Captain Marvel Director Weighs In On If Carol’s The MCU’s First Gay Hero

Avengers: Endgame made a small but significant step in the right direction, with Joe Russo’s cameo seeing him play the franchise’s first openly gay character, but Marvel fans are still starved for more LGBT representation in the MCU. The figurehead for the call for more to be done has become Captain Marvel, with many hoping that Carol Danvers will be revealed as gay in a future movie.

This probably started because of Carol’s close friendship with her best friend Maria Rambeau in the recent origins film for Brie Larson’s heroine. But was this interpretation of their relationship something the team behind the pic ever considered? ComicBookMovie.com asked Captain Marvel co-director Ryan Fleck this very question, who confirmed that some kind of romance for Carol was talked about at an early stage but they ultimately chose to depict a strong female friendship instead.

“That was one of those things when we were in the writing stage, and the sky was the limit and the movie could be anything, we were discussing: ‘Are we going to get into any type of romantic relationship with this character?’ It wasn’t like there was a philosophical opposition to pursuing that storyline; it just came down to real estate in the story we were telling. We knew we were telling a story of self discovery and we wanted friendship, and her friendship with Maria, to be a huge part of that.

There was no room for any romantic storyline for us. I know people have made their own conclusions about that and I think that’s part of the fun of making these movies is that they become the audience’s movies and they get to create any kind of narrative they want for what’s happening off the screen. For us, as storytellers, it’s a friendship and a story about that and self discovery.”

Seeing as Carol’s character will no doubt develop in major ways in the sequel, Fleck seems keen not to say too much here. However, it’s possible to read that there’s some potential there in his statement, even if it appears that Fleck and Boden’s personal interpretation of Carol and Maria’s bond is that it’s platonic. At this point though, it’s still difficult to say whether Carol and Maria will develop into a passionate fan-made ship like “Stucky” (Steve and Bucky) or whether something very revolutionary for the franchise could happen in Captain Marvel 2.

And if Carol and Maria are just meant to be good friends, then the internet would likely be very happy if Captain Marvel got together with Valkyrie instead. Tessa Thompson, who previously revealed that her Asgardian warrior was bi, and Brie Larson’s Twitter friendship has become a fan favorite, with a lot of art out there depicting the heroines getting close (see above).

In any case, Kevin Feige and the Russo brothers’ talk of more gay characters coming to the MCU gives us hope that things are going to change soon, but will Captain Marvel lead the way? We’ll have to wait and see.