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Anthony Mackie Calls for More Diversity in the Marvel Universe

Hoping for change. Anthony Mackie and Daveed Diggs opened up about the lack of diversity on film and TV sets in a new interview — and Mackie, who has been part of the Marvel universe since 2014, is hoping that down the line, he sees more diversity.

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“When The Falcon and the Winter Soldier comes out, I’m the lead. When Snowpiercer came out, you’re the lead. We have the power and the ability to ask those questions,” the Avengers: Endgame star, 41, told Diggs, 38, in Variety‘s interview. “It really bothered me that I’ve done seven Marvel movies where every producer, every director, every stunt person, every costume designer, every PA, every single person has been white.”

He went on to explain that they had “one Black producer” during his time working on Marvel films, Nate Moore, who produced Black Panther in 2018.

Anthony Mackie Calls for More Diversity in the Marvel Universe
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Marvel Entertainment/Perception/Spi/Kobal/Shutterstock

“When you do Black Panther, you have a Black director, Black producer, you have a Black costume designer, you have a Black stunt choreographer. And I’m like, that’s more racist than anything else,” the actor continued. “Because if you only can hire the Black people for the Black movie, are you saying they’re not good enough when you have a mostly white cast?”

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Mackie then said that he hopes Marvel would “hire the best person for the job,” despite their gender or race. “Even if it means we’re going to get the best two women, we’re going to get the best two men. Fine. I’m cool with those numbers for the next 10 years,” he stated. “It starts to build a new generation of people who can put something on their résumé to get them other jobs. If we’ve got to divvy out as a percentage, divvy it out. And that’s something as leading men that we can go in and push for.”

Mackie will star in Disney+’s upcoming limited series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, alongside Sebastian Stan. However, he has a bigger goal down the line.

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“As a young Black actor, your career is only as good as your team’s level of understanding you. I’ve been in the game 20 years now. And I’ve seen a lot of actors come. I’ve seen a lot of actors go,” the Hurt Locker star explained. “And the one thing that I feel like my team has done is keep my projects interesting and catered to my sensibilities. My ultimate goal is to be Dick Wolf of New Orleans. I want to create a cop show in New Orleans, where I get to be the fat police sergeant. I work one day a week. I come out of my office and I go, ‘Get in my office.’ And then I go back and you never see me again. Until then, I am the best hype man of all time. I put Flavor Flav to shame. If you want to get the music thing going and you need a hype man, I’m here.”

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