Marvel LGBTQ Characters Confirmed for Eternals and Thor 4 - Collider.com

[embedded content]

Representation in superhero movies will get a pretty significant boost in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While allusions were previously made to the fact that Tessa Thompson’s Thor: Ragnarok character Valkyrie was part of the LGBTQ community (both in the film and from Thompson’s public comments), when Thompson took the Hall H stage during Marvel’s 2019 San Diego Comic-Con panel to tease Thor 4, she announced that the sequel would find Valkyrie “looking for her Queen.” If you’ll recall, at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor passes his King of Asgard mantle on to Valkyrie, and it appears that storyline will be picked up heavily in Thor: Love and Thunder, which will also find Taika Waititi returning to the director’s chair and will bring back Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster as, yes, female Thor.

And while Thompson’s comments during the Marvel panel were unmistakable, it’s always nice to have explicit confirmation. So when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub caught up with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige backstage after the panel, he asked Feige if he could confirm that Valkyrie will be explicitly part of the LGBTQ community in Thor: Love and Thunder. He not only confirmed it, but teased other LGBTQ Marvel characters:

“Yes that’s the case, and will be the case not just with [Valkyrie] but with other characters in some of the movies we talked about today.”

When pressed if there’s an LGBTQ character in The Eternals, Feige confirmed that yes, that’s the case. The Eternals is one of the new Marvel movies hitting theaters in 2020 and adapts the truly strange Jack Kirby comic to the big screen. The story revolves around a group of immortal beings as they consider what it means to be human, and the diverse ensemble features Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Salma Hayek, and Brian Tyree Henry.

Feige and Co. snagged acclaimed The Rider filmmaker Chloe Zhao to direct The Eternals, which starts filming later this year, but it appears fans have yet another reason to look forward to this fascinating film. Feige didn’t reveal which character will be part of the LGBTQ community, but the cast of characters for the film are as follows:

Richard Madden as Ikaris

Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo

Lauren Ridloff as Makkari

Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos

Salma Hayek as Ajak

Lia McHugh as Sprite

Don Lee as Gilgamesh

Angelina Jolie as Thena

The Eternals is slated to hit theaters on November 6, 2020, while Thor: Love and Thunder will be released on November 5, 2021. Look for more from our Marvel interviews soon, and if you missed all the big Marvel news on Saturday peruse our list of stories below:

Let's block ads! (Why?)