Kevin Feige Says Marvel’s Wanted A Gay Hero In The MCU For A Long Time

Marvel fans should be pretty excited for The Eternals. The upcoming movie set to introduce a new team of immortal heroes into the MCU looks to be the House of Ideas’ next big success. Reports are saying Angelina Jolie could be playing female lead Sersi and, while we don’t know who the male protagonist is yet, there’s something else that’s getting us excited about the movie.

Following Captain Marvel as the first MCU film to star a solo heroine, rumors say that The Eternals could introduce the franchise’s first ever gay hero. This has yet to be officially confirmed, but io9 got the opportunity to ask Kevin Feige if there was any accuracy to the claims. As ever, the producer couldn’t give away any secrets, but what he did say was pretty interesting.

“Well it’s accurate in that we’ve talked about [doing it for] a long time. You look at the success of Captain Marvel and Black Panther. We want the movies to reflect the audience and we want every member of our global audience to see themselves reflected on the screen. And that’s what we’ve been doing for a long time. And certainly, that’s what we’re focusing on going forward.”

As Marvel Studios’ president, Kevin Feige is clearly a pro at saying exactly enough to answer a question without giving anything away by now. He’s basically the anti-Ruffalo. But while the above quote doesn’t tell us whether The Eternals will feature this huge milestone for the franchise, it’s clear that even if it doesn’t, Feige is dedicated to increasing LGBT representation in the future.

Fox’s Deadpool 2 was the first Marvel movie to feature explicitly gay characters, in the form of Teenage Negasonic Warhead and her girlfriend Yukio. These two were only supporting characters, however, and reports are pointing to Eternals’ gay hero being a lead role. There was some chatter a few weeks back that it could be Hercules, but insider Charles Murphy has clarified that this is definitely not the case.

Regardless, The Eternals is expected to begin shooting later this year, ahead of an assumed release date sometime in 2020. That means that concrete details on its characters should materialize soon. Fingers crossed that the rumors are right.