Exciting news for the DC Extended Universe. Ivory Aquino has just joined the cast of the much-anticipated film Batgirl. Even better: she’ll play the first openly transgender character in the DCEU.
Deadline reports that Aquino, who is openly-trans herself, will step into the role of bartender Alysia Yeoh, a close friend of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, played by Leslie Grace. She joins a cast roster that also includes JK Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, Michael Keaton as Batman, and Brendan Fraser as the villainous Firefly.
Related: Angelina Jolie lambasts audiences that can’t handle queer superheroes
Details on the plot itself remain secret, though the film is rumored to feature Batman in a mentor role and will have a continuity connection to the two Batman films directed by Tim Burton. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah will direct from a script written by Christina Hodson.
Aquino gained previous attention for her roles in When We Rise, When They See Us, and Tales of the City. She is just the latest addition to an ever-growing list of major queer superhero characters in film and television. Here are five of our favorites…
Batwoman (Javica Leslie)
Street smart lesbian Ryan Wilder took on the mantle of Gotham’s queer crimefighter following the disappearance of original Batwoman, Kate Kane. She also has a sneaking attraction to beautiful former cop Renee Montoya.
Dreamer (Nicole Maines)
Dreamer became the first openly transgender superhero on television when she joined the cast of Supergirl. Dreamer has the powers of precognition and astral projection, which become indispensable in Supergirl’s struggle to stop a genocide of aliens.
Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe finally got in on the diversity game by introducing engineering genius Phastos in Eternals. When not out saving the universe, Phastos prefers a quiet domestic life with his husband and daughter.
Mister Terrific (Echo Kellum)
As a tech genius, Mister Terrific becomes a key ally in Arrow’s fight against crime. He later forms a superhero team of his own alongside Black Canary and Wild Dog.
Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand)
Warhead stole scenes as an ever-so-slightly genderqueer lesbian in Deadpool 2. As a mutant with the power to detonate nuclear blasts from her body, she appears with her girlfriend in one scene. Now, if only the movies would let the bisexual Deadpool have a boyfriend…
msfrost
” Now, if only the movies would let the bisexual Deadpool have a boyfriend…! Yes!!!!! 😀
UlfRaynor
With the exception of Deadpool 2, all these other shows are complete flops both financially and in the ratings. Which explains why the CW is now up for sale.
The moral of the story, if your shows main focus is identity politics instead of good vs evil, then you’ve already lost the preponderance of those who might be interested in this genre.
Bad writing and not knowing your target audience, is just bad business practice.
Seriously, what gender studies brain trust writer thought having a female character, in the heat of battle with an antagonist, suddenly shout: “Never touch a woman without consent” right before she blast him with her weapon (now defunct Supergirl series and ratings disaster) was a good idea?
People watch these types of shows to escape reality, not to be preached at.
The problem isn’t having these types of characters, it’s the toxicity of it’s presentation.
Oh, and David Reddish, a bisexual male in a relationship with a woman is still bisexual (DeadPool) and one other thing, you misgendered Phastos’s child, he and his husband have a son, not a daughter and despite that one shining ray of normalization in the movie, Eternals sucked!
Kangol2
Echo Kellum is scrumptious. He comes on that new TV show Grand Crew, which is pretty funny. I would love to see Brian Tyree Henry in a non-superhero gay role.
UlfRaynor
I would have loved to have seen how Tyree’s character in Eternals went from hating mankind because of them misusing knowledge he gave them to blow up Hiroshima and Nagasaki to changing his mind and eventually meeting his future husband, falling in love, getting married and starting a family together. Now that would have been an interesting, emotional movie, which, sadly, Eternals was sorely lacking in.
It was just to ambitious of a movie and with so little character development, it was next to impossible to feel any empathy for them.