Silk – Marvel Comics
It sounds like Amy Pascal over at Sony is developing a film adaptation of the Marvel comic “Silk” which is about Cindy Moon who just so happens to be Korean-American!
Apparently in the comics she’s a contemporary of Spider-Man/Peter Parker. She too is bitten by a radioactive spider (okay… really? Couldn’t we come up with something a smidge more original than just slapping a gender switch onto such a specific existing back story?) and develops similar abilities. She’s apparently not quite as strong physically, but is faster.
All I have to say is it’s about damn time!
There unfortunately aren’t a ton of big name Asian superheroes to choose from. Many of them are newer additions, or the older ones are downright offensive (I’m looking at you original iteration of The Mandarin – actually the entirety of the original Iron Man comics are HELLA racist against Asians). Recent opportunities to highlight Asian characters have gone to… white actors (I’m still boycotting Netflix’s Iron Fist to this day, yes I get that it’s a mantle but it was a huge opportunity for an Asian actor). So to finally have an Asian character headlining a feature film is a huge breakthrough, no matter how long overdue it is.
Far left is Tiffany Espensen in Spider-Man: Homecoming – Sony
Cindy Moon has technically already appeared onscreen. She was played by Tiffany Espensen
in Spider-Man: Homecoming and has a brief cameo on the bus with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Avengers: Infinity War. I’m assuming this film is being made by Sony and not Marvel is that Silk appears as part of the Spidey-Verse and Sony retains the rights to those. It’s unclear if they’d keep her as the lead but I kind of doubt it.
One thing I will say, they had better cast a damn actual Asian actress as Cindy Moon. I swear to god if this is another Scarlett Johansson scenario… That being said Amy Pascal has several female-led features and I’m optimistic that they’ll not only be culturally sensitive but potentially hire a female screenwriter and director.
This news continues to highlight the lack of diversity coming out of Marvel studios themselves. Kevin Feige has talked a big game about more female directed films, but there’s been no tangible news. Nor have there been any announcements about more female led superhero films, let alone minority superheroes. Given the success of Black Panther you’d think they’d want on get on that.
In the meantime I and millions (potentially billions) of Asian women out there will be waiting with baited breath for more news, and probably preparing our Silk costumes.