Why Valkyrie’s Bisexual Scene Is Axed From The Thor: Love and Thunder

Despite the fact that Valkryie, the MCU’s first prominent LGBTQ+ character, was never directly acknowledged in Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and a sequence that was supposedly

By Mabel Judith Andrady
July 5,2022
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Despite the fact that Valkryie, the MCU’s first prominent LGBTQ+ character, was never directly acknowledged in Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and a sequence that was supposedly edited out, the character is nonetheless assumed to be a lesbian.

Tessa Thompson said in a tweet from 2017 that, in keeping with the comics, she had first approached the role of the Asgardian warrior-turned-king from a bisexual perspective.

Thor: Love and Thunder, the sequel starring Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, is set to premiere on the 8th of July. And Thompson has been keeping MCU fans up to date on her character’s progress. A romantic encounter is not guaranteed.

Since then, there has been lingering doubt as to whether Love and Thunder would treat Valkyrie fairly in this regard. Thompson has joked that, as King of New Asgard, Valkyrie’s first item of business would be to search for her queen.

However, the actress recently cautioned in an interview with Yahoo that Thor: Personal and Thunder didn’t have the opportunity to explore Valkyrie’s love life, so it seems that this plan didn’t exactly play out.

Valkyrie’s Bisexuality Is A Big Topic

Thor 4 Star Reveals Valkyrie's Weird New Superpowers
Thor 4 Star Reveals Valkyrie’s Weird New Superpowers

Tessa Thompson expressed that the conversation about the actress’ character was a big topic. According to her, the audiences want to see characters who clearly queer, and that is important for representation:

“We talked about it a lot, it was a big topic of conversation. Because I think, rightfully, there’s this real want in audiences to see characters be very clearly queer or LGBTQIA inside these spaces. And I think it’s hugely important to have representation.”

Valkyrie In The Comics

In the comics, Valkyrie is established as bisexual, and Thompson has said that this is a factor in her portrayal of the character. However, a sequence establishing Valkyrie’s sexual orientation was notably omitted from the 2017 film Thor: Ragnarok.

Rather than being cut for overtly malicious reasons, the sequence was purportedly cut because it distracted from the scene’s vital exposition. Sadly, it became a source of dissatisfaction for gay fans, especially given the MCU’s spotty history of portraying the LGBTQ+ community positively on the big screen.

This is by no means a definitive rejection of canonizing Valkyrie’s bisexual identity. On the contrary, Thompson has expressed satisfaction with personally good satisfaction with where they got to.

The actress made a statement that because the fans connect with the character, there is a lot of time to explore Valkyrie. And that regardless of whether Thompson’s protagonist finds love in the movie, she is still a great queer character:

“I hope that she’s a character that fans continue to connect to, that we have a lot of time to explore her, in all of her humanity. But whether or not she finds love in this movie doesn’t mean she’s not still a fabulous queer character that is open to finding love when it makes sense.”

Although Thompson is correct, one can’t help but question why it seems so much more difficult for Marvel movies to do anything comparable when it comes to LGBT characters, especially since there are so many instances of ‘straight’ characters having love arcs or fleeting connections. We’ll have to wait till the movie comes out to see how everything turns out.