then she’ll work”.

The cast of Spider-Man: Homecoming has actually become quite extensive in recent weeks.