We've Been Ready For a Gay Superhero - What Took Hollywood So Long?

At the Los Angeles premiere of Captain Marvel, Marvel's Production Chief Victoria Alonzo told Variety that "the world is ready" for a gay superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The timing of this statement would seem to confirm the rumors that Marvel's 2020 release, Eternals, is specifically seeking to cast a gay actor to portray a gay superhero character (there is speculation this character could be Hercules or Eros).

Between this news and the already confirmed casting of transgender actor Zach Barack as one of Peter Parker's friends in Spider-Man: Far From Home, Marvel does seem to finally be making progress in regards to LGBTQ representation. We might even see more in the near future if Kevin Feige's promise of a pre-existing character coming out on-screen turns out to be true. Many fans would certainly be overjoyed if Valkyrie has a girlfriend in Endgame after confirmation of her bisexuality was left on the cutting room floor in Thor: Ragnarok, or if Drax's return made the potential subtext of his infatuation with Thor into text.

Such progress is highly welcome. However, just as it was with its first female-led movie, Marvel is a little late to the party.

Audiences have been "ready" for gay superheroes for a while now. Certainly comics have come a long way since the early '90s, when Pied Piper and Northstar became the first openly gay heroes in the DC and Marvel universes, respectively. From Apollo and Midnighter to Wiccan and Hulkling, there are plenty of LGBTQ characters in mainstream comics ready to make their big screen debuts.

So far, queer heroes have had much more success on the small screen. The CW's Arrowverse shows are among the most inclusive on broadcast TV, featuring both queer characters from the comics and their own original characters. Batwoman, perhaps DC's most popular lesbian character, is getting a series of her own, with Ruby Rose in the lead role.

Even the MCU has been far more LGBTQ inclusive on television than in the movies. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. included gay Inhuman Joey Guiterrez in Season 3, lesbian lawyer Jeri Hogarth showed up throughout the Netflix shows and Karolina Dean and Nico Minoru got together at the end of Runaways' first season.

In contrast, the cinematic MCU has backed away from acknowledging queerness even when there were natural opportunities. Taika Waititi did film a scene of Valkyrie getting out of bed with another woman only for it to be cut from Thor: Ragnarok. The Thor movies also never bothered to address Loki's gender fluidity or Korg's homosexuality from the comics. Disney screened a flirty scene between Ayo and Okoye to the press, only to deny any romantic implications and then cut the scene entirely from Black Panther.

NEXT PAGE: The Lack of Gay Representation in Film Isn't Exclusive to Marvel

The phenomenon of queer representation on TV being superior to the lack thereof in cinema isn't purely a Marvel issue. This is an industry-wide problem. Just compare any of GLAAD's yearly reports on TV from the past few years to those on movies. The most recent TV report, on the 2018-19 season, counts a record 8.8 percent of characters on prime time scripted shows being LGBTQ, approaching the higher estimates of how many people in the general real world population are LGBTQ. There are criticisms about the quality of representation, but you can't claim the representation isn't there.

In contrast, the 2018 report on 2017 theatrical releases found only 12.8 percent of any major studio films contained even the most minor representation, with only 28 LGBTQ characters found in an uncounted pool of thousands of characters.

There are plenty of excuses thrown about for why movies are so behind on this issue compared to television. Television shows cost less and can afford to aim for more niche audiences than major four-quadrant blockbusters, which are intended to please everyone. Today's blockbusters are particularly concerned with the international box office, and major markets such as China and Russia have virulently homophobic laws. Of course, China also censors movies with ghosts and time travel in them, which never seems to stop studios from including such elements in blockbusters.

While the United States doesn't have government censorship of gay content, it does have its fair share of vocal homophobes, some of whom are in positions of power in government. As much as China becomes the official excuse, there is likely still significant fear of backlash at home. Some degree of backlash is inevitable, but today such backlash is nowhere near enough to take down a Marvel movie. "One Million Moms" will protest the first major gay superhero movie, sure, but that group's numbers are far below a million. The majority of Americans have supported gay marriage since 2012, which has been the law of the land since 2015.

Movies that do feature LGBTQ characters can be hugely successful. Moonlight made history in 2017 as the first Best Picture winner about a gay man. This year's Best Picture winner, Green Book, only touches upon Don Shirley's sexuality briefly, yet the unremarkableness of its win still feels kind of remarkable when you consider 20 years ago even minor gay representation could cause a firestorm.

Three of this year's acting Oscar winners won for playing queer characters: Mahershala Ali as Don Shirley in Green Book, Olivia Colman as Queen Anne in The Favorite and Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. Bohemian Rhapsody was controversial for its portrayal of Freddie's bisexuality, which many critics found offensive, but even so, the fact that it made $800 million worldwide shows audiences aren't going to avoid a film simply because it has a bisexual main character.

A couple superhero films have also managed to find success while being queer-inclusive. While the identity of the film's main antihero remains unclear, V For Vendetta took a strong stance in favor of gay rights. Deadpool 2 gave Negasonic Teenage Warhead a girlfriend in addition to hinting at the title character's pansexual attractions. Both of these films are rated R, and Hollywood has an unfortunate history of seeing queerness as "adult content." Impressively, though, the PG-13 cut of Deadpool 2, Once Upon a Deadpool, refused to cut out the film's gay content, all the more impressive when you consider the PG-13 cut was made in part to sell to China, Hollywood's favorite excuse for avoiding gay characters.

Positive representation can make a world of difference in changing attitudes and improving tolerance and acceptance of marginalized groups. Marvel could have really made a difference introducing LGBTQ characters into its cinematic universe earlier, and it's been a long wait. Audiences have been ready for this for a while. We're glad Marvel finally is.