The upcoming summer blockbuster Spider-Man: Far From Home is the first superhero movie ever to cast out trans actors. The popular franchise hired young actor Zach Barack to play a friend of Tom Holland's Peter Parker and placed Tyler Luke Cunningham as a featured extra.
Zach Barack and Tyler Luke Cunningham
Fans caught on to the groundbreaking casting when a behind-the-scenes photograph was released on Twitter.
Holland added to the evidence when he shared a photograph of himself and a group of actors meeting director Baz Luhrmann. Zach Barack is second from the right.
This trailblazing casting choice comes at a time when trans actors are being discussed more than ever. After Scarlett Johansson accepted, then withdrew from, a role as a trans man, the issue has become a major topic of conversation in Hollywood. Television has seen a rise in visibility for trans actors playing trans characters with FX's Golden Globe-nominated series Pose.
The casting of Barack and Cunningham in this major studio enterprise makes headway for diversity in big-budget films. Although the gender identity of their characters is currently undefined, the anticipated gobal release of the film will provice extremely rare visibility of trans people (actors and/or characters) on screens around the world -- including in countries where transphobia is rampant.
This Spider-Man installment will follow Peter Parker and fellow students as they travel to Europe on vacation, hoping to avoid supervillians for the summer. When Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) shows up and puts their sightseeing plans on the backburner, Parker realizes he has to take his crime-fighting work with him, and Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio is introduced. Watch the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home below.
