Marvel has a long and storied white past. And now that the mega brand is trying to better reflect multiple communities and the current state of the world, there were bound to be some growing pains. Their casting choices for the newest iteration in the Spider-Man series shows just how deep those pains go.

If you watch the trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming and you’re a comic book devotee like me, the character that sticks out the most isn’t Peter Parker (played by Tom Holland). It’s Ned Leeds, a character played by Jacob Batalon who is remarkably similar to fan-favorite comic book character Ganke Lee (whom we previously thought was being whitewashed too). I won’t go too deep into all the backstories, but Ganke Lee was the Korean-American friend to Miles Morales, the afro-latino Spider-Man of the now defunct Ultimate line of Marvel comics.

One of the great aspects of those comics was that whiteness wasn’t centered. It was a fresh take on the Spider-Man story, fitting more closely to the current world we live in. Judging by the trailer below, much inspiration was taken from those comics to construct this new film representation, just like we speculated way back in 2015. It’s a smart move to let go of the history that has continually boxed in these movies. They just forgot to let go of the notion that a white male needs to be at the top of everything.

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