Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie Will Be the First ‘Out’ Marvel Universe Character: WATCH

Kevin Feige confirmed, as Thompson herself teased during Love and Thunder’s unveiling, that Valkyrie will be involved in an LGBTQ storyline as Asgard’s new ruler seeks out a Queen to rule alongside her according to i09.

“The answer is yes,” Feige said of Valkyrie having a LGBTQ storyline. “How that impacts the story remains to be seen with that level of representation you’ll see across our films, not in just Thor 4”.

Feige confirmed what Thompson herself had teased during Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” unveiling at Comic-Con Saturday. “As new king [Natalie Portman’s Thor], she needs to find her queen,” Thompson told fans in Hall H during Marvel’s massive panel. “That will be her first order of business. She has some ideas. Keep you posted.”

Thompson’s Valkyrie debuted in Thor: Ragnarok and became an instant fan favorite. In March, Valkyrie reemerged on social media following the release of Captain Marvel, with many MCU fans pushing the studio to bring the two superheroes together on the big screen. Both Thompson and Captain Marvel star Brie Larson have shared fan art depicting their characters embracing, with some fans even shipping the two characters romantically.

Valkyrie is bisexual in the comic book source material, a fact Thompson has said informed her portrayal of the character from the beginning.

Collider reported:

Marvel LGBTQ Characters Confirmed for Eternals and Thor 4 Representation in superhero movies will get a pretty significant boost in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While allusions were previously made to the fact that Tessa Thompson’s Thor: Ragnarok character Valkyrie was part of the LGBTQ community (both in the film and from Thompson’s public comments), when Thompson took the Hall H stage during Marvel’s 2019 San Diego Comic-Con panel to tease Thor 4, she announced that the sequel would find Valkyrie “looking for her Queen.”

If you’ll recall, at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor passes his King of Asgard mantle on to Valkyrie, and it appears that storyline will be picked up heavily in Thor: Love and Thunder, which will also find Taika Waititi returning to the director’s chair and will bring back Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster as, yes, female Thor. And while Thompson’s comments during the Marvel panel were unmistakable, it’s always nice to have explicit confirmation. So when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub caught up with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige backstage after the panel, he asked Feige if he could confirm that Valkyrie will be explicitly part of the LGBTQ community in Thor: Love and Thunder. He not only confirmed it, but teased other LGBTQ Marvel characters:

Watch his interview with Feige’s below.