In a move more placating than progressive, Marvel studios has proudly touted the inclusion of a gay bit character as the first out-queer role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Avengers: Endgame features the bit part, played by the film’s co-director Joe Russo. In the background of one scene, a man is heard mourning the loss of a lover using male pronouns.
Related: Rumor has it Marvel is looking for a gay Asian superhero to save the world
“Representation is really important,” Joe Russo told Deadline. “It was important to us as we did four of these films, we wanted a gay character somewhere in them.” Apparently, Russo and Marvel Studios think tossing scraps to a still-underrepresented demographic somehow counts as inclusion. By that reasoning, the studio had no need to make Black Panther or Captain Marvel since women and people of color appear as background extras in other films.
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Marvel has come under increased criticism for not including LGBTQ roles in their films. Bisexual actress Tessa Thompson criticized Marvel for cutting a scene from Thor: Ragnarok that would have made her character Valkarye explicitly queer. Recently, studio President Kevin Feige said that the forthcoming movie version of The Eternals would feature an out-gay superhero. Several out-gay actors, including Wilson Cruz, Brian Jordan Alvarez and Conrad Ricamora have tested for the role.
Given Marvel & Russo’s attitude, we’ll believe it when it happens. In the meantime, don’t expect us to get excited about this tiny morsel of representation.
DCguy
Oh F-them.
This is like J.K. Rowling telling everybody Dumbledoor is gay and then of course nothing in the movies is ever indicated.
Or the fact that in the movie about say…Stephen Hawking we get 50% of the movie being about his relationship with a woman, yet in the movie about Alan Touring we get the typical Hollywood B.S. of “Oh, we weren’t avoiding it, we just didn’t want it to distract from the story”.
Again, F-them.
CHEC MATE
yes what he said, you get more from all these smaller chanels like freeform than all these major corporations.
so sick of hyping a movie oh there will be this or that only to watch and not even see a needle be represented
who cares if you marvel includes or not, if its not a genuine rep dont bother, dont give me a sip when you can make a cup. Str8 sex is everywhere, no equality will ever happen until they stay stop selling then they will want to QUEER BAIT
Brian
Surely nobody is surprised by this. Hollywood loves to say all the right things about diversity, then only do the most token things while keeping business as usual.
DCguy
What he said.
Brian
It’s such an insignificant part they didn’t even hire an actor for it, they just threw a crew member into the background. Clearly it was a complete afterthought that they thought would make for some good PR.
awdjeep
Korg and Valkyrie were in Thor:Ragnarock . You don’t know your Marvel characters.
DCguy
Except their non heterosexuality wasn’t featured, and Marvel itself announced this, so are you saying Marvel doesn’t know it’s characters?
Catholicslutbox
I didn’t realize that it was 2020 already.
whateverokok
chec mate,
Freeform is owned by a major corporation and one of the biggest ones out there. Walt Disney owns that company. It used to be ABC Family.
TheMarc
Well pack it up, guys! It’s over! We’ve finally received full equality and universal acceptance! Thanks, Marvel, lol! This is such a stupid announcement. The announcement/inclusion itself is actually insulting. It would have been a far more powerful statement to address it as a non-issue versus patting themselves on the back for acknowledging gay people exist. Sure, even 20-30 years ago, this MIGHT be newsworthy. But these days, thanks goodness, inclusion has advanced to the point where something like this is just silly to tout.
theafricanwiththemouth
Basing intelligence or IQ on the kind of movie people watch probably puts you in one of the dumbest categories of folks out there. You probably sit and think how high your IQ is because you dislike marvel movies. It’s obviously not that high from the look of things if this is all your small mind can produce.
OT: it was a very lame attempt at representation. Hopefully eternals does better.
MikeE
Have you seen the film?
It’s neither a background scene nor a “walk-on”.
The scene is long enough and has enough dialogue. It is also an important and emotional scene in the first part of the film.
nitejonboy
It’s ridiculous and pandering.I’m surprised they didn’t give the guy AIDS.