We’re so ready for this bicon to find her queen
BY NIC CROSARA, IMAGE VIA CREATIVE COMMONS
Last year, Marvel made history with its first onscreen kiss between a same-sex couple in Eternals. Fans were also overjoyed with how The God Of Mischief’s bisexuality was confirmed in the Loki TV show. LGBTQI fans are excited that we’re starting to see more characters get introduced to the screen who are canonically queer in the comics such as America Chavez, Black Panther’s Ayo and WandaVision’s Billy/Wiccan.
Similarly Valkyrie, who is played by WLW icon Tessa Thompson in the cinematic universe, has both relations with men and women in the comics. Whilst Thor: Ragnarok will always be one of my favourite Marvel films, some viewers were disappointed when it was confirmed that a scene overtly depicting Valkyrie’s queerness had been cut. The scene in question showed a woman leaving her bedroom after spending the night. In an interview with Independent, Tessa clarified that: “It was so in passing. I hope we get to that space, where someone’s sexuality is as immaterial as me drinking this green juice.”
She went on to say “It just was like, that particular moment didn’t make sense in the context of the scene. And there were other beautiful things where you get a sense of her back story. The woman that dies is her lover. In performance we were, like, ‘That’s your lover.’ So in my mind it isn’t cut; I played her as a woman that’s queer. I hope that we get to a space, in terms of the stories that we tell, where that’s something that gets to exist, and it doesn’t have to be noteworthy.”
In an interview with Variety, director Taika Waititi was asked whether he would like Valkyrie to be explicitly queer in the upcoming movie. He responded: “I think so. The IP is not mine. But with the actors, I feel whatever makes them comfortable — whether they feel like there’s a natural choice, or a natural way for that character to go — then I’m pretty supportive. If Tessa wanted to do that, I’m in.”
Like all recent films, this upcoming instalment of the Marvelverse was impacted by the pandemic. But during a Comic Con in 2019, the audience went wild when Tessa teased what’s in store for her character in Thor: Love And Thunder. “First of all, as a new king [of Asgard], she needs to find her queen. So that will be the first order of business.”
TESSA THOMPSON SAID GAY RIGHTS pic.twitter.com/QYya4HqOdm
— ophelie 🐝 (@CAPTAINLARS0N) July 21, 2019
I have high hopes for how Valkyrie’s identity will be handled within the film. Tessa Thompson clearly has a lot of love and respect for her character as well as a longing for queerness onscreen to be presented in a normalised way. With a recent GLAAD study showing that LGBTQI onscreen representation is at an all time high, I also remain optimistic that we’ll get all sorts of queer stories both within the MCU and other genres of film and television.
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