Anthony Mackie praised for speaking out against Marvel's 'racist' hiring process

Marvel actor Anthony Mackie has spoken out about the lack of diversity in the company's hiring process for their movies.

Mackie who plays Falcon in the movies and (spoiler) is the next Captain America, talked about the problems behind the scenes at Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney during a recent Variety interview with fellow actor Daveed Diggs. He said:

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.

Mackie who has starred in three Avengers movies, two Captain America movies and is currently filming The Falcon and theWinter Soldier TV series added that Nate Moore is the only black producer he has worked on in that entire time, having been an executive producers on the Captain America films.

He produced ‘Black Panther.’ But then when you do ‘Black Panther,’ you have a Black director, Black producer, a Black costume designer, a Black stunt choreographer. And I’m like, that’s more racist than anything else. 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?

Marvel were praised for both the critical and financial success of Black Panther but there has been no confirmed date as to when a sequel to the film will be released. To date this is the only Marvel movie to feature a non-white lead character but the studio has started to show more diverse decision making for the next set of movies with Shang-Chi and The Eternals all featuring Asian talent both in front and behind the camera.

Although Mackie is certainly brave to speak out against Marvel his words have clearly resonated with some people.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is due for release at some point this year and will be available to stream on the Disney+ service.