Even though our favorite Norse trickster Loki was confirmed canonically gender fluid and bisexual in his first solo TV series, we, unfortunately, didn't get to see much (or any) of his queerness explored on-screen during the show's first season. But now that the season finale just aired on Disney+, and a post-credit scene basically confirmed a future for the popular Marvel Studios show, many fans are left wondering if we'll get to delve into Loki's identity and sexuality in season 2.
Well, according to the series' director, there's some hope.
In a recent interview with Collider, Kate Herron was asked about the possibility of a same-sex romance between Loki (played famously by Tom Hiddleston) and another male character, and although she said she didn't know what the future holds, she hopes the fact that the character actually confirmed his sexuality in season 1 opens the door for more LGBTQ+ stories to be told in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"Basically I don't know plans for the future with Loki -- I'm so focused on this story," Kate said. "But I would say that part of my thinking was, well, if it's canon and it's acknowledged, then yeah I hope there's obviously more road to travel with that aspect of his personality. And I hope it has opened the door to more stories, definitely."
Speaking on the much-celebrated moment in the show where Loki tells Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) that he has been with both men and women, and the importance of that moment in the MCU, which still has very little in terms of explicit LGBTQ+ representation for fans to enjoy, she said, "It's canon in the comics, he's being written as bi and also pan, and I just wanted to make sure that we were acknowledging that aspect of his personality. Because the whole show is about Loki's identity, and it felt like, well, we should be acknowledging this."
She continued:
"When I joined, it was very important to me, and it was also very important to the team as well, like the writers and the studio. So I think for us, it was really just about finding a moment that felt like the right moment for it. I think the train felt good to us because, it's a very raw conversation, they're both opening up about their lives. And I think we wanted to do it in a way... How to explain it? Well, if someone asks me, I would just be very matter-of-fact about it. I think that was really important to us, just normalizing the fact of him being like, 'Yeah, a bit of both.' That for us felt very important. I'm very proud that we got it in there and we got to acknowledge that. Yeah, that's what I would say."
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Herron's comments come on the heels of a recent interview Marvel Studios' executive vice president of film production Victoria Alonso gave Variety at the Black Widow fan premiere in Hollywood in which she said more substantial queer representation was coming to the blockbuster superhero franchise...eventually.
"It takes time, we have so many stories that we can tell," Alonso 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."
Looks like, as usual, we'll just have to continue to wait patiently to see what the queer future holds for the MCU...
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