Last week’s episode of Loki contained a monumental moment for the MCU, as a brief exchange between Tom Hiddleston’s trickster and his female counterpart Sylvie confirmed that the God of Mischief was bisexual. This made him the first ever LGBTQ+ lead character in the whole franchise. Fans lost it over the revelation as they’ve been waiting for Marvel to increase their queer representation for years now.
For actress Sophia Di Martino, who plays Sylvie, she always knew the moment was going to be an “important” one, although she didn’t quite realize just how much of an impact it was going to make. The British star was asked by Decider if she had any idea of the significance of this scene, to which she revealed that director Kate Herron had made it clear how big it was when shooting. Still, Di Martino wasn’t expecting all the internet hype around it. Di Martino now knows how “special” this exchange was to people, though, and is “proud” to have contributed to it. Here’s what she had to say in full:
“We knew it was important at the time. And [director] Kate [Herron] was like, “This is really important to me personally too. This is a long time coming, the comics have always spoken about Loki’s sexuality, but the MCU hasn’t yet.” And it was—we knew it was important to mention, to talk about this in this series and represent that, but I personally didn’t realize how big it was gonna be. This whole thing, I had no idea how big it was going to be. I think I’ve had my head in the sand a little bit, and so it’s so overwhelming. But in general, it’s just so wonderful to see how many people are engaging and feel seen, finally. There’s this MCU that people love so much and finally they feel represented or seen within that. It is so important and so special. I’m really proud to be a part of it.”
Di Martino’s recollection of what Herron said on set echoes what the director shared on Twitter following episode 3 landing last week. Herron explained that, as someone who is bisexual herself, confirming Loki’s sexuality was something she was adamant about as soon as she boarded the show. Comic book readers have always known that Loki wasn’t straight, but it’s about time that this was explored in the MCU as well.
Obviously, this milestone should’ve happened a long time ago, but now that the ground has been broken, we can look forward to many more LGBTQ+ characters being on the way. Eternals will feature Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos, depicted as a gay married man, with Valkyrie searching for a queen in Thor: Love and Thunder. In the meantime, Loki continues on Disney Plus this Wednesday.
