Marvel Studios has lost its lone out lesbian executive.
Victoria Alonso, who had been serving as an executive for Marvel Studios helping oversee its incredibly popular Marvel Cinematic Universe films and its television spin-offs for the last 17 years has left the company according to The Hollywood Reporter.
While no reasons have been given, Alonso reportedly quit on Friday.
Alonso first joined Marvel Studios in 2006 as chief of visual effects and post-production and was listed as a co-producer on Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. On Avengers in 2012, she got her first executive producer credit and has received it on each subsequent release from the studio.
In 2021, she was promoted to president, physical and post-production, visual effects and animation production, becoming the highest profile out executive at the company.
While at Marvel she also championed the studio’s push for more diversity and inclusion, particularly when it comes to LGBTQ+ characters.
At the Black Widow fan premiere in 2021, Alonso acknowledged that the studio had a long way to go in terms of representation.
"It takes time, we have so many stories that we can tell," she said. "We will empower those that are. We're not changing anything. We're just showing the world who these people are, who these characters are..."
She also added, "there's a lot that we have coming up that I think will be representative of the world of today. We're not going to nail it in the first movie or the second movie or third movie, or the first show or second show, but we will do our best to consistently try to represent."
Since 2021, the MCU has introduced several queer characters, usually in blink-or-you’ll-miss-it ways, including a kiss on the forehead or a patch on a jacket.
Additionally, she spoke out against Florida’s recent “Don’t Say Gay” bill, promising that Marvel Studios would continue to include gay characters.
“As long as I am at Marvel Studios, I will fight for representation,” she said.
Hopefully, someone else will take up the fight now that she’s left.
