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Marvel’s Phase Four line up has had somewhat of a tepid response to date. From Ms. Marvel to Moon Knight, the latest MCU phase has introduced us to some incredible new characters yet whilst no project has particularly flopped, the franchise lacks the momentum of The Infinity Saga.
Then again, we don’t know what our next big bad is and things could soon change when we find out. For now though, Thor: Love and Thunder is continuing the trend. It’s not terrible but it’s not the follow up to Ragnarok that fans were hoping for and one aspect has left fans less than impressed.
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A few days ago, director Taika Waititi labelled Thor: Love and Thunder as being “super gay,” and Natalie Portman backed him up, also calling the film “so gay”. It was a moment that excited many Marvel fans.
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To date, the franchise’s LGBTQ+ representation has been lacking. Occasionally, Marvel will feed us a throwaway line confirming a character’s sexuality but the MCU is yet to really celebrate LGBTQ+ representation and Thor: Love and Thunder seemed set to fix that. Unfortunately, fans are now finding out that the film isn’t “super gay” at all. I won’t mention any specifics for spoilers-sake but once again, Marvel has fallen into the habit of limiting representation to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.
Naturally, fans have accused Thor: Love and Thunder of queerbaiting. Twitter user jowrotethis commented, “I would lower my expectations for Thor. I’d call it mildly-moderately gay. A soupçon of gay. GayISH,” whilst grossficition wrote, “Kind of lame that Natalie Portman and Taika Waititi both described Thor: Love and Thunder as ‘so gay’ and ‘super gay’ and then the movie was not gay at all.”
The general consensus seems to be that whilst Thor: Love and Thunder does contain more LGBTQ+ representation than other Marvel films, it still has a long way to go and improvement is needed in the franchise overall.
Topics: Marvel, TV And Film