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Beau DeMayo, the creator, showrunner, and head writer of X-Men ’97, was dismissed by Marvel Studios before the show’s premiere. In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), he asked his former employer not to “race-swap” the villains who have been primarily portrayed as white in comics and related mediums.
Beau DeMayo wants Marvel to ‘stop race-swapping white villains to Black people’
Beau DeMayo called for Marvel to put a stop to what he referred to as “race-swapping” white antagonists into Black people, adding that “it reads ‘funny.’” Presumably, one of the reasons behind his comment is the fact that Norman Osborn, a prominent Spider-Man villain, would be portrayed as Black and voiced by Colman Domingo in the upcoming animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
“Here let me rephrase,” DeMayo wrote. “Hey @MarvelStudios please stop race-swapping white villains to Black people. It reads ‘funny.’ Kang. High Evolutionary. Norman Osborn. Electro. Mordo,” he added.
Notably, in live-action movies, Norman Osborn has been portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and by Chris Cooper in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). Among the other three characters DeMayo mentioned, Mordo is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the MCU. Jonathan Majors portrayed Kang and his variants. Chukwudi Iwuji played the High Evolutionary in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Jamie Foxx essayed the role of Max Dillon / Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home. All these characters are white in the original comics. This includes Kang the Conquerer, who is a 31st-century descendant of Reed Richards’ father Nathaniel.
In a different post, while responding to another user, DeMayo effectively underscored his issue with these kinds of changes. “Much of what we consume — especially kids — visually influences how we see the world,” he posted. He added that when the heroes are often white and canon and villains are race-swapped into Black characters for “representation,” it ultimately becomes “a visual story of white good guys beating up Black bad guys.”
