Why Valkyrie’s Arc In ‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Is Probably The Gayest Marvel Will Ever Have

‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ stars Tessa Thompson and Natalie Portman (will any ‘Thor’ installments be among Natalie Portman’s 12 best movies?), along with creator Taika Waititi, surprised viewers at a preview in London, appearing to defend the latest Marvel movie and answer questions from the public.

someone asked “how gay is the movie?”what Portman responded, “Very gay.”

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ wasn’t that gay. It was moderately somewhat gayand probably gayer than other Marvel products, but certainly not the kind of “gay” that Portman’s response seemed to hint at.

Of course, we would not be the ones to defend attempts to Marvel and Disney to represent the LGTBIQ+ collective when, historically, they have done the least while implicitly approving discriminatory legislation against LGTBIQ+. And if not, let’s remember one of the controversies of 2022, the Pixar letter accusing Disney of homophobia.

Despite their continued claims for inclusion, the moments of representation on screen have been fleeting Yespecially, unimportant to the overall plot; perfect for editing when a film is distributed in a foreign market that is not inclined to the characters queer.

But Marvel’s latest blockbuster seemed like it could be different from the first minute and until the post-credit scenes of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. After all, it features Zeus, a notoriously pansexual god, Korg, a canonically gay rock, Valkyrie, whose bisexuality was confirmed long ago by Thompson herself, and Waititi at the helm, a director who doesn’t shy away from more character arcs. complicated (whether or not you agree with their artistic decisions).

For Thompson, who has played Valkyrie since 2017, long before he met the good guy Web-Weaver -Marvel’s gay Spider-Man isn’t the first LGTBI wall-crawler- ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ was an opportunity to really explore his character from a multidimensional perspective.

“That was something that Taika and I had a lot of conversations about because, to me, I think a way to diminish the humanity of the characters queer is that a narrative depends entirely on their sexuality,” he told DigitalSpy.

As Thompson has said before, Valkyrie could have had that story: “There was a version of the Valkyrie arc in this [película] that I was going to do just that directly, and not really give much room for anything else that might be going on with her.”

Thompson’s take on her character is far less myopic than most, which is understandable, given how long she’s been playing her. Valkyrie is a warrior whose entire sisterhood was slaughtered, she was left alone and listless and found camaraderie with Thor and now, in the fourth film, with Jane Foster.

“I think what we have found is much more interesting,” he said.

In fact, while Korg and Valkyrie talk about their love lives and their traumas, Korg aptly analyzes Valkyrie’s dalliances and attitude as a way to shield her heart and prevent her from having to suffer the loss of love again: platonic love, romantic love and family love fall under that umbrella.

For Thompson, this kind of exploration of her character is more “normalizing” of “the stories of people who have been on the fringes of narratives for too long.”

“It’s the way I mean, I think it’s the way it exists in real life. So I’m glad to see a projection of that on the screen, and especially in a movie like this.”

We certainly agree and Valkyrie’s nonchalance about sexuality is surprisingly refreshing. In addition, the successful ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, third best premiere of 2022, is probably the best we are going to get in terms of representation in the MCU for the moment.

However, we can also look forward to a future where Marvel movies can unapologetically center gay characters in a way that’s not only natural and organic, but so integral to the story that there’s no way to wash homosexuality out. .