Marvel Studios is the king of the cinematic hill right now and their next installment ‘Captain America: Civil War‘ has already taken in over $200 million overseas and is due to open this weekend in the U.S. and Canada, where it should decimate. The Marvel Cinematic Universe already includes powerful female characters, like Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Peggy Carter and more, as well as prominent black heroes War Machine and The Falcon. ‘Civil War’ introduces Black Panther (played by Chadwick Boseman) to the mainstream world, who will become the first black headliner of a Marvel super hero movie. The studio also has ‘Captain Marvel’ in the pipeline, which will star Marvel’s first female solo lead.
It may have been a slow climb, but Marvel is bringing more and more diversity to the big screen. Will that include LGBT characters?
Last year, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said:
“Well in the drawing board going up to 2019 it remains to be seen. The comics always make the path that we get to have the fun of saying, ‘Yeah let’s choose this way or let’s choose this way’ and I think there are a lot of cool things happening in the comics now that—it’s usually a five to ten-year cycle between when something happens in the comics and when we can do it in the movie, sometimes a little less, but ‘Civil War’ is certainly about the 10-year mark. ‘Winter Soldier’, I think, was around that time. So we always look at stuff that’s happening in the comics and go, ‘Where could we do that?’ Sometimes it’s sooner, but there’s no reason why that couldn’t happen in the next decade or sooner.”
Now the Russo brothers, Joe and Anthony, who directed ‘Civil War’ and are on tap to helm the two ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ films have added to that assurance.
Joe said:
Anthony (right) and Joe Russo
“I think the chances are strong. I mean, it’s incumbent upon us as storytellers who are making mass-appeal movies to make mass-appeal movies, and to diversify as much as possible. It’s sad in the way that Hollywood lags behind other industries so significantly, one because you think that it would be a progressive industry, and two it’s such a visible industry. So I think it’s important that on all fronts we keep pushing for diversification because then the storytelling becomes more interesting, more rich, and more truthful.”
Anthony added:
“I think this is a philosophy of Marvel, in success it becomes easier to take risks. There’s a lot of unconventional ideas in ‘Civil War’ in terms of what people’s expectations of a superhero movie are, but I think we were able to do that because ‘Winter Soldier’ worked and Marvel’s been working in general, so there’s more of a boldness in terms of what you can try and where you can go. So I think that’s very hopeful for all of us moving forward that bolder and bolder choices can be made.”
Now the question is which Marvel character will make this leap? Most of the prominent LGBT Marvel comic book characters are teenagers and one (Wiccan) is the son of Scarlet Witch who is barely out of her teens in the movies. That leaves a few other possibilities like America Chavez (above) and Julie Power.
What out Marvel hero would you like to see in a film?
Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.
