Chapter 23

"It is not that we are racially discriminatory; the key point is that the characterization of Spider-Man must align with the original work. An Asian playing Spider-Man constitutes OOC and seriously deviates from the settings."

"After some interviews, New York City citizens are not keen on the Asian version of Spider-Man! This is a superhero belonging to our Apple City and should respect the original work!"

"The trailer's effect is indeed excellent, but as everyone knows... no matter how excellent a trailer is, it cannot form a positive correlation with the film's quality."

"The essence of many films is all condensed into the trailer, making the viewing experience of the actual film greatly diminished."

"Plus, live-action comic book versions are a disaster zone for bad films; several film directors and famous actors have publicly predicted the box office of Spider-Man will fail."

This was still a polite challenge; North American famous film critic Richard Newber directly labeled Spider-Man as a bad film.

"Undoubtedly, this film will be a popcorn movie filled with action scenes and special effects."

"The masked hero from the original comics will return to the big screen, allowing more people to see these 'vigilantes' punish evil and promote good, enforcing the law in place of the police."

"The most ironic thing is that this hero is Asian, played by the Chinese Xu Can. Is this the justice the audience wants to see?"

This article was also published in The New York Times, sparking a series of discussions.

Therefore, agent Happy urgently called Xu Can, who was on vacation, fearing this public opinion would ferment, affecting Xu Can's reputation and even the film's box office.

Upon receiving the call, Xu Can was much calmer than his agent.

"Happy, calm down. This kind of thing is normal and not a bad thing."

"Huh? This doesn't count as a bad thing?"

"Of course. Free hype; if you don't take it, you're missing out. Isn't the discussion level higher now than a few days ago?"

"This..."

Happy thought carefully and realized it seemed to be exactly that logic.

On the first day the Spider-Man trailer went online, there was little outside attention, and its influence was limited to the Marvel fan community.

As a result, it now seems to have broken out of the circle, drawing more people into the discussion.

And it brought up again the issue that had already caused controversy during casting,

"Should Spider-Man be played by an Asian?",

to heat up the atmosphere once more.

Xu Can's name frequently appeared on major news media, and his photos were constantly exposed.

Before the movie was even released, Xu Can was already famous in Hollywood.

Actually, the initial suggestion to release the trailer on online video websites came from Xu Can.

In these days, the early YouTube was not at all noticed by traditional big shots.

Sony executives would not think of this method,

but Xu Can brought the future gameplay of online feeding back to offline to this parallel world; now it seems the effect is good, and the hype has already been stirred up.

"Let's add more fire!"

Xu Can calmly took a sip of cola.

"Happy, help me sue this film critic for racial discrimination. After that, accept a media interview to discuss this matter."

"Easy. Just as well, a Los Santos Times reporter is looking for me."

After discussing for a moment, agent Happy hung up the phone.

The next morning, the Los Santos media reported this news.

"Regarding film critic Richard Newber's public racial discrimination against Asian actor Xu Can, Xu Can's agent has filed a lawsuit with the court."

"Agent Happy Hogan stated that Richard should apologize to Xu Can. In the Spider-Man comics, there are whites, blacks, women, and even a pig! Spider-Ham!"

"Peter Porker is also Spider-Man! Why can't Xu Can play the role?"

This question stumped film critic Richard Newber, and at the same time, he received a court summons.

He panicked and immediately accepted a media interview.

"I am not racially discriminatory; here I publicly apologize to Mr. Xu Can. I am sorry. I have no issues with people of any skin color, any race, or any faith!"

"Actually, the media misunderstood. I just wanted to say that an Asian playing Spider-Man might cause fans to react negatively, and the film's final box office and reputation will not be high."

"Here I boldly predict that the North American box office of the live-action Spider-Man will not exceed 200 million."

The production cost of Spider-Man is 139 million US dollars,

so a box office of 200 million equals a severe loss.

The box office must be at least 300 million US dollars to barely break even.

Despite publicly apologizing to Xu Can, Richard Newber still did not see the prospects of Spider-Man favorably.

Besides the comic community and the Los Santos Times, the mainstream views of the rest of the film industry were basically consistent, also predicting Spider-Man will fail.

Countless previous failures; they do not believe the highly controversial Spider-Man can break the live-action curse.

Box office predictions ranged from 100 million US dollars to 250 million US dollars.

Amidst this public opinion, Emma Stone, known as "Stone Sister" and busy filming King of Rock, stated in an interview:

"The North American box office of Spider-Man will break 500 million! I am quite confident in this film!"

"Xu Can's Spider-Man will definitely make you look at him with new eyes!"

As the public opinion continued to ferment, the controversy surrounding Spider-Man kept heating up.

The release date is getting closer and closer!