12 characters whose sexualities were revealed AFTER the fact

Gay representation comes in so many forms.

Sometimes LGBTQ+ characters are represented wonderfully, three dimensionally, and creatively. Other times, representation can be so bad it makes us cringe. Sometimes it's barely there and if you blink, you'll miss it.

And in some cases, it can even be so subtextual that it never actually becomes text and only becomes representation after the fact.

That's the case with these queer characters.

Here are 12 LGBTQ+ characters who only were confirmed to be queer after the fact by authors, writers, directors, and actors...

1. Eric, 'A Quiet Place: Day One'

In an interview after the film's 2024 release, writer/director Michael Sarnoski revealed that he didn't want to have a romance between Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn's characters.

"It's not really addressed in the movie, but in some of the behind the scenes stuff, he was initially intended to be a gay man. And that was like, sort of a quiet aspect of his character that is sort of informing some of that. This is a platonic relationship between two people who find platonic love."

2. Albus Dumbledore, the 'Harry Potter' series

Way back in 2007, long before she became one of the LGBTQ+ community's most vocal opponents, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling announced that her character Albus Dumbledore was gay in an interview after all the books were already published. Rowling was asked if Dumbledore had ever fallen in love, to which she replied, "My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay." She added that he was in love with Gellert Grindelwald, the Harry Potter universe's equivalent to Wizard Hitler.

3. SpongeBob SquarePants

Conservatives have long complained that Spongebob seemed a little light in the loafers, but it wasn't until 2020 that we got some confirmation that the character was a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Back in the early 2000s, series creator Stephen Hillenburg said that SpongeBob and Patrick were "almost asexual," and then in 2020, Nickelodeon put out a tweet for Pride Month that said "Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month." The post contained a picture of trans actor Michael D. Cohen, queer Avatar universe character Korra, and SpongeBob, who was finally confirmed to be queer.

4. Valkyrie, the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Valkyrie is one of many "first queer characters" that Disney and Marvel have touted, but her character's first queer scene was left out of the first movie she ever appeared in. Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi confirmed that he had shot a scene where a woman is leaving Valkyrie's apartment after a one-night stand, but the scene confused test audiences and was cut from the final cut of the film.

Tessa Thompson, the queer actor who plays Valkyrie, later confirmed her sexuality when she said that Valkyrie would be looking for a queen in the sequel Thor: Love and Thunder.

5. Will Byers, 'Stranger Things'

After accusations of "queerbaiting" that were really just complaints that events in a story don't all happen at once, Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp confirmed to Variety that his character Will Byers is gay. In season four of the show, Will has a storyline where his feelings for his best friend Mike are slowly coming to the surface. However, fans were impatient, and demanded to know if Will would eventually come out as the story progressed.

"Now that he's gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it's 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike," Schnapp said. "But before, it was a slow arc. I think it is done so beautifully, because it's so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay."

6. All of Dove Cameron's characters

Out actress Dove Cameron once went on a Twitter spree declaring that most, if not all, of the characters she has played have been gay to some degree. She stated that the title twin sisters of the show she starred in on Disney, Liv & Maddie, were both queer, revealing "maddie was definitely gay" and "liv was bi." She also said that her Descendents character Mal, the daughter of Maleficent, is pan, and her character Ruby from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was asexual.

7. Gobber, 'How to Train Your Dragon'

In the second How to Train Your Dragon film, Craig Ferguson ad-libbed a line as the character Gobber where he saw a married couple fighting and said, "This is why I never married. This and one other reason." The director Dean DeBlois liked the line and kept it in, later explaining that it was a sign he is gay.

"The nice thing that Craig brought to it is, it's such a hand-off line that I think for the older members of the audience, it'll take them a moment to realize, like, 'Did he just say what I think he said?'" DeBlois said. "And then you're moving on. [The movie] treats it like normalcy, and that's what I really like about it. Because I'm a gay man, and I don't draw attention to myself for that reason. It's just a fact of who I am, and the way the world is, and it's nice to treat it as just a passing notion that isn't something that people have to get so up in arms about."

8. Gus Fring, 'Breaking Bad'

Gus Fring is one of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul's most memorable villains and was speculated to be queer for years. In a 2022 episode of Better Call Saul, he was seen flirting with a man, and the show's creator talked about his sexuality on The Ringer podcast. "Gus is holding onto his rage, his desire for revenge, and maybe he's holding onto this romance that had with his boyfriend Max," he said.

9. Alex Russo, 'Wizards of Waverly Place'

When Wizards of Waverly Place initially aired on the Disney Channel, many fans shipped Selena Gomez's character Alex Russo with her friend Stevie (played by lesbian singer Hayley Kiyoko). In 2023 on the Wizards of Waverly Pod rewatch podcast, showrunner Peter Murrieta admitted that the friendship was meant to be something more.

"We could have played more with the relationship between Stevie and Alex, but we weren't able to in that time. But it was pretty clear to all of us what that relationship was," he said, adding that, "We got as close as we could. It was pretty close."

10. Pronk and Bucky Oryx-Antlerson, 'Zootopia'

Zootopia co-writer and co-director Jared Bush revealed in a tweet that Judy Hopps' neighbors, Bucky and Pronk Oryx-Antlerson, who we only see briefly in the film, are a married couple.

11. Juno, 'Juno'

In 2019, Elliot Page spoke with Out and was asked if he thought the character he played in Juno eventually grew up to be a lesbian. "Yeah. Yes. So many of my characters, quite frankly," he replied. We knew it.

12. Regina George, 'Mean Girls'

Many queer fans have long believed that head Mean Girl Regina George was just projecting her obsession with Cady or Janis onto Aaron Samuels, and when the musical version of the movie was released, out actress Reneé Rapp, who plays the iconic character, declared that "she's absolutely gay. That woman is a lesbian. Let's be so clear." Of her character's relationship with Aaron, Rapp also said: "She doesn't even like this man. She's throwing him around like a little meat sack. Yeah, no, that woman is a lesbian."