Ground Level Spec: Zendaya Joins Cast of Spiderman Movie

Deadline broke the news today that Zendaya would be joining the cast of the Sony reboot for Spiderman. They gave detail of who she would be playing. Thanks to Mel for some spec on this casting.
Like I said, Deadline broke the news that Zendaya (19 year old singer, dancer, model) would be joining the cast of Spiderman. Here is what they had to say:

Sony and Marvel Studios are beginning to cast up their Spider-Man reboot. I’m told that actress-singer Zendaya has landed a key role in the ensemble they are building around Tom Holland, who’ll play Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the film to be directed by Jon Watts (Cop Car). She was among the actresses who’ve quietly been testing for roles, and I hear she will play a character named Michelle. Nobody is providing details on whether this is the romantic lead opposite Peter Parker, but it doesn’t sound like it. In the comics, Parker romanced Mary Jane and Gwen.

Reaction instantly turned negative as there are so many classic characters they could have cast instead of “Michelle”. However, there is a Michelle that is relevant to the Spiderman mythos.
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There is Michelle Gonzales, who is the sister of disgraced cop Vin Gonzales, friend of Peter Parker, who goes on to be Peter’s roommate. She first appears in Amazing Spiderman #592
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There is also the Amazing Spiderman #592 Variant.
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Cheap spec play, and not bad since many ASM books do appreciate in value over time.

20 thoughts on “Ground Level Spec: Zendaya Joins Cast of Spiderman Movie”

  1. ………..and faster than an eye blink all the reasonably priced variants are gone from ferbay, amazon, etc……
    Wow… it’s like trying to get a mondo print these days!

      1. Ohhhh… I was just lamenting the state of affairs these days. It used to be 24-36 hours upon news break; then after 6pm when folks got home; then hours; now we’re down to minutes before everything disappears. It’s actually quite incredible!

  2. I think she’s going to be silk!!! Not Michelle Gonzales I think the whole Michelle thing is a planned misdirection. People can get burned buying movie/tv specs. Look at Shang Chi master of Kung fu rumor he was going to be in Ironfist 2 days ago his 1st appearance moves at crazy prices still is!! New article comes out today saying the Shang Chi rumor was a bunch of B.S. And a bunch speculators just over paid for some Kung fu comics they haven’t even received in the mail yet and probably don’t want anymore.

      1. I can see what ya saying Alana and I have a long box worth of stuff that would love for her to be Silk,but this new age peter needs a love intrest and I think Michelle Gonzalez could be it

  3. Isn’t Silk asian, why must they constantly inject alternate race actors that oppose the source material. Talk about a lack of black actors, name the last asian super hero on film. Casting this chick as Silk would be another example of this. I highly doubt it will be Silk anyway, she is too new of a character, not known well enough and Sony needs to hit a home run with this next Spider-Man

    1. If Sony wanted to hit a homerun Venon should be the next Villain…Venom done right ..not that 192 lb Venom we seen in pt 3

    2. There has been a lot of talk about Asian exclusion from movies, so I agree changing her race would add fuel to the fire. Last Asian superhero I can think of (in American movies) was maybe Brandon Lee in the Crow. It’s been a while

  4. I must be really old.. I had to google Zendaya.. had no Earthly idea who that was and after seeing her and reading what she’s done, I still have no idea who she is.

  5. The reason I think she would be Silk is she’s a Disney actress/singer meaning Disney had her put In that role on purpose to launch the career of one of their actresses. When Marvel/Disney made the deal to get spidey rights back for MCU it’s rumored not only was Sony promised help in launching a Venom standalone franchise but it was also rumored that Marvel/Disney would help in launching a female spider movie franchise. Most would assume they would do SpiderGwen above Spiderwoman or Silk but SpiderGwen doesn’t fit into the normal Spidey universe. If she is Gonzales then Zendaya would be a half black actress playing a Hispanic as well. If it is Gonzales with the the very few amount of comics she’s appeared in we could probably come to the hypothesis that the movies villain would be Chameleon, Electro, female Kraven, the Hood, or a combination of these characters.

  6. Michelle appeared too briefly in the book. I remembered her character, but didn’t think they would want to bring her into the movies; especially during Peter’s high school years. I definitely think this is a false name given for casting, and that she is actually playing someone else. My guess is Sajani Jaffrey. She has played a prominent role in the book ever since Peter started working at Horizon; all the way to today at Parker Industries. They could imply she knew Peter in high school as a fellow science geek, instead of meeting him later in life. The same way they’ve “back-dated” Mary Jane & Gwen Stacy going to high school with Peter in the movies & TV shows, even though he didn’t know either of them until College. Sure, they could do the same thing with Michelle, but I don’t know that her character would translate as easily, since she doesn’t have a defining trait in common with Peter that would logically make them friends in high school. Just my personal opinion. And we really don’t know anything at all about this movie yet, other than the fact Peter Parker will be portrayed Even Younger than any other Spidey film to date.

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