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Actor Anthony Mackie, known for his role in seven different Marvel films, is now speaking out against the company for its “lack of diversity”.
Mackie, known for playing Sam Wilson (also known as Falcon) in several different Marvel Cinematic Universe films including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame feels as though Marvel has a “lack of diversity” which really bothers him.
During Variety’s Actors on Actors, Mackie said “When The Falcon and The Winter Soldier comes out, I’m the lead. When Snowpiercer comes out, you’re the lead. We have the power and the ability to ask those questions.”
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He continued, “It really bothered me that I’ve done seven Marvel movies where every producer, every director, every stunt person, every costume designer, every PA, every single person has been white.”
When the topic of the Marvel movie, Black Panther, got brought up, (which if you have seen the film, you know that basically the entire cast and crew are African American), Mackie stated that because of the situation, it technically might even be worse than you think.
“But then when you do Black Panther, you have a Black director, Black producer, you have a Black costume designer, you have a Black stunt choreographer,” he said. “And I’m like, that’s more racist than anything else. Because if you only can hire the Black people for the Black movie, are you saying they’re not good enough when you have a mostly white cast?”
Mackie ended with “Hire the best person for the job. Even if it means we’re going to get the best two women, we’re going to get the best two men.”
Anthony Mackie is set to star as the lead in the upcoming Marvel series, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, which is currently scheduled to be released on Disney+ in August. The Marvel actor is also set to take over as the new Captain America as seen at the end of Avengers: Endgame.