Film

Taika Waititi says ‘we’re all queer’ amid backlash over Thor’s LGBTQ+ plot

Taika Waititi says 'we're all queer' amid Thor criticism

Taika Waititi says ‘we’re all queer’ amid Thor criticism (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Taika Waititi has claimed “we’re all queer” amid criticism that he over-exaggerated how much LGBTQ+ content would be in his latest film Thor: Love and Thunder.

The director claimed at a screening of Thor: Love and Thunder in London that the film was “super gay”. However, fans were disappointed that a promised queer romance for Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) was limited to a simple kiss on the hand.

Waititi’s character, Korg, was also confirmed to be part of the LGBTQ+ community in the film. It comes after Waititi’s recent HBO Max series, Our Flag Means Death, in which he also plays a queer character.

Asked why he has turned to telling queer stories in his projects in an interview with Out magazine, Waititi said: “We’re all queer”.

He added: “Just to varying degrees of where we are on the spectrum I think. I think, innately, humans have all got some degree of queerness in them.”

Waititi said that he was grateful to bring queer characters into the new Thor movie, as well as Flag Means Death.

“With Thor, it’s great to be able to finally get Tessa’s character, and my character as well, where we’re both queer,” he told the outlet.

“I mean, I’m just amazed to hear what my friends think of me. I’ll be like, ‘Hey guys, you’re looking at a little gay icon over here,’ and it feels really amazing.”

Waititi revealed in June that a queer scene featuring Tessa Thompson’s bisexual character Valkyrie was cut from his 2017 Marvel debut, Thor: Ragnarok.

In an interview with the i, the filmmaker explained that a scene showing a woman leaving Valkyrie’s apartment was shot, but eventually cut as it was deemed “too confusing”.

Waititi admitted that the scene should have been more explicit and that “we should have just had her [Valkyrie] come out and kiss her”.

Thompson herself, however, said that she was glad the films did not solely focus on her character’s love life.

She told the Los Angeles Times that there was a “number of things” the cast wanted to explore with Valkyrie and her “longing for love was just one of many”.

She added: “I think there are a lot of folks that are righteously very hungry for that representation to exist in these movies, as am I. But I also think [it’s important] not to hang the character’s hat solely on her sexual identity just because she’s a queer character.

“I think that’s one way of minimising her humanity, actually, if that’s the only facet that you get to explore her in.”

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