Why we don’t need a gay Marvel superhero

Remember in 2007 when J.K. Rowling announced that Professor Dumbledore had been gay in “Harry Potter” the whole time? Or when Disney promised an “exclusively gay” moment in its remake of “Beauty and the Beast” that amounted to little more than LeFou batting his eyelashes at Gaston at the pub? The most recent bait-and-switch actually came from Marvel.

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When “Endgame” was released in March, we were told that it featured the MCU’s first openly gay character. “Huh,” I thought. “Perhaps my glasses prescription isn’t strong enough.” The millions of people around the world who have seen that movie probably also didn’t spot it, because it was the unnamed guy in the “Five Years Later” group therapy session who talks for 30 seconds about going on a date. To whom should we address our “thank you” cards?

“Representation is really important,” Joe Russo told Deadline of the scene. “It was important to us as we did four of these films, we wanted a gay character somewhere in them … It is a perfect time, because one of the things that is compelling about the Marvel Universe moving forward is its focus on diversity.”

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