Marvel has been making major strides for inclusivity and representation in Hollywood with films like Black Panther and Captain Marvel. Now, the studio is breaking even more ground by having Lauren Ridloff in The Eternals, one of its many exciting entries for Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actress happens to be deaf and her use of ASL in The Eternals is going to be the very first for Marvel.
Seeing how Ridloff will be using ASL in the film, fans have begun a new petition on Change.org asking Marvel to take one step further by making The Eternals open captioned so that deaf and hard of hearing viewers can truly enjoy the comic book movie.
"Around 466 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss, and 34 million of those people are children, according to the World Health Organization," the fan who begun the petition, Sarah Feisthamel, writes in the description of the petition, "Open Captions are on-screen text that allows everyone to enjoy a film equally. People who are hard of hearing have to use closed caption equipment which is often broken, dirty, and uncomfortable or have to wait until the video is available at home. Marvel movies are larger than life. All moviegoers should be able to enjoy the action in the theater comfortably, at the same exact time--and not be forced to wait for a lesser experience."
Right now the petition has more than one thousand signatures. Just five hundred more and it'll reach its 1500 signature goal, showing just how many other fans are hoping to see Marvel make The Eternals viewing experience better for everyone, including the deaf and the hard of hearing.
Those who signed the petition seem to agree, reasoning that it's high time for Marvel to make even more effort for inclusion and representation, especially with a deaf actress in the film. The studio won't lose anything by adding open captions to the movie.
The Eternals is slated for release on November 6, 2020.
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