It only took the Marvel Cinematic Universe close to 20 years to introduce an openly gay character, but was it just a cop-out?
None of the major characters are that character, so there's the first disappointing news.
Endgame director Joe Russo portrays the character, who is attending a support group with Captain America/Steve Rogers early on in the movie, talking about his recent date with another man.
But... is that it?
This character has no name, nor even a full role in the film. He is there for a moment, just to confirm that in Marvel's alternate version of earth, yes, the gays exist.
But that's not a realistic representation of our own world, where one in ten people are gay, nor a realistic representation of the Marvel universe as a whole, which has at least 28 known gay characters. And, Deadpool 2 gave us a whole lesbian relationship between Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio.
And Russo really did pat himself on the back for this one.
Representation is really important. It was important to us as we did four of these films, we wanted a gay character somewhere in them. We felt it was important that one of us play him, to ensure the integrity and show it is so important to the filmmakers that one of us is representing that.
.....Or they could have cast a gay person to play that role.
Gay people didn't even have a film focusing on a gay teenage romance before Love, Simon in 2018.
Dangling representation in front of us like this, when we've had to wait too long for it in the first place, is not sitting well.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that two LGBTQ characters were on their way — "both ones you've seen and ones you haven't seen." So who might those be?
"The world is ready, the world is ready," said production chief Victoria Alonso, about an LGBTQ superhero.
But the thing is, we've always been here. Whether or not straight people have deemed themselves "ready."
@WhiteHouse/X
