Entertainment

Dear Marvel, Donald Glover Is Your Spider-Man

by Marenah Dobin

Get excited. Spider-Man is returning to Marvel and will be back on the big screen on July 28, 2017. At this point, that's pretty much all we know. This means that there is one major question: Who will play the lead role of Spider-Man? There are plenty of names being thrown around including Josh Hutcherson, Donald Glover, and Miles Teller to play Spider-Man. One name that stands out to me is Donald Glover. Yes, I am talking about the man also known as the rapper Childish Gambino. A Spider-Man that can rap? How cool would that be? That's the kind of change I would love to see in the franchise. Why should Glover be Spider-Man? Let me count the ways...

Wide Array of Experience

Yes, Glover is well known as the rapper Childish Gambino, but he has a wide array of acting and film experience. Glover graduated from New York University with a degree in Dramatic Writing in 2006. He has used his degree to write for 30 Rock, and he actually has 25 writing credits on IMDb. With regards to acting, Glover is best known for his role as Troy Barnes on the television series Community . Glover even wore Spider-Man pajamas in one episode as a nod to a fan campaign to get him elected as the lead in the The Amazing Spider-Man franchise. He also has 37 more credited roles as an actor.

Fan Support

There is a #DonaldForSpiderman campaign going strong as a top trending topic on Twitter. Clearly he has the people behind him. These Twitter users are very passionate about Spider-Man and want to see Glover in the role. That fan support is a good enough reason alone for him to take on the role. These superhero movies are all about catering to the fans. They have large budgets and rely on the box office to break even and become profitable. This means that they need as many fans as possible to see the movie — and clearly everyone would show up to see Glover don the iconic suit.

Diversity

Not only does he have the fan support, but Glover would bring diversity to the franchise. Glover has already inspired an alternate version of the Spider-Man comic book series with a half-Hispanic, half-black teen named Miles Morales. The man inspired an alternate version of the comic book! This surely warrants a film version with him as the lead. It's only right.

When talking about the Spider-Man costume, Glover has explained that any person can be Spider-Man: "That's the great part about the Spider-Man costume: He can be anybody. Spider-Man could be a girl. Spider-Man could be an old man. You don't know. So I just tried to be as me as possible, because you're always just going to bring it back to yourself when you watch the show." And you know what he's not wrong.

Most masks serve to hide identity, but the Spider-Man mask can have an opposite purpose by presenting different identities to the fan base. This could be the start of Spider-Man taking on any race, age, or gender. This could be the Age of The Child Gambino Spider-Man. And we can dig it.