Twitter Users are Angry About America Chavez Actress in Doctor Strange 2

Twitter users are angry about the casting choice of America Chavez in the upcoming Marvel Studios movie Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness because of her skin color.

At some point, Hollywood needs to wake up and realize that the opinions of Twitter are not indicative of the general public, or even a small subsection of the general public. Twitter is its own pocket universe, with some truly bizarre notions of what is and what is not acceptable in “current year.”

First, Captain Marvel actress Brie Larson was “cancelled” by her former “stans” on Twitter because she bought an NFT. Now another MCU actress is getting “cancelled” before she even gets started.

America Chavez, a relatively new Marvel comic book character, is making her MCU debut in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. She’ll be played by Xochitl Gomez, a rising young Latina actress best known for her role as Dawn on Netflix’s reboot of The Baby-Sitter’s Club.

🎥 Xochitl Gomez com sua boneca da América Chavez, da merch de #DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness. pic.twitter.com/G1FDtMWJ1P

— Avengers Assemble BR (@AAssembleBR) February 10, 2022

And some Twitter users are furious… about the color of her skin.

Oh, these “stans” love the America Chavez of the comics. The character has been praised heavily by some parts of Twitter for her diversity. Chavez is a latina — debatably from outer space — as well as LGBTQ.

Despite those character traits being present in the MCU version (Gomez’s Chavez is seen wearing a Pride flag pin on her jacket), Twitter is still looking for a reason to “cancel” this young actress.

THE PRIDE PIN #AmericaChavez pic.twitter.com/JTDBsDFOEZ

— hannah⸆⸉ (@hannahmaximoff) February 13, 2022

Many Twitter users are claiming MCU America Chavez has been “whitewashed.” They claim Xochitl Gomez is too light-skinned to play Chavez, as she’s usually drawn with darker skin in the comics.

oh whitewashed america chavez i am so sorry what they did to you https://t.co/azWkhuxIUl

— klaudia (@kaludiasays) February 13, 2022

As good as the trailer was, this is a reminder that they whitewashed America Chavez for the Doctor Strange movie. pic.twitter.com/YXh7bx5Ozq

— Freddy Padilla 🇵🇷 (@BKSpidey) February 14, 2022

https://twitter.com/HelPimAlive/status/1492307593129246722

Marvel continuing to give America Chavez black features and YET her mcu counterpart is NOT Afro latina make it make sense people!! pic.twitter.com/jToWZ8fjqP

— Grim@ FF14🌱/BBS/358/2 Time😭✨ (@grimcatician) February 11, 2022

I’m glad more people are talking about this. America Chavez is a character that represents the crossroads of Black and Latine—specifically Caribbean—culture. This casting erases that. Happy for Xochitl Gomez, but we have to talk about it. https://t.co/toZBEDnDeZ

— film posers™️ Josie Marie 🍉 (@TheJosieMarie) February 16, 2022

Thank you for this post. I am so tired of America’s skin tone being lightened in the comics. It also would have meant so much to have an Afro-Latina portray America Chavez in this movie, but they won’t give us that. I h8 how rampant colorism is 😔 pic.twitter.com/JNGbTV1Pfg

— 🌌 Orion of the Stars 🌌 (@Orion7614) February 13, 2022

I do want to add since this is gaining traction that while I do wish actors were more responsible about accepting these roles I’m not really interested in vilifying poc actors for taking opportunities like this and would rather focus criticism on casting directors

— moom (@ironmoom) February 15, 2022

Apparently the harassment has extended to Instagram as well, with users attacking Xochitl Gomez directly via her official account.

Again, all this over the color of a 15-year-old girl’s skin by (presumably) adults who pride themselves on being “progressive.”

So the actress playing America Chavez is being harassed and bullied on Instagram by fake MCU fans.

Why am I not surprised

— That REDACTED Guy (@REDACTEDSpider) February 16, 2022

Still many other Twitter users were quick to refute those who took issue with Gomez’s casting, pointing out that America Chavez was never drawn consistently in the comics… and that Gomez is just a 15-year-old girl, and shouldn’t be harassed by adults on social media. For any reason.

stop this, it's perfectly fine to complain about the cast but xochitl is just a 15 year old girl accepting a role, she doesn't deserve to be harassed pic.twitter.com/C6skx4VGRN

— best of america chavez (@americachavezcc) February 16, 2022

https://twitter.com/smallllou/status/1494116965408907265

The people threatening a literal child over America Chavez in the name of “comics accuracy” have never read a comic in their life, because these are the two earliest depictions of her, and the casting is spot on. pic.twitter.com/lPv4eHL3Iz

— maX 🏳️‍🌈 (@MaxPatrick1113) February 16, 2022

https://twitter.com/_Harpsikord/status/1493980878594359296

If she was Afro Latina the creators would have said so. Cecilia Reyes is Afro Latina (Afro Brazilian). Look how she is drawn compared to America Chavez. pic.twitter.com/FyQZPCAfQa

— Flo (@TheFloacism) February 18, 2022

Disney actors Rosario Dawson, Chris Pratt and Gina Carano have all been on the receiving end of Twitter cancellation attempts. And for awhile, it seemed as if Hollywood studios were using Twitter as free marketing research.

Twitter has become Ground Zero for “cancel culture.” Maybe it’s time for Hollywood to just cancel Twitter already?

Perhaps this latest “cancellation” attempt will be a much needed wake-up call for studios to look elsewhere for insight into what the general public really wants.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness bursts into theaters on May 6, 2022, and picks up right after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. You can view the trailer below.