In Avengers: Endgame, the Russos introduced the first openly gay character in the MCU, played by Joe Russo himself. It was a minor character who will never be seen again and had no impact on the story, but the Russos tried to act as if they did some real groundbreaking shit. Not really. Well, now it sounds as if the LGBTQ will get proper representation in a Marvel movie very soon.
Appearing on Entertainment Weekly’s Sirius XM show, the Russos were asked about Joe’s character in Endgame and whether he was truly Marvel’s first gay character….
“Yes, openly gay. There’s been insinuations about other characters’ sexuality, but this is the first openly gay character.”
Asked whether there are other Marvel heroes out there who are gay, Joe replied “We’re gonna find out.” Anthony then added, “That’s a story for another day.”
Chances are they are referring to Tessa Thompson’s character, Valkyrie, who she revealed was bisexual. While it hasn’t been seen on screen yet, a deleted scene from Thor: Ragnarok would’ve confirmed it. I kinda took Valkyrie’s comment to Thor in Endgame that she would “make changes” to Asgard after he left to mean something along those lines, too.
Kevin Feige has been saying since last year that we’d be seeing more LGBTQ heroes, with rumors suggesting The Eternals could be where the first major one shows up. It would make sense considering their cosmic nature. They probably don’t look at sex as rigidly as we humans do. Otherwise, we could see an established hero reveal their sexual preference in an upcoming movie, and depending on who it is that could be a very big deal.
There’s part of me that says Disney will interfere in this happening somehow. That we haven’t seen an openly gay lead cast in The Eternals yet could be due to their influence. Maybe they’ll skirt around the issue by revealing that Quicksilver was gay the whole time and we just didn’t know. That darn Ultron.
