Introduction

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With its booming success over the last decade, Marvel has reached the eyes of millions of viewers. As the franchise’s relevance continues to grow, so does the importance of diversity in the content they produce. With one of the most dedicated fan bases in the world ranging in age, gender, and race, Marvel is put into a position of great responsibility: to serve all of these fans. Marvel has the opportunity to act as a forefront and even take lead in this issue of inclusion and diversity with this myriad of followers. According to Sarah Gatson, the generic fanboy is depicted as a “white, middle class, male heterosexual (with perhaps an overlay of a geek or nerd identity” (Gatson, 2011, section 4.1). Yet, despite what the stereotype says about the common fanboy, “many comic book fans are in fact people of color” (Richardson, 2017, p. 21). Not only are fans racially diverse but there are many female fans as well. With these truths about who fans are, this topic of research is very important, whether it be to criticize or to simply analyze how Marvel depicts their heroes and see just how diverse they actually are.

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Review of Literature

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The origin of diversity in the MCU dates back to the comics. Marvel Studios’ portrayal of heroes can only be so diverse when its characters were written a certain way. The films were made with comic accuracy in mind. Stan Lee, the creator of the Marvel comics, worked alongside movie studios to assist in the filmmaking and even had a cameo in every one of the movies coded in this study (with the exception of Spider-Man Far from Home which was filmed after his death). These comics were written by a white man starting in 1939, which can speak for itself in how diverse the franchise started out.

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Despite the nature of this setting, Marvel did in fact introduce people of color and women to the comics, but they never surpassed the number of white male heroes. In her 2017 theses, Ashley S. Richardson said that “all fourteen of the MCU films center around a white male lead … and there are no Native American, Latinx, Middle Eastern, or Asian superheroes on the Avengers’ roster” (Richardson 56). At the time her study was written, the Black superheroes only had supporting roles. The MCU did not have a Black lead character in a film until Black Panther (2019). In the last few years, Marvel has made efforts to diversify its roster of predominately white male superheroes. Though they have not been included in the MCU “they have introduced alternate versions of classic heroes, like a black Captain America, a Korean Hulk, a female Thor, and a half-Latino, half-African-American Spider-Man” (O’Rourke, 2017, p. 40). Miles Morales, the half-Latino, half-African-American Spider-Man, is not featured in the MCU coded in this study but he is featured in his own animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. We do see an instance of these sorts of adaptions with Heimdall from Thor. The character in the comics was originally white in the comics but is played by a Black actor (Idris Elba) in the movies. With that being said, we can see that Marvel is in fact working on representation of other races for these classic beloved heroes.

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On the flip side though, we do see Marvel “white-wash” some characters in the films. Whitewashing can be seen in the Doctor Strange movie when Doctor Strange goes to an Ancient Asian monastery for healing to find a white woman in charge. This change completely deviates from the comics as “The Ancient One” was originally an old Asian man. “Although controversial, gender-swapping characters, whose gender is not an integral part of their being, is a way Marvel has increased the number of women in their films” (Ray, 2020, p. 25). The specific instance of the Ancient One sacrifices racial diversity for the representation of women.

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It must be understood that “girls don’t identify to the same degree with superheroes as boys do, which may be related to the lack of female superheroes” (Martin 2007). As the years have gone by, “a higher percentage of the younger age groups, which is the target audience of superhero films, believe there should be more female representation in these movies” (Ray, 2020, p. 12). There is the same demand for more racial diversity, and it is Marvel's responsibility to respond to both of these demands from fans.

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Research Questions

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Main: What are the demographics of the cast that play main protagonists in the MCU?

Main: How have the demographics changed over time? (between phases 1, 2 & 3)

Micro: How are the people of color depicted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Micro: How are women depicted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

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Method

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For this research project, I am using mixed methods. First, I will be doing quantitative research by coding the heroes in these phases into four categories: Male, Female, White, and People of Color. I will be coding characters into these categories for each phase that Marvel has defined on their website: Phase 1 (2008-2012), Phase 2 (2013-2015), and Phase 3(2016-2019). My reasoning for splitting the research by Marvel’s three phases is to see if there are improvements in diversity throughout their progress in the franchise.

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I will only be coding characters that resemble the shape of humans. For example, Rocket (voice acted by Bradley Cooper) will not be coded because he is a CGI animated racoon. Alien characters will be coded by the race of the actors that portray them. For instance, Gamora (played by Zoe Saldana) from Guardians of the Galaxies will be coded as a person of color. Furthermore, I will only be counting characters that are featured on the official movie poster, whether it is by name or by graphic. Overcrowded movie posters can make it difficult to define who the main characters are. In the case of an overcrowded poster with no names listed, I will refer to Marvel’s website to see what main characters they list. Characters featured on the posters who do not contribute in combat to the main conflict of the plot will not be coded. To ensure that we are analyzing the progression of diversity through phases rather than film-by-film, characters will only be coded once per phase. For example, Iron Man is featured in four movies of Phase 1 but will only be counted once for that phase. There are some characters that do not start as protagonists but later develop into them. These developing characters will only be coded in the phase in which they have reached the status of a protagonist.

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Along with my quantitative research will be some theme analysis. My main research question is quantitative, with that being said, I will only be making note of themes when I see them necessary to answering my micro questions. I will be analyzing how race and gender are depicted in the movies and posters. Some key topics will be culture, status, and sexuality.

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Findings

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