Editor's Note: The following contains Thor: Love and Thunder spoilers.Thor: Love and Thunder is arguably the most queer entry into MCU canon thus far, and yet it feels like the movie could have done more to make up for the franchise’s lack of LGBTQ+ representation. Up until this point, the MCU has given us the smallest morsels of representation and called it progress. They keep promising bigger and better things for this universe, but continue to leave the queer community behind.
Joe Russo’s small support group cameo in Avengers: Endgame was technically the first canonically gay character. Valkyrie’s (Tessa Thompson) bisexuality was left on the cutting room floor of Thor: Ragnarok. Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) bisexuality was confirmed in the first season of Loki in an important, yet brief moment with the female variant of himself, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), but not explored beyond that. Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), one of the Eternals, is openly gay and has a family…that we only get to meet briefly before he has to leave them. America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) wears a pride flag pin on her jacket and has two moms, whom we also only get to briefly see. All of these moments are important, and show that the MCU can change and show more progressive depictions of heroism. However, given how much time has been devoted to heteronormativity in the nearly fifteen-year span of the MCU, these moments, like the moments we see in Love and Thunder still don’t feel like enough.
When Love and Thunder was announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2019, Thompson hinted that we might get to see King Valkyrie in search of a Queen, and finally have the character’s bisexuality confirmed on-screen. While Love and Thunder does still technically confirm Valkyrie’s queerness, the movie follows MCU tradition and doesn’t really let her embrace it. She isn’t even the one to explicitly mention her bisexuality, Korg (Taika Waititi) is. During a heartfelt conversation between the two, Korg brings up the girlfriend she lost to Hela (Cate Blanchett) and she mentions the feelings she still has for her, but that is pretty much it. Aside from quickly flirting with Zeus’ (Russell Crowe) women as they escape Omnipotence City, we still don’t get to see Valkyrie kiss anyone else, flirt with anyone else, or even show the slightest interest in anyone else. Her love life appears to be the same as it was when we first met her on Sakaar – non-existent. It’s sweet that Valkyrie is still grieving the loss of her last love, but at the same time, we were told that she was going to have a shot at love in this movie. Thor shouldn’t be the only one to get a love montage. With everything that Val has gone through, she deserves to get some (love) too.
In that same conversation, Korg casually mentions the Kronan mating ritual, and that he has two dads. While it’s great that these two facts – that Valkyrie and the all-male Kronans are queer – are treated as non-issues and just part of these characters’ identities, the brevity of this conversation also makes them feel inconsequential to the story. In a movie that is supposed to be all about love, we should get to see these characters explore their own romantic interests. Yes, Korg does find someone to mate with in the end, but as hilarious as it is that his partner is named Dwayne and is made of rocks, it doesn’t excuse the fact that his relationship is merely an epilogue to the main story.
Love and Thunder even implies that Thor may not be straight. In Korg’s opening story, he mentions that Thor “loved indiscriminately”. Even though all of the partners that Korg goes on to mention are women, Thor tries to share a longing glance with Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) after they say goodbye to each other. The moment is brushed off and never brought up again, but how cool would it be if Thor, like his brother Loki, is also queer? What if one of the original Avengers, who started off with epic “frat bro” energy, got to use his heart to its fullest extent and truly love indiscriminately? Thor has the potential to change how we see masculinity and sexuality in the MCU, if only he could truly have the chance to explore this side of himself.
In another moment of "this is almost really great representation of queer identities, if only they had taken it a little further," Heimdall’s son requests that he be called Axl instead of Astrid from now on. While this seems mostly in reference to his music tastes rather than his gender identity, it’s still an important plot point given how often transgender and non-binary people are dead named in the real world. Thor’s eventual acceptance of his new name may seem small in comparison with everything else going on, but it helps Axl feel validated in his identity as a person and Asgardian. It’s a really great sub-plot that fits in well with the themes of love in the movie, but with how much queer youth are being attacked right now in the U.S., this could have been a great opportunity to show a young character being accepted for a transition in identity beyond just a new name.
Thor: Love and Thunder has Valkyrie in power suits and musical theater tees, screaming goats that can traverse a rainbow bridge, a broad and bright color palette, a town that turns to theater in times of crisis, and yet it still misses the mark for queer representation in the MCU. It has more moments of queerness than any other entry so far, but it doesn’t seem to do anything with them. The movie’s implied queerness and canonical revelations don’t seem to do much more than check off boxes as though they can get pride points just for trying. As great as it was to see different sexualities and identities normalized in the movie, it also feels like there is some invisible line that Marvel refuses to cross. Until queerness is actively embraced and accepted in the real world, we can’t accept these brief moments as the limit of representation. We deserve to see characters be loud and proud in addition to small moments like those we see in Love and Thunder. Why can’t Valkyrie also kiss a gorgeous space pirate in the middle of a montage? Why isn’t Thor’s relationship with Star-Lord and the Guardians fleshed out just a little bit more? Even though this movie doesn’t do anything explicitly wrong, it doesn’t quite live up to the promises of representation some queer fans were expecting.