Fans want Donald Glover in the Spidey suit

Published Jun 03 2010, 10:42 PM by Andrew Cominelli

As director Marc Webb and screenwriter Alvin Sargent take Stan Lee's and Steve Ditko's beloved superhero story back to the drawing board (and try to wipe out all traces of this from our memories), the nerd world waits with bated breath to find out who will serve as the new incarnation of Peter Parker.

After Webb released a short list last week of five young actors to portray the teenage Spidey, the internet responded with an unlikely but enticing suggestion: Donald Glover, of NBC's "Community" and the sketch comedy group DERRICK.

Glover fans of the internet campaigned earlier this week in support of putting the actor/comedian in the running for the part. The 26-year-old Glover excitedly added his voice to the rallying cry by inundating his Twitter feed with the #donald4spiderman hashtag, which broke the top ten trending topics on Twitter. An accompanying Facebook group currently boasts over 10,000 members.

The shockwave of support is said to have emerged from an io9 post that pitched the idea of casting a black Spider-Man for the re-boot. Race has inevitably played a prominent and divisive role in the debate among fans, as comic purists have deluged comment threads with objections to the prospect of a non-white Spidey.

Finding himself in the center of a flaring debate, Glover clarified his intentions on Twitter: "Some people are mistaken. I don't want to just be given the role. I want to be able to audition. I truly love Spider-Man."

While Glover has thus far stuck to comedy, those familiar with DERRICK his improv-comedy work know that the kid can act. And Glover's comedic chops and decidedly nerdy real-life persona could translate smoothly into the offbeat bookishness and pained self-deprecation that make Peter Parker unique among comic-book heroes.

And on the off chance that writer Sargent wants to weave in a new back story about the death of Spidey's parents, DERRICK might already have his answer: