Marvel Comics recently announced its new Iron Man as Riri Williams, a 15-year-old black MIT prodigy who catches Tony Stark’s attention after reverse engineering his trademark Iron Man suits. The art Marvel released for Riri’s character shows a dark-skinned girl with smoldering eyes and a big curly fro.
The thought of a brilliant, beautiful dark-skinned black girl taking on one of America’s most iconic superheroes is awe-inducing. But it wasn’t long until Hollywood was on some BS.
On Wednesday, Entertainment Weekly published an article entitled ‘7 Actresses Who Should Play Marvel’s Black Female Iron Man’, and the list is shockingly tone deaf. We can’t tell whether the colorism is deliberate, or just a result of laziness, but the list does not at ALL represent Hollywood’s young, darker-skinned talent.
The original list included Zendaya Coleman (19), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (33), Nathalie Emmanuel (27), Sonequa Martin-Green (31), Kiersey Clemons (22), Denée Benton (24) and Amandla Stenberg (17).
Broadway actress Denee Benton is the only woman similar in both skin tone and hair texture to Riri’s comic art.
Denee Benton at the 2016 Tony Awards
After being called out, Entertainment Weekly updated the list with Teyonah Parris and Tika Sumpter but, at age 36, it might be impractical to cast Sumpter as a 15-year-old girl.
What Riri Williams looks like MATTERS. It MATTERS that she is a dark-skinned black girl. It matters because most black girls in America ARE darker-skinned but continue to be erased in entertainment — even from their OWN stories. That Hollywood would even consider a light-skinned 33-year-old actress for the role of a dark-skinned 15-year-old-girl shows how far it will go to avoid dark skin.
To make the argument that Riri needs to be played by a more ‘known’ or ‘crossover’ star is also disingenuous. Marvel has a history of casting lesser-known stars in lead parts, particularly for its younger super heroes.
Tom Holland, best-known to this point for playing Billy Elliott on Broadway, will star in the upcoming Spiderman films. And Chadwick Boseman wasn’t particularly well known to mainstream audiences when he was cast for the lead in Black Panther.
The role of Riri Williams belongs to a young, up-and-coming black actress who can physically reflect Marvel’s comic art. The character they have drawn is gorgeous — why change her? Here are some of our suggestions for who can play this role:
1. Skai Jackson, 14
I mean, DUH, why was she not on the top of the list? She stars in the Disney show Bunk’d and we could TOTALLY see her flexing her acting chops for this role.
https://www.instagram.com/skaijackson/?hl=en
2. Aja Naomi King, 31
Though a bit older, Aja could definitely play a convincing teenage girl. Aside from playing the tenacious Michaela in How To Get Away With Murder she is getting a lot of positive buzz for her role as Cherry in The Birth of a Nation.
3. Normani Kordei, 20
The gorgeous breakout star of girl group Fifth Harmony has the looks and, as a lifelong dancer, the athleticism to pull off this role. She could follow in Naturi Naughton’s footsteps and leave singing behind to have an acting career.
Fifth Harmony at the 2016 Billboard Awards, Normani is second from left
4. Sierra McClain, 22
She first appeared in Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls with her two sisters, and they now have a singing group. We would love to see Sierra put down the mic and brush off her acting chops to take on a role like this.
https://www.instagram.com/mynameissisi/?hl=en
5. Marsai Martin, 11
Although still very young, if a new Iron Man film is not slated for filming for a few years, Marsai might have time to age up. Marsai is incredible as the sassy Diane on Black-ish, she would totally own this role. Could this picture she snapped with current Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr be prophetic?
https://www.instagram.com/marsaisworld/?hl=en
6. Keke Palmer, 22
Already a seasoned actress, Keke would bring a ton of sass and spunk to the role. How FUN would it be to see her play a superhero?! We would be soooooo here for it!
https://www.instagram.com/kekepalmer/
7. Camille Winbush, 26
She won our hearts as the invincible Vanessa on The Bernie Mac Show, and we’ve been dying to see more of her ever since. She has experience playing a teenager, most recently playing Lauren in The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and she has the baby face to pull this off.
https://www.instagram.com/camilleswinbush/?hl=en
8. Imani Hakim, 22
The actress has blossomed since playing the perpetually screw-faced Tonya in Everybody Hates Chris. It would be great to see her play a different kind of character.
https://www.instagram.com/anakih1/?hl=en
9. Jessica Williams, 26
She’s already a superhero to us for her witty and relevant social commentary on The Daily Show, which she recently left to take on acting full-time. This would be a wonderful early role and, at a towering 6 feet tall, she would cut a powerful Iron Man figure.
10. Shanice Williams, 20
She killed it as Dorothy on The Wiz Live! on NBC. We could totally see the adorable actress pulling out her fierceness to take on the role of Iron Man.
11. Anna Diop, 28
The Senegalese-born actress is making strides in Hollywood, currently starring in OWN’s Greenleaf and Fox’s 24: Legacy, due to debut in February 2017. Clearly the girl can act!
12. Teyonah Parris, 30
Because this is a picture of Teyonah side-by-side with the Riri comic art. I mean…
13. Lovie Simone, 17
The young actress is getting rave reviews playing the secretly drug-abusing pastor’s daughter Zora on OWN’s Greenleaf. She has shown that she has the acting chops (and the hair!) to take on a role like this.
https://www.instagram.com/loviesimone_/
14. Condola Rashad, 29
Condola, who is currently starring in the Showtime drama Billions could carry on the legacy of her legendary mother Phylicia Rashad with an iconic role like this.
15. A totally unknown actress
We rep hard for our girls in Hollywood — whether they are dark or light — because being a black woman in the industry is just HARD, period. But, we also can’t deny that darker-skinned black actresses have a much, MUCH harder time breaking into the industry, much less breaking out as stars. Much like Lupita Nyong’o shot to superstardom after her first major film role, this could be an incredible opportunity to give an unknown talent a place in Hollywood.
Who would you add to our list?
Dark skin can sell. They just don’t want to try. Plus, how ever will they film dark and light skin people TOGETHER?! What a conundrum that their deep pockets can’t fix!!
How can I add? This nailed perfect ladies for this role!
So they gave up the role of grown white male, to a 15 yr old black girl.… And you’re complaining that she is too light skinned? How are you not racists?
Note: If the role of a black character goes to a white man, there will be riots over ‘racism’ and ‘whitewashing’. If the role of a white character goes to a black woman, it’s called ‘progression’.
Except the role of a white man DID NOT go to a black character. They are two separate characters. Tony Stark still exists in this new comic. Do some research before you complain, you mouth breathing troglodyte. And stop pretending that white washing is the same thing as changing a white character to black. Because there’s SUCH a shortage of roles for white actors, right?/sarcasm. Back to your hole, troll.
Lol, do you need to be reminded of Nick Fury, Electro, Johnny Blaze.…. The list of “black washed” characters goes on.… But this time it ‘ok’ because they’re just going to create a whole new character.… Lmao
First off shes a black girl, second off she took nobody position, and 3rd of all why do you sound like you’re jealous of black girls and women? You’re supposed to be a grown behind man.
Totally missed the point here Bill…I mean really. Read the dam article again and you’ll hopefully understand what the “fuss” is all about. *eye roll*
This character is dark skinned. Favoring light skin over dark skin is colorism. Hollywood tends to cast light and mixed race actress for black female roles (they do not do this for black male roles).
Shut up bill
The complaint is that they looked at a dark-skinned girl and said that MUCH lighter-skinned women should play her. Not that Tony Stark should be replaced by these women, like you seem to think. What they’re saying is that the girl in the comic book art is very obviously much darker than Hollywood’s top picks to play her.
I don’t think you read the article properly. That, or you’re deliberately trying to twist their words.
Go look up the word racists and come back. You guys keep flinging that word around like the race card.
Uninformed idiot… RiRi Williams and Tony Stark aren’t the same person. She made her own “Iron Man” armor.
The character Riri is dark skinned…why…why would a light skinned girl play her? And read the dang article next time. *facepalm*
I agree that it is great news that somebody at Marvel said, “Let’s make a Tony Stark character that is NOT Tony Stark, and let’s flip the script of her personal background by changing both gender and skin color.” That is cool a d creative and, in these Trump Dark Ages, bold. But Bill, are you familiar enough with (1) the skin diversity of the Black Diaspora, and (2) Hollywood to see that Hollywood’s list of ideas has already been pointedly aimed at excluding 75% of the Black female actors available and appropriate? When they have left out so many possibles… Read more »
While I’m not familiar with most of the actresses shown, many of them have the necessary experience to do the job. And just going by the looks of the ladies compared to the original suggestions your ladies just blow them out of the water! Rock on!
She’s not even going to BE in the MCU. She’s not I the Ultimates timeline. That’s the universe the MCU is based on. They’re not replacing RDJ. She’s being introduced in her own comic line. That’s completely different.
Hollywood doesn’t like DARK SKINNED WOMEN, they like DARK SKINNED MEN with them they don’t have problem! IT IS clear as day that they like BI-RACIAL WOMEN, I AM SORRY HOLLYWOOD THAT WOMEN AREN’T BLACK WOMEN!
I dont know how many times i can say Amen…But AMEN!! You speak so much truth. Thank you
Why is your list like 10x better that theirs? Lol wow yeah we just got the character and they are already trying to erase us smh my dark skin nieces will literally never see themselves held in high regard in this society smh
Theres not going to be a film on this but IF there ever were — Marvel would pick an unknown. And no doubt she’d be chocolate! Just like Luke Cage series coming to Netflix.
I agree because she needs to be able to grow with the franchise. Ithink no one over the age of 25 to be honest. A lot of older actors hate playing children so I say give it to a child around that age range.
Teenagers are rarely played by teenage actors.
Please stop pitting black women against each other. Yes, their list should’ve included more darker-skinned beauties however that doesn’t give BGLH a free pass to exacerbate colourism within the black community. Black is Black is Black, PERIOD.
It’s not “pitting Black women against each other.” The COLORISM was this list erasing RIri’s DARK skin in favor of light skin. This list is remedying that. Even Zendaya said herself as a light skinned Black girl she (we) doesn’t experience the same oppression as a dark skinned woman.
TA with your statement. It’s sad that in 2016 we are still focusing on skin complexions.
these women aren’t black and as long as you keep referring to them as such, mixed women will always be in the roles before any other black person.
If Hollywood weren’t so racist, many of these women would be big stars by now. Unbelievable.
How about Riele Downs (who is by the 15 years) famously known for her portrayal of Charlotte in the Nickelodeon’s Henry Danger. Absolutely love her!
Girl, YES to your suggestions for the role!
They did the same thing with Misty Knight. 5he actress playi g her in the Luke Cage Netflix show iangood and very funny. But shw is light-skinned.
Aja is so damn beautiful. She still looks pretty young so if this became a film, she’d be great. But I’m sure they are going to be looking at the numbers on the Wonder Woman film and Captain Marvel before giving a female superhero her own movie. I don’t even think Riri would ever come to film but it’s nice to have our dream casts in our heads.
why not just choose a “non-famous” person? there are plenty of cool chocolate divas like @naptural85 (hair queen) or @charlyndajean (sauce queen) on Instagram.
I’d like to Serayah McNeill
Where’s the lie, though? Everything you said is 100% truth. And look at the usual backlash that’s starting with butthurt fanboys crying over the fact that L’s part in the Death Note American adaptation was given to a black man. Yet these same people seem to have no problem with Light and Misa being recast as white. BTW, Misa (Light’s ‘love interest’ in DN was Japanese, not white. Her full name is Misa Amano. She just has her hair dyed blonde.)
So somehow casting a black character automatically makes it “pandering”, but ALL those other superheroes that are majority white and male is somehow NOT pandering to white male nerds? GTFOH. BTW, it’s not “race swapping” considering Riri is an entirely different character from Tony Stark and Tony still exists. Try harder.
“I’ll only accept race swapping when it’s black to white.” Yeah you sound like a real braniac and not a racist hypocrite at all.
Storm was made into a mixed person and now this superhero. That’s why black people need to stop claiming half white people as black otherwise mixed people are always going to be chosen for black roles.
mixed
Love!
OMGosh, Camille Winbush! I didn’t know her name but as soon as I saw her face I recognized her from GhostDog, as the deeply studious and strong young girl who becomes part of his inner sanctum. She has the depth AND the looks to do such a role: I was actually saddened to see her wasted on silliness like Bernie Mac (but actors gotta work.) She is incredible. BTW, contrary to popular belief, role-casting is not primarily about looks. How cares if an actress looks exactly like a drawing? A movie is not a still photo shoot. Let’s not reduce… Read more »
Please just let her fro be luscious and moisturized (and maybe even 4b)
Being that the character is base off of Skai Jackson, she would be the likely choice.
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POW. THIS. » “That Hollywood would even consider a light-skinned 33-year-old actress for the role of a dark-skinned 15-year-old-girl shows how far it will go to avoid dark skin.”
Skai
Lynly from Hart of Dixie is now Melissa on the HAVES and HAVE nots.
Antoinette Robertson …She’s my choice!!
I love skai and Keke Palmer for this role. I know we were looking at deep brown skin girls but I also like the older sister from blackish. Yasidi I’m so sorry if I’m slaughtering her name, seriously I love her as a super hero
Get out of my head. i thought about her too. Also love Skai for the role, but like another poster said, the role will most likely be filled by an adult to allow for a full work schedule
It is doubtful that Hollywood will allow her to be 15 or 16 years old. That would present a problem for her to fulfill her function as a sexmate with a white man.
(Halle Berry and the couple dozen other black women who have “stared” in Sci-Fi can fill you in.) — And we all know black on black love is a taboo: no white man lover / no show.
Ugh its so annoying, YES. But wait: How come there are no Black Producers, Filmmakers and Cinemas that can hire these beautiful Dark Skin Ladies, and make a new wave of Noir Cinema, that people will be jealous about? Let Hollywood hire who they want, after all its THEIR game and they FUND it. Check out NOLLYWOOD, as low-fi and passe as it is stylistically, its a Mega business because it caters to loyal African people. Just like AA’s have got everyone salivating over their Natural hair, now everybody is proud of their Curls, people wanna be down with “texture”… Read more »
I love that ya’ll not only addressed the problem but that ya’ll gave SOLUTIONS C: A great list
Wow, way to go Hollywood.
Here’s another brilliant idea… why don’t we replace Black Panther with a 15 year old white kid with blond hair and also call him Black Panther?
In case you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic. I really think that if we want new characters to diversify, we should CREATE new characters, not replace the existing ones.
So she’s Stark’s protégé? Good. Why not call her Iron Girl?
Probably wouldn’t work as Black Panther is 1. Already a title passed down and 2. Culturally linked. Iron Man is literally a guy who invented a suit.
Also, they are creating new characters. And they’ve had Iron Girl before. They’re also making mantle/legacy characters like DC does.
Dumbest thing I’ve ever read period
Sure, let’s replace another well known Marvel standard with some type of minority or member of the other sex, rather than just create another character in the first place??
wow that is verbatium what someone was saying a racist would say about moon girl today on facebook
You know, they’re doing both, right? They’ve been doing the DC route (which they’ve done for decades) and developing their main characters into mantles/legacies. There will be two Iron Man series out, just like there are two Spider-man series (actually three, even four if you count 2099) with multiple people calling themselves Spider-man. They’ve also been making new characters, but the problem is that a lot of times people don’t take chances on new characters and crap on them before they’re out. Miles Morales got so much heat before he was even out, and now he’s one of the most… Read more »
if they were shooting it tomorrow Skai Jackson would already be cast cause she already works for Disney and she’s ot that much younger then riri I think we it’s possible we might meet Riri in spiderman homecomming as one of peters cassmates though (just a thought i had don’t hold me to that)
how about Robert Downey Jr. and im not joking why would they make a movie about this? why are they changing iron man? why are they making her black and a women and calling it iron MAN?? why are they trying to push some kind of sjw thing? and also why is the new thor a woman? no why? i would had been fine with a female with thors powers but why call her thor? they have been countless people who lifted the hammer and got thors powers but never EVER called themselves thor, even the person who replaced thor… Read more »
If you read the comic, you’d know why. She’s also been Thor for about two years now. You can’t cite all these things about comics and precedent, but be ignorant of things going on now that explains all of it.
I agree with most everyone here. Let’s have some imagination in Hollywood and just create a new character. Iron Man is Iron Man you can’t replace him with a black girl, giant green guy, grape ape or captain caveman. He is one of my favorites and if they go and start changing them all I think people are going to get mad. These are heros some people have grown up with for years. I loved black panter too, but same goes for him. A blonde white girl can’t step in and play his part, that just don’t make any since.… Read more »
[…] skin face even greater discrimination as a result of colorism. For example: Entertainment Weekly suggesting light-skinned women of colour to play Marvel’s new character Riri, despite the character art clearly showing a dark-skinned […]
bring her into the movies now. No excuses. Make her Rhodey’s niece.
But I thought it was ok to change a character’s skin color for the movie as long as the story worked and the actor/actress was good for the part. Hasn’t that been the narrative over the last several years? Fantastic Four anyone?
making changes can work but not when it’s erasing a population that doesn’t get represented. ‘Nick Fury is black? well there’s still a ton of white heros out there. White guys aren’t missing out. Johnny Storm is black? Well there’s two other white guys IN THAT FILM. White guys aren’t missin gout.
TIKA SUPMTER!
I love this! Can’t wait for Iron heart. I agree, I don’t think they should use a light skinned girl for this part. Make her true to character! Beautiful choices. I like Aja Naomi from HTGAWM. Love that show.
Young newcomer Emyri Crutchfield killed as Kizzy in the Roots remake…She totally should be RiRi!
Isn’t it more important that the best black actress gets the role … regardless of being light-skinned or dark-skinned? The look of comic book characters doesn’t necessarily translate exactly from the page to the screen adaptation. If that were the case, Nick Fury would still be a white guy, lol .
No, the problem is that most of the suggested cast are biracial and light-skinned. They don’t represent the majority of black women in America. America is saying this is what black women look like, when it is not, black is a spectrum. Second of all, Hollywood has serious colourism issues. It’s difficult to find a successful dark women on the same level as a light-skinned woman because of light-skinned privilege. Yes, we’re happy when black women succeed no matter skin colour, but it goes deeper than that. It’s important for dark skinned women to be represented as well.
Also there are two versions of Nick Fury in the comics. Black Nick Fury is Nick Fury jnr, white Nick Fury’s son.
I can tell that you aren’t a real comic book fan because it is know that also Skai Jackson was the inspiration for Riri William. The CREATOR EVEN SAID SO! SO with this KNOWLEDGE who do you think should play her? lol
I don’t think she’s a strong enough actress yet. I think Keke Palmer should take it, but not averse to Aja Naomi King, though she’s a little older.
I’m so sick of every black woman in the spotlight being either light skinned or biracial. I’m just not gonna watch the damn movie if it isn’t played by a dark woman.
I’m light skinned and i can’t tell ya, i want to see more dark skinned women in movies. I applaud marvels movie in making the next iron “woman” man black. This keeep her at that dark rich chocolate.let’s face it, there’s more dark skinned girls/women the world over than us light ones. Glad they also finally making black panther.
They aint s*. All the suggestions listed here makes way more sense than hollywood’s suggestions.
Thank you for this post! Bi-racial is the new Black for female actresses and it just unacceptable. Black women have to demand that this stop. Our representation matters.
The CW seems to be having quite a diverse cast without much problem. New 52 Wally in The Flash!
Yeah the CW has their diversity priorities on lock.
That moment when a black actress is passed over for a part because black people don’t think she’s black enough.
Explore high yellow, milk chocolate, and blue black, and then tell me that blacks aren’t racist.
These choices are awesome.
i would like to add Amaka Obiechie. She was on Mindy Kahling on Hulu and has a youtube channel called GIRLINTRANSITION. She is of Nigerian descent and is American.
The only ‘black’ actresses they put forward all have one white parent. Did they not learn from the miscasting of the Nina Simone movie?
Weird. I’m 39 & realize the most beautiful thing about me has been my dark skin. Their skin is so pretty. I will never understand the hate for it.
You will never see this female hero on the big screen. Just won’t happen. Iron Man is a middle-aged white guy no matter how much Marvel wants to racially pander. I’m all for female heroes but they need to be new heroes not gender-swapped ones. The only racially swapped hero I’ll accept is when Marvel makes Black Panther a 12 year old neurotic Jewish white kid named Morty.
Genneya Walton of project mc2 aand the american girl series. And shes a trained elite dancer, so she would probably be able to perform most of the stunts herself.
Genneya Walton of project mc2 aand the american girl series. And shes a
trained elite dancer, so she would probably be able to perform most of
the stunts herself.
It’s so important the actress that plays the role actually be close to the age of 15
Quvenzhané Wallis — 12
It’s not going to happen. Hollywood has both an issue with race AND colorism. Hollywood favors whites. If hollywood MUST add people of color, these people of color need to either perpetuate negative stereotypes or play stereotypical roles on the big screen. If they aren’t being fit into Hollywood’s racist portrayals of their people, and the role is non stereotypical and positive, the role of a person of color either needs to be passed up to a white person, or played by a person of color who closely resembles whites in appearance, because whites(ameicans) are so narcissistic and self absorbed… Read more »
Maybe it’s because all the actresses on your list are fucking awful at acting.
They could also have Coco Jones (18), Riele Downs (15), Quvenzhané Wallis (12) Gracie Marie Bradley (16). There’s so many dark skinned young actresses to choose from.
I mean it is written by a white man. So I expected the site washing anyways. Also it would be awesome if they casted an unknown teen actor .I love seeing new talent .
I think Marvel would more than likely pick Skai for the role since they used her likeness to create Riri. They did the same with Samuel L. Jackson as the inspiration for black Nick Fury and cast him in the role, they’ll do the same here.
What’s your source?
Here’s a much more pertinent question: who the HELL would ever go see a movie about this? LOLZ!!!!