Valkyrie is MCU's first openly LGBTQ superhero, Marvel confirms
Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie may finally get her queen after all.
Tessa Thompson played a Valkyrie warrior in the 2017 movie Thor: Ragnarok.
When Marvel revealed its MCU Phase 4 plans for Black Widow, Thor, Doctor Strange and more at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, one of the new movies announced included Thor: Love and Thunder, the fourth movie in the Thor series. Thor: Ragnarok's director Taika Waititi will return to direct it.
Not only will the movie bring back Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Natalie Portman as Lady Thor, fans will also see Tessa Thompson reprise her role as the demi-goddess known as Valkyrie.
Thompson stole 2017's Thor: Ragnarok as the hard-drinking warrior character Valkyrie, aka Scrapper 142. But finally, thanks to Thompson and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, we have confirmation that her character is the MCU's first openly LGBTQ superhero.
Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) has already proven her warrior skills, but in Thor: Love and Thunder fans will see her as the leader of New Asgard.
"First of all, as new King [of Asgard], she needs to find her queen, so that will be her first order of business," Thompson told the Comic-Con audience during the Marvel panel. "She has some ideas. Keep you posted."
Thor passed on the mantle of King of New Asgard to Valkyrie in Avengers: Endgame.
Feige also confirmed after the panel that Thompson's character, Valkyrie, will become the first openly LGBTQ superhero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"The answer is yes. How that impacts the story remains to be seen with that level of representation you'll see across our films, not in just Thor 4," Feige told io9 on Saturday.
She’s bi. And yes, she cares very little about what men think of her. What a joy to play! https://t.co/d0LZKTHCfL
— Tessa Thompson (@TessaThompson_x) October 21, 2017
Marvel fans already know that Valkyrie in the comics is bisexual, and Thompson also confirmed it on social media in 2017.
But in Thor: Ragnarok, a scene was cut from the film where a woman is seen sneaking out of Valkyrie's bedroom, according to director Waititi, who mentioned the scene in a podcast interview in 2017.
In May, Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed that the MCU would take a major step for LGBTQ representation with a character fans already were familiar with, and it seems they were most likely referring to Valkyrie.
"Yes, openly gay," Joe Russo said in podcast with Entertainment Weekly. "There've been insinuations about other characters' sexuality, but this is the first openly gay character."
Marvel Studios didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
So hopefully in Thor: Love and Thunder we'll see more of Valkyrie's private life, including a romance. While love stories aren't always that crucial in a superhero movie, representation matters to fans who want to be able to identify more with their favorite characters.
An openly bisexual character in the MCU would be fun to see on the big screen, especially since straight relationships between Marvel superheroes have always been the default.
Here's hoping that Valkyrie finds her queen to rule New Asgard after all.
Thor: Love and Thunder arrives in theaters worldwide on Nov. 5, 2021.
