Kevin Feige has confirmed that Valkyrie won’t be the only queer superhero in the MCU and that The Eternals will feature their own openly gay character.
It was rumoured for some time that The Eternals would feature an openly gay superhero when Feige told io9 earlier this year he wants all fans to see themselves represented on the screen.
“Well it’s accurate in that we’ve talked about [it for] a long time… You look at the success of Captain Marvel and Black Panther.
“We want the movies to reflect the audience and we want every member of our global audience to see themselves reflected on the screen. And that’s what we’ve been doing for a long time. And certainly, that’s what we’re focusing on going forward.”
Now, Feige has made the news official at the D23 Expo, but didn’t reveal which character he was talking about. He told Good Morning America in an interview, “He’s married, he’s got a family, and that is just part of who he is.”
What’s interesting to note is that The Eternals comics have never featured an LGBTQ character so they’re changing the storyline to be more inclusive. Not only that, but the cast of the film is also quite diverse.
The film stars Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff (who will star as the MCU’s first deaf superhero), Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Barry Keoghan and Gemma Chan returns to the MCU as Sersi, not as Minn Erva, the character she played in Captain Marvel. Chloé Zhao will direct the movie which is expected to be released on November 6, 2020.
Avengers: Endgame co-director Anthony Russo appeared in the film as a gay character, but as the role was so small there was a lot of backlash.
Zach Barack became the first trans actor to appear in an MCU film when he starred in Spider-Man: Far From Home, however, this was also quite a small background part.
Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie, was confirmed by Feige as the first openly LGBTQ character, however, the scene that would have confirmed this in Thor: Ragnarok was cut.
Thompson revealed at Comic-Con in July that Valkyrie, as the king of New Asgard, “needs to find her queen.” So, it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out in Thor: Love and Thunder.