Marvel star calls out lack of Black characters in Harry Potter, LOTR

American actor Anthony Dwane Mackie, who’s perhaps best known for his role as Sam Wilson (AKA the Falcon) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has spoken out about the lack of diversity in film, and the shortage of roles offered to young Black actors.

As well as reprising his role as Falcon in the upcoming fourth Captain America movie, Captain America: Brave New World, Mackie is currently in the midst making his directorial debut with Spark - a biopic centred around civil rights movement pioneer, Claudette Colvin. In an interview with Inverse, Mackie said that he feels that Spark provides an opportunity to give more Hollywood roles to Black talent.

“Harry Potter had no f**king Black friends,” Mackie told Inverse. “Frodo walked across the entire universe and never met a Black dude. I want to see Frodo in the hood, which if I ever do Saturday Night Live is going to be a skit I’m going to do.”

Earlier this year, there was a saddening amount of outrage online after it was revealed that Aragorn was going to be depicted as a Black man in the official Magic the Gathering Lord of the Rings crossover set, Tales of Middle-earth. Some Lord of the Rings fans responded to the card artwork with racial slurs, while others stated that it was “trash”. Others defended the art, and told those opposed to it to “grow the hell up”.

More recently, Idris Elba revealed that racist backlash deterred him from the idea of playing James Bond. In an appearance on the SmartLess podcast, he said that despite being “super complimented” by the huge amount of Bond fans eager for him to take the role, the backlash made it “off-putting”. He continued: “Those that weren’t happy about the idea made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting, because it became about race. It became about nonsense and I got the brunt of it.”