Spider-Man: Brand New Day features MCU’s ‘first trans POC character’
Trans actor Maikol Roque (R) has celebrated appearing as EJ in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. (Sony/TikTok)
Maikol Roque, a 20-year-old trans actor, singer and voice actor, had the internet celebrating after revealing their role in Marvel blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Roque posted a series of photos to their TikTok account on 1 August celebrating their accomplishment. The first photo showed Roque taking a selfie with text written across the screen, reading, “Plan A: Get cast in a Marvel movie, become the first POC transgender character in the MCU, have the coolest screen family ever.”
The next slide, which had “There was no Plan B” written across the top, showed a collage of pictures featuring Roque on set, as well as their name in the film’s credits.
The post quickly went viral, racking up over one and a half million views in just a few days with thousands of comments celebrating Roque’s performance and the trans visibility in the MCU that came alongside it.
Roque wrote in the caption on the video: “Actually still in shock that this is real, it was such an honour being able to be a part of this movie!” before urging fans to go out and see the film.
Trans actor Maikol Roque plays EJ in Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Roque’s character in the film is EJ, the son of Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas), who is an NYPD detective and a strong ally of Spider-Man. Roque acted alongside both Colón-Zayas and Nina Rose Galano, who played DeWolff’s daughter and EJ’s sister, Marley, in the film.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has swung into cinemas with one of the biggest box office openings in movie history, smashing expectations with a record-breaking $355 million (£264 million) domestic debut in the US and $927 million (£689 million) worldwide in its opening weekend.
The Marvel and Sony blockbuster now holds the second-largest domestic opening of all time, trailing only Avengers: Endgame, while also becoming the second-biggest global opening weekend in box office history.
With overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has also helped deliver the highest-grossing weekend in box office history, cementing its place as one of the biggest cinematic events of the year.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in cinemas now.
