After Tessa Thompson stated during Marvel’s Comic-Con panel for the newly-announced Thor: Love and Thunder that “as new King of Asgard, she needs to find her queen”, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has now confirmed that the character of Valkyrie is indeed the first openly LGBTQ superhero of the MCU.
“The answer is yes”, said Feige when asked by io9 whether there are plans for an LGBTQ storyline in Love and Thunder. How that impacts the story remains to be seen with that level of representation you’ll see across our films, not in just Thor 4.”
Thompson, who has played Valkyrie in both Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame, and previously shared on Twitter that – as with the comic books she considers the MCU incarnation of the character to be bisexual:
She’s bi. And yes, she cares very little about what men think of her. What a joy to play! https://t.co/d0LZKTHCfL
— Tessa Thompson (@TessaThompson_x) October 21, 2017
Marvel has been promising for some time that it plans to introduce more LGBTQ characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Avengers: Endgame featuring the first explicit reference to a gay character, played by director Joe Russo. It has also been revealed that the Eternals movie will also feature an LGBTQ character, while Lauren Ridloff’s Makkari will have the distinction of being the MCU’s first deaf hero.
Originally published July 25, 2019. Updated July 26, 2019.
