OUT MAGAZINE
Taika Waititi loves telling queer love stories.
The director, star, and co-writer of Marvel Studios' new film Thor: Love and Thunder has been known lately for his romantic LGBTQ+ storytelling, both in the HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death, and in the latest Thor, where he plays gay characters who get to fall in love.
Why does he love getting to tell these kinds of stories? Because he says he can relate to them on a personal level.
"We're all queer," Waititi tells Out when asked why he likes telling LGBTQ+ love stories so much. "Just to varying degrees of where we are on the [sexuality] spectrum I think. I think, innately, humans have all got some degree of queerness in them."
Because of that, he was excited to bring that queerness tohis new movie. "With Thor, it's great to be able to finally get Tessa's character, and my character as well, where we're both queer," he says.
While Valkyrie getting her love interest was obviously the dream that didn't happen in Love and Thunder, we should remember that this movie is a Disney movie, and Disney is exceedingly slow when it comes to queer representation.
And while we didn't get the King and Queen we wanted, Waititi made sure to put as much queerness in the film as he could. Korg, the gay character he voices, talks about liking seeing Thor naked, his past relationship with another man, and then, at the end of the movie, participates in what could be called Marvel's first on-screen gay wedding.
Not only that, but Valkyrie gets to show her queerness through both actions and words as well. In one scene, Korg and Valkyrie have a long heart-to-heart about same-sex relationships and the heartbreak that comes from losing them. The two characters bond over being gay and talk about their queerness in a way that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has stayed far, far away from in the past. It's a big change from the usual "blink and you'll miss it" scenes that the MCU's queer characters are known for.
Waititi is also very aware of how much of a queer icon he is these days.
"I love it. I mean, I'm just amazed to hear what my friends think of me. I'll be like, 'Hey guys, you're looking at a little gay icon over here,' and it feels really amazing."
He credits Our Flag Means Death with getting him the title.
"I never really imagined it. I mean never imagined it," he says of being a queer icon. "No, it just wasn't something I imagined, but what drew me to Our Flag Means Death was the love story between Blackbeard and Stede."
Waititi even says looking at fan art, cosplay, reactions from queer fans, and seeing lesbians dressing like him is "the only reason" he goes on social media nowadays. "I've seen it all, baby, I've been looking online," he laughs.
With Thor: Love and Thunder in theaters now, and a second season of Our Flag coming up on the way, his icon status is sure to be cemented.
RELATED | Taika Waititi Listened to Queer Fans When Making Thor: Love & Thunder
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