She was just the first one announced.
At Comic-Con last month, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed to io9 that Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie would indeed be portrayed as an LGBTQ character when Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters on November 2021. That was the first official confirmation of such representation and it seemed like that would make her the first. However, as has long been rumored, The Eternals is going to beat her to the title.
In a new interview with Good Morning America, Feige confirmed that one of the characters in The Eternals, which comes out a year before Thor 4, will be gay. “He’s married. He’s got a family. And that is just part of who he is,” Feige said. Unfortunately, the clip doesn’t say who “he” is and we’ve confirmed that’s not just editing. Feige isn’t naming names yet. It’s at 2:02 in this interview
The odds on favorite is that it’ll be Ikaris, played by Richard Madden, mostly because that’s the rumor that’s been circling on the Internet. But there are some other potential clues. If Feige says the character has a family, that’s probably a big part of the story, so it would make sense for him to be one of the main characters. If you look at the rest of The Eternals’ ensemble cast, that could also mean Bryan Tyree Henry’s Phastos or Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo in addition to Ikaris.
The Eternals won’t be out until November 6, 2020 but, since people are curious, one would assume we’ll find out who will be the MCU’s first LGBTQ character before then. We just know, whoever it is, they’ll beat Valkyrie to the punch.
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