Marvel Executives on Black Panther Release: “See? We Aren’t Racist, We Have a Black Movie”

Over the years, Marvel has faced backlash over their lack of diversity in their movies. In the past, the entertainment company struggled with appropriately responding to controversy over issues like the lack of a Black Widow movie starring a female lead, or their choice of Benedict Cumberbatch over a person of color to play Doctor Strange. However, Marvel has finally given their response to these claims through an official statement released yesterday: “See, we aren’t racist, we have a black movie.”

Marvel Entertainment executive Robert Walsh stated in a press conference yesterday that he expected Black Panther to be a critical success because “it’s not like the other black movies, it’s different.” He argued that audiences “won’t even see it as a black movie.” When asked about the wide ranging representation of people of all skin tones, he told us that “for a cast comprised of a demographic we don’t usually take the time to highlight, I’d say the actors were pretty attractive. I would try to say some of their names, but they’re honestly too difficult.”

Walsh also justified their casting choices, stating that “the past six Marvel movies may have starred straight, male leads, but Marvel doesn’t see color. We cast the most qualified people for the role because America is a meritocracy. We believe that any tall white guy named Chris who auditions for our movies has equal opportunity to be cast as our next superhero.” 

Walsh concluded his conference emphatically, explaining that “there’s only one race: the human race. Marvel does a great job of displaying people from all walks of one specific type of life in the hopes that a very small minority of the population can find representation in our movies.”