Well, they’re also famous for taking their time introducing Black, women, Latine, and Asian characters as well, but that’s not what this article is about.
Still, the number of LGBTQ+ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is growing, albeit at a very slow pace. Last year, they really broke the dam open, introducing a whopping six queer characters into the MCU. And this year we’ll get another. (Wow, is this was representation feels like??)
There are a few other queer characters from MCU-adjacent projects like Agents of Shield and Runaways, but it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll never appear in official MCU projects, be mentioned, or even be hinted at. For this list, we’re trying to keep it to characters in the MCU proper.
Technically the first queer character in the MCU was introduced in Netflix’s show Daredevil. Evil and corrupt lawyer Jeri Hogarth was a lesbian who had several relationships in the show. After Daredevil himself appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home, we guess she’s confirmed to be in the MCU? It’s honestly hard to tell.
The original MCU gay character. Captain America, Infinity War and Endgame director Joe Russo played this nameless gay man who misses his partner after The Snap. He appears in a small scene in Avengers: Endgame in a therapy group led by Captain America. While he didn’t disappear in The Snap, he did disappear after his one line in the movie.
Played by queer actress Tessa Thompson, Valkryrie was the first queer superhero in the MCU as confirmed by both Thompson and Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi. Her queerness will be finally shown onscreen in the upcoming MCU film Thor: Love and Thunder where she’ll be looking for a queen now that she’s the new King of Asgard.
Another queer character from Thor: Ragnarok was the rock alien Korg, played by director Waititi. Waititi confirmed that Korg is gay in an Instagram Live, but said he won’t get a romantic interest anytime soon as he was once “deeply in love and lost that love along the line” and “doesn’t feel brave enough to find love again.”
Ayo, a queer member of the Dora Milaje, was introduced in Black Panther and played by Florence Kasumba. She also appeared in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ series. Rumor has it that in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she’ll have a bigger role and will be fighting alongside her girlfriend Aneka (who is rumored to be played by I May Destroy You's Michaela Coel). But again, all of this is rumor!
Yep, we’ve got two more queer MCU characters who’s queerness has yet to be seen on screen. Wiccan (who is canonically gay) and Speed (who is canonically bisexual) are Wanda and Vision’s twin sons who grow up to become queer members of the superhero group Young Avengers. So far, they’ve only appeared as kids in WandaVision, so they’re also in the group of queer comics characters who we assume are also queer in the MCU but haven’t actually shown that to be true. Well, this is the kind of representation we get from Disney.
In his Disney+ series, the God of Mischief was finally confirmed to be bi when he and his female variant Sylvie talked about their love lives. “You’re a prince. Must have been would-be-princesses. Or perhaps another prince?” Sylvie asked. “A bit of both. I suspect the same as you,” he replies.
In that same conversation, Marvel essentially confirmed that Loki’s female variant Sylvie is also bisexual, as she was the one who brought up the subject to Loki. Neither character’s queerness was explored more in the series, and the first season’s showrunner said to not expect more.
The first gay MCU character to have an onscreen kiss didn’t appear until Eternals in 2021, thirteen years after Iron Man kicked off the MCU. It only took 26 movies to get here! That’s progress. At least Phastos was married and even got to kiss his husband on screen.
In Eternals, we also meet Ben, Phastos' human husband. He's played by out actor Haaz Sleiman and shares a few scenes with Phastos and their son in the Chloé Zhao-directed film.
You might be asking yourself, 'who the heck is Wendy Conrad?' Well, she’s a Black NYC cop and LARPer who helps Clint Barton and Kate Bishop in Disney+'s Hawkeye series. Again, her queerness only exists in one throwaway line where she mentions her wife.
The MCU’s first lesbian superhero was introduced in 2022 during Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Unfortunately, she was aged down from her usual young adult self to about fifteen years old, and the flirty personality she was known for in the comics was lost on the big screen. In fact, other than some Pride symbols/slogans on her trademark jacket, there was literally nothing about America's sexuality or queerness included in the film.
We were all excited to see America Chavez be the MCU’s first lesbian superhero in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but unfortunately we didn’t really get that. What we did get was this brief glimpse of her two lesbian moms shortly before being vaporized by their daughter’s own powers.
While Valkyrie didn’t get the girlfriend we all thought she would in Thor: Love and Thunder, another of the movies’ queer characters did get a same-sex partner! After explaining to Valkyrie that on his planet, two males come together over a volcano and hold hands to make a baby, we got to see Korg find his special someone in this handsomely mustachioed rock.
She-Hulk's BFF came out as bi in a recent episode during a little moment where she was helping Jen set up a dating app profile. "Hetero life is grim," Nikki says as she's looking at the choices of men on the app. Ramos' actress Ginger Gonzaga confirmed the moment was meant to show that the character is queer.
