Get ready for more LGBTQ superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phastos, played by Brian Tyree Henry in “Eternals,” marks the first time there’s a gay superhero in a Marvel movie. At…
Get ready for more LGBTQ superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Phastos, played by Brian Tyree Henry in “Eternals,” marks the first time there’s a gay superhero in a Marvel movie. At the film’s red carpet premiere in Hollywood, Marvel audiences were promised that this is only the beginning.
“There have been gay heroes before in the comics,” Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige told Variety. “It is more than past time in the movies. And it’s just the start.”
Kit Harington, who plays Cersei’s boyfriend, Dane, in the movie, said, “I think it’s taken awhile, and surprisingly so.”
The significance goes beyond what audiences see on the screen. “It’s life saving,” Haaz Sleiman, who plays Phastos’ husband, said. “I wish I had that when I was kid growing up to see this. My god, I wish. Young queer folk who are either being bullied, committing suicide, not seeing themselves being represented, and now they get to see this? It’s above and beyond. To be a part of this and queer, to be representing that is so huge.”
From nationality to sexuality, from race to age, the diversity of “Eternals” is not only unprecedented but long overdue, the cast and crew said.
In “Eternals,” Salma Hayek plays the Ajak, who was actually a man in the original comics.
“I never thought I would be a Mexican superhero in my 50s,” Hayek said. “I think it’s wonderful because it’s not just one thing, but it’s the welcoming of everything.”
Angelina Jolie, who plays Thena, added, “When we walked out, all of us together, it didn’t feel like this is so new and cool. It felt like this is how it always should have been. Why did it take so long? It felt so right.”
Creating such a diverse cast of heroes did not happen by chance. “This is one where we started building the cast very early on,” casting director Sarah Finn said. “And we knew that we were going to have a lot of liberty to, for example, change Makkari, who in the comics is a white male. And as you know, Lauren Ridloff is playing that character in the film.”
Ridloff breathes new life into the comic character Makkari not only as a woman of color but as a deaf actor as well. “People have an idea of what it means to be a superhero, but I think tonight when they see the movie, they’re going to see different kinds of superheroes,” Ridloff said. “Not just the deaf superhero but all the superheroes on screen, and they’ll feel seen and represented.”
The “Eternals” opens in theaters on Nov. 5.
“When we kind of met each other and had worked together for a bit, we realized there were elements of each of us in our characters, and that was why we had been cast,” Gemma Chan, who plays the hero Sersi, said. “It is diversely cast, but it doesn’t feel tokenistic.”