After actor Tom Holland said Spider-Man could come out gay in a future installment, actress Tessa Thompson one-upped him by saying that her character Valkyrie (introduced in “Thor: Ragnarok”) could become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first LGBTQ super hero.
“As new king [of Asgard], she needs to find her queen. That will be the first order of business,” said Thompson during Comic-Con panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In “Avengers: Endgame,” the character Thor declared Valkyrie the new queen of Asgard. Ever since her character appeared in “Ragnarok,” Thompson has pressed the point that Valkyrie’s sexuality swings both ways. In fact, the hit movie had a deleted LGBTQ scene in which Valkyrie was shown to be bisexual when a female lover leaves her bedroom. Thompson said the film’s director Taika Waititi wanted to keep the scene, but was forced to cut it.
“He kept it in the film as long as he could; eventually the bit had to be cut because it distracted from the scene’s vital exposition,” Thompson explained to Rolling Stone.
The Marvel universe has faced criticism recently for not including enough LGBTQ characters or superheroes, though producers Kevin Feige and Victoria Alonso have promised they will be arriving soon. The latest “Avengers” installment, however, did break new ground with the inclusion of Grieving Man (played by co-director Joe Russo), who was seen at the very beginning telling Steve Rogers about a man he was dating. However, LGBTQ activists took the character as Marvel’s cheap attempt at diversity.
“As disappointing as [previous] missed opportunities for queer representation were, none of them stung anywhere nearly as much as the Grieving Man’s introduction inadvertently does, because his presence comes across like an inconsequential afterthought, and it doesn’t help matters that the Russos and Marvel appear to be quite pleased with the creative decision,” wrote Charles Pullman at Gizmodo.
“Spider-Man” actor Tom Holland also recently told Britain’s Sunday Times that he would be open to his character being openly gay in the future.
“I can’t talk about the future of the character because honestly I don’t know and it’s out of my hands,” Holland told the outlet. “But I do know a lot about the future of Marvel, and they are going to be representing lots of different people in the next few years.
“The world isn’t as simple as a straight white guy,” he continued. “It doesn’t end there, and these films need to represent more than one type of person.”
Tessa Thompson also recently made headlines when she suggested that the series “Men in Black” adopt a more inclusive name.
“I pitched some ideas like ‘People in Black,’ but that would be ‘PiB,’ which sounds like a sandwich,” Thompson told reporters. “I pitched ‘Humans in Black,’ which would be ‘HiB,’ which sounds like something you don’t want to get. I think we can change the name at some point. I hope we can get to the space where it’s not noteworthy when women topline these films, and I think a film like this helps us get there.”