Marvel reissues ‘Avengers: Endgame’ poster with Danai Gurira’s name

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After failing to include actress Danai Gurira on the original Avengers: Endgame movie poster, Marvel Studios has re-released a version of the poster with Gurira’s name. Via social media, they also had a few words in support of the actress.

“She should have been up there all this time,” the studio tweeted from their official Twitter account, with an image of the revised poster. “Check out the official Marvel Studios’ #AvengersEndgame poster [with] @DanaiGurira,” Marvel tweeted, before ending with “#WakandaForever,” a nod to the 41-year-old supporting actress’ role in Black Panther.

READ MORE: Black Panther’s Danai Gurira set to leave “The Walking Dead”

Upon its initial release of the promotional poster, the omission of Gurira’s name was met with heavy backlash from fans. Despite being one of the 13 cast members featured on the poster for the upcoming Avengers sequel — and the only Black woman and one of two Black people in total, including Don Cheadle — Gurira’s name was not listed as top billing on the marquee.

While she may have become a household name via her role as Okoye in the 2018 mega-hit Black Panther, Gurira is no newcomer. Many know her from her role as Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead. Fans also know her as an accomplished playwright, penning the Tony-nominated Broadway play Eclipsed, which starred Academy Award-winning and Tony-nominated, Lupita Nyong’o. It would have been disingenuous to believe that her star power was not bright enough. Particularly, since billing is usually negotiated in an actor’s contract.

While the backstory into Gurira’s initial omission from the poster has not been addressed, one thing is for sure, is that Marvel was quick with the fix.

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: ‘Black Panther’ star Danai Gurira wants to #MakeHIVHistory: “1,000 girls are infected every day”

While she may play a super shero on the big screen, in the real world, Gurira is involved in an even bigger fight — the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Back in December, in an exclusive interview with TheGrio, Gurira said  “I was raised in Zimbabwe, so I was there in the eighties and nineties when HIV/AIDS hit the continent. It hit the Southern part very hard. It was something I witnessed affect society, affect family, affect friends. I can’t really extricate that from my memories of growing up because it was always something you saw happening.”

“My passion for women and girls extends into this issue as well. Right now 1,000 girls are infected with HIV every day. Think about that. It’s insane. There’s a huge power dynamic that causes it to be what it is so we have a lot of work to do. Sadly it falls on the shoulders of women. Women being infected so highly, even today, is very jarring,” she concluded.