‘Thunderbolts’ Producer Hints That Geraldine Wiswanathan’s Mel Is The MCU’s Race-Swapped Songbird
In a move that, if true, would reaffirm the fact that the surprisingly fun outing is still a part of the MCU, Thunderbolts producer Brian Chapek has teased that rather than just an ordinary civilian who happened to find herself tangled in the world of superheroics, Geraldine Wiswanathan is actually playing the franchise’s incarnation of team mainstay Songbird.
An Australian actor perhaps best known to American audiences for her co-starring role as Marian in Drive-Away Dolls and as a main cast member on TBS’ Miracle Workers, Wiswanathan appears in the latest MCU entry as Mel, the assistant to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine whose moral turmoil over her boss’ black ops actions eventually leads to Bucky’s de facto addition to the titular team.
Thanks to the significant role she plays in the film’s plot, many fans have taken to speculating that Mel is actually supposed to be an established Marvel Comics hero, with the main candidate being the aforementioned Songbird – otherwise by her civilian name of Melissa Gold.
Formerly known by her super villain handle ‘Screaming Mimi’, Songbird served as a founding member of the original Thunderbolts team before ultimately betraying their leader, Zemo, and fully embracing the hero life, from there eventually earning the respect of Earth-616’s crime-fighting community and even being invited so serve on the Avengers.
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And while many would be quick to right off such theorized connections as nothing more than ‘grasping at straws’, it seems that when it comes to Mel, it seems this speculation is may be right on the money.
Playfully asked by IMDb on the film’s red carpet if he could provide “a good production, behind-the-scenes detail that we can add to the movie’s page”, Chapek pointed to the very prominent bird necklace that Mel wears throughout the film and asserted, “There is a character that fans are trying to figure out whether – is she or is she not — I would say what emblem does she wear that may or may not hint at this character’s larger identity.”
“Potentially,” he added. “That’s what I would say.”
Notably, should Wiswanathan ever actually be outright confirmed as the MCU Songbird, it would represent yet another race-swap made to a Marvel Comics character in their translation to live-action.
As seen in the above images, the original Earth-616 version of the sonics-manipulating heroine was depicted by her creators – Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, John Byrne, and Joe Sinnott – as a white woman.
And while some may hope to point to the multiverse for evidence that an ethnic variation has a basis in the comic books, unfortunately for them, no such version of Songbird has ever been depicted prior to Thunderbolts‘ Mel.
Ultimately, whether or not Wiswanathan will ever get to take to the skies on pink, hard-light wings made of sound remains to be seen.
Until then, Thunderbolts can now be seen on theaters.
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