Captain Marvel finally delivered the MCU’s first movie with a female lead. A terrific feat, for sure, but it was long overdue and the franchise has got a lot of work left to do before its got equal representation across the board. To his credit, though, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has promised this is a priority for the company moving forward. But for Carol Danvers herself, Avengers: Endgame star Brie Larson, things need to move faster on the front of LGBT representation in the franchise.
While speaking to Variety’s Marc Malkin, Larson explained why she feels it’s important for kids to see themselves on screen, even if it’s something we don’t always know we need when we’re young.
“I don’t think we think about that all the time as kids. I think we accept what we have, but to see this new generation of boys and girls, or kids who don’t identify as either, being able to see this on screen and to not know anything different is really exciting.”
The actress then went on to say how she’s happy to be helping the “normalization” of “diverse storytelling.”
“I’m happy to be on the forefront of the normalization of this type of content and to prove once again that representation matters. Diverse storytelling matters, the female experience matters, and these are markers. So it’s something I’ve always known and I think a lot of people always knew, but this is just normalizing.”
Malkin then discussed how he grew up thinking he wouldn’t ever see a gay superhero on screen. Larson reacted with sadness to this, saying that of course “there’s no reason” for this to be the case and Marvel has to “move faster” to prove that anyone can be a superhero.
“That breaks my heart to hear that, because there’s no reason. I don’t understand how you could think that a certain type of person isn’t allowed to be a superhero. So to me it’s like, we gotta move faster. But I’m always wanting to move faster with this stuff.”
Larson is presumably proud to be in Avengers: Endgame, as it’s the first MCU film to include an openly gay character, as played by co-director Joe Russo. From here on out, it also seems like Marvel will kick things up a notch and jump right into having their first LGBTQ leading man. This is something we’ve been told to expect and all signs point to The Eternals being the one to feature this landmark first for the franchise.
Like Brie Larson says, though, blockbuster movies need to work harder to normalize representation like this, so hopefully in a few years time, we’ll have a thoroughly diverse roster of Avengers leading the MCU.