Having finally embraced the desire to increase diversity, representation, and inclusion across the board, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has lived up to its promise to blaze a trail that Hollywood’s other marquee franchises will seek to emulate. Among them is next month’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which finds newcomer Michaela Coel playing a prominent queer character.
The I May Destroy You creator has been spotted kicking all sorts of ass in the footage we’ve seen so far, but it wasn’t the prospect of boarding a blockbuster superhero saga that held the greatest appeal. Instead, the actress and filmmaker of Ghanian descent revealed to Vogue that she was sold on showing the people of the African country how powerful an LGBTQ+ figure in one of the year’s biggest movies could be.
“That sold me on the role, the fact that my character’s queer. I thought: I like that, I want to show that to Ghana. People say, ‘Oh, it’s fine, it’s just politics.’ But I don’t think it is just politics when it affects how people get to live their daily lives. That’s why it felt important for me to step in and do that role because I know just by my being Ghanaian, Ghanaians will come.”
A bill containing some of the most strict and oppressive LGBTQ+ legislation the entirety of Africa has ever seen was recently put to the Ghanian parliament, which could result in people who even identify as gay being sentenced to up to five years in prison. Unsurprisingly, then, Coel was drawn to the part of Aneka for reasons that are very close to her.
In the comic books, she strikes up a relationship with fellow Dora Milaje warrior Avo, played by Florence Kasumba in the MCU. It’s another step forward for the genre and film industry as a whole, but Coel will be hoping that having someone of Ghanian heritage playing such a noteworthy queer part in cinema’s most successful ever franchise will have an impact that goes well beyond the realms of the medium.
