Last year, while promoting Ant-Man and the Wasp, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige was asked when the Marvel Cinematic Universe will get its first openly gay character (considering how long it’s taken for the MCU’s first female-led superhero film, it’s a fair question). He replied simply “yes,” before adding that the characters are “ones you’ve seen and ones you haven’t seen.” The common assumption that the character we’ve seen before is Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson in Thor: Ragnarok. As for the ones we haven’t seen before: the Hashtag Show reports that Marvel is “looking to cast an openly gay actor for a lead role” for The Eternals movie. (There’s no confirmation that the “openly gay actor” would play an openly gay superhero, but the assumption is there.)
Over the past several years, Marvel Studios has made an impressive effort to make films more representative of the modern world and this is another example of them making good on that. This role will mark the first time Marvel Studios has featured an openly gay male as a lead as this character will have a major presence in the film alongside the other leads expected to be Sersi, Ikaris, and “Piper.” The studio is going to great lengths to keep the identity of the character a secret and it would take away from the focus of this piece to speculate on the identity of the character her. (Via)
Marvel’s production chief Victoria Alonso responded to the report on the Captain Marvel red carpet, telling Variety that “the world is ready” for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first gay superhero. (Negasonic Teenage Warhead is lesbian, but Deadpool 2 takes place outside of the MCU.) “Why wouldn’t we be?” she continued. “I’m so passionate about this, I’ve got to tell you. Our entire success is based on people that are incredibly different. Why wouldn’t we?”
She continued:
“Why would we only want to be recognized by only one type of person? Our audience is global, is diverse, is inclusive. If we don’t do it that way for them, we will fail. If we don’t put the pedal to the metal on the diversity and the inclusivity, we will not have continued success. Our determination is to have that for all of the people out there watching our movies.”
Considering Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War‘s box office success, that truly is ALL of the people. The Eternals is expected to come out November 6, 2020.
(Via the Hashtag Show and Variety)