She still hopes the series "paves the way for deeper exploration."
Mey RudeUnfortunately, it looks like one line of bisexual dialogue is all we’re getting from Loki...
Marvel fans celebrated when the mischievous and charming god of mischief confirmed he is bisexual in last week's episode of his self-titled Disney+ show, and many of us are wanting more. But will we get it? Not according to showrunner Kate Herron.
Herron, who is bisexual herself, talked with Entertainment Tonight about the big moment, and whether or not we can expect more exploration of Loki’s bisexuality.
In last week’s episode, Loki and Sylvie (a female version of Loki) spent some time getting to know each other and, in doing so, revealed something about the character fans have been suspecting for a long time.
"You’re a prince," Sylvie asks Loki at one point. "Must have been would-be-princesses. Or perhaps another prince?"
Loki responds with a smile, "a bit of both. I suspect the same as you."
Herron knew that the moment would mean a lot to fans, and didn’t want it to come across as cheap. "I didn't want it to feel like we were just wedging something in," she said. "But we had this beautiful scene where these two characters are being really raw and really honest about who they are, and I was like, 'Well, it is a part of who he is and who they are.'"
She continued: "This episode is really beautiful for me, because it's these two characters getting to know each other, so in that sense, it felt like the right place for that conversation to happen. And I thought it was done really beautifully by the writers."
But when ET asked if fans could expect further exploration of Loki’s bisexuality, her answer wasn’t exactly what we hoped for.
"I'm trying to think how to answer your question," she laughed. "I would say in our story, this is how we acknowledge it. But I hope that that paves the way for deeper exploration."
So, unfortunately, that means we won’t get to see any kisses between Loki and Agent Mobius any time soon, and likely ever.
Herron even acknowledged that while it’s a big move for Marvel, it’s still not enough. "Obviously, like I've said, it's very personal to me, and I said it was a small step in some ways — because obviously, he's just talking about it," she said. "But in the bigger scale of things, I'm like, oh no, it's massive actually. If I saw that when I was 10, it would be really big for me." She says if the scene helped one person come out, she'd be happy.
Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe are both well known for their lack of queer representation, and even for the people behind the projects denying the queerness of them. Back when fans were shipping Captain Marvel with her in-movie best friend Maria Rambeau, the film’s directors stepped in and clarified that nothing gay was going on, and that the relationship was purely platonic.
Even more recently, Anthony Mackie, who played Sam Wilson on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier shut down any possibility that his character’s friendship with Bucky Barnes could be anything more than "just a friendship.""It used to be guys could be friends, we could hang out, we could do this, and it was cool..." he said on the Variety Awards Circuit podcast. "You would always meet your friends at the bar, but you can’t do that anymore, because something as pure and beautiful as homosexuality has been exploited by people who are trying to rationalize themselves."
Thanks to Herron, Marvel is starting to change that pattern. Hopefully, this is one small open door that will lead to many, many bigger ones in the future.
We do know that Brian Tyree Henry will be playing Phastos, a gay superhero in this year’s The Eternals, and lesbian superhero America Chavez will appear in 2022’s Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness. Hopefully, their queerness will be explored in more depth than Loki’s.
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0Loki Showrunner Says His Bisexuality Won’t Be Explored Further in Series
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