Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star Julian Hilliard spoke up about representation and shot down toxic fans who disagreed.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe actor who played Wanda Maximoff's son in the Doctor Strange sequel and Disney+'s WandaVision reposted a video on his Twitter of a young Black girl reacting positively to The Little Mermaid live-action trailer. Hilliard reposted the video with the quote, "This is so great. Representation matters. Don't give the hate the time." But on the same day, the actor tweeted a thread that began with how he lost followers as a result of his reposting and slammed the negative fans.
"Lost a few followers for saying representation matters," Hilliard said. "Um, wow…so fragile…well, Love the rest of y’all!"
Hilliard continued to roast toxic fans by comparing them to the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. Additionally, he reposted a Twitter user who posted his picture with a derogatory quote to which Hillard replied, "Like, I said...fragile. And, I am absolutely a nerd & proud of it lol. Imagine getting this worked up over a kid saying representation matters."
Representation in the MCU has been at the core of Phase 4's direction since it was kicked off with WandaVision in 2021. Before Phase 4, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige clashed with Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter who refused to push diverse characters in the MCU. "There's a lot of sides to the story," Feige said. "You can pick up Bob Iger's book The Ride of a Lifetime to learn more, I highly recommend it, but it made sense at that time. We had made ten movies or more that managerially, there was another way to go."
Marvel Continues to Get More Diverse
The box office successes of 2018's Black Panther and 2019's Captain Marvel gave Marvel Studios the confidence to push for more diversity. 2021 saw the release of Shang Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings, which was Marvel's first superhero of Asian descent on the big screen, and Eternals, with its first LGBTQ superhero in Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry).
Marvel has not been unaware to the backlash from toxic fans who slam their diverse direction as several MCU stars have addressed the negativity head-on. Most recently, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law star Tatiana Maslany addressed the sexist backlash against the Disney+ series from toxic fans. "I’m curious about what kind of conversations people will have about this show and with each other, depending on I think people, you know, can have a real visceral response to like a woman superhero, which we’ve already felt, you know, online," Maslany explained.
Source: Twitter