Could Marvel Finally Be Bringing Queer Superheroes to TV?
It looks like Marvel might soon address the notable lack of queer characters in its live-action properties with two new TV series — one featuring Loki, Thor‘s fraternal foe who has been depicted as pansexual and genderfluid, and another featuring an all-female superhero team that could incorporate some lesser-known female queer Marvel heroes. The thought of finally seeing some queer Marvel characters on the small screen has many LGBTQ people excited.
Disney’s new streaming service will reportedly feature a six- to eight-episode series focused on Loki, a magically mischievous villain who’ll be played by Tom Hiddleston, the same actor who portrays him in several Marvel films.
Loki has been portrayed as canonically pansexual and genderfluid, says Mackenzi Lee, a writer working on a set of Marvel-approved young adult (YA) novels focusing on Loki and other Marvel anti-heroes.
Lee writes on Twitter, “In the comics, Loki is reborn as a woman and uses female pronouns and often takes on female forms like the Scarlet Witch and Lady Sif. Odin [Loki’s father] calls him ‘my child who is both.’ So Loki is established as a pansexual genderfluid character in the Marvel comics.”
It’s undeniable that Loki’s gender-swapping and bisexuality have been used to add to his villainous role as a destabilizing force in Asgard. But it remains to be seen whether Disney will be brave enough to incorporate Loki’s queerness or other queer Marvel heroes into its new platform.
ABC studios recently revealed that it’s working on an hour-long dramatic series about an all-female superhero team made up of Marvel’s lesser known superheroines. Allan Heinberg, the screenwriter who wrote the successful 2017 DC Comics superhero film Wonder Woman, will be the series’ executive producer.
While there’s no word who will be on the all-female superhero team just yet, there are hopes it could possibly include queer superheroines like Latina character America Chavez (aka Miss America), bisexual Asgardian Valkyrie, the obscure lesbian superhero Inertia, bisexual X-Man Bling, lesbian X-Man Karma, X-Men villains Mystique and Destiny and bisexual anti-hero Moondragon.
Just last week, Kit Harington — the actor who plays Jon Snow in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones — said he’d love to see a gay actor play a Marvel superhero. If either ABC or Disney are particularly savvy, they’ll hire openly LGBTQ actors to play any queer Marvel superheroes, finally giving Harington and many queer comic book fans their ultimate dream come true.
