Marvel has been a bit slow when it comes to cultural representation on the big screen. Some of that has changed with Black Panther and Captain Marvel finally giving us heroes who aren’t straight white males, but things could still be better. Oddly enough, it’s somebody who has nothing to do with Marvel who is calling them out for failing to embrace the LGBTQ community in any of their casting choices.
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington criticized Marvel for failing to cast queer male leads, particularly in roles that demand a certain masculinity…
“There’s a big problem with masculinity and homosexuality that they can’t somehow go hand in hand,” Harington said. “That we can’t have someone in a Marvel movie who’s gay in real life and plays some superhero. I mean, when is that going to happen?”
Harington was in Toronto chatting with Variety in promotion for Xavier Dolan’s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, and he was accompanied by a number of his co-stars. They all agreed with his perspective, with Thandie Newton noting that Hollywood is even a few steps behind professional sports, which has had a number of stars come out as gay. A few years ago that was virtually unthinkable.
“It is changing, but we have to get behind those changes and keep pushing it,” Newton said.
