Kevin Feige confirms a married gay character for Marvel's Eternals

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has been teasing increased LGBTQ representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for some time, but now things are starting to feel a little more real on that particular diversity front. Avengers: Endgame introduced an openly gay character in a very small, one-scene role, but representation among the Marvel hero community is actually coming. At San Diego Comic-Con this year, Tessa Thompson confirmed her character, Valkyrie, will be dating a woman in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, and at the same event Feige seemed to confirm previous reports that an LGBTQ character would appear in Eternals. In a new interview, Feige got a little more explicit with that confirmation. 

The cast of Eternals, Marvel's next superhero team adventure following the titular group of near-immortal begins, was on hand at D23 Expo alongside Feige over the weekend to promote their film a little more and to reveal some cool new concept art. Eternals already boasts one of the most diverse casts Marvel's ever assembled — including the first major deaf character in the MCU — but speaking to Good Morning America in an interview that arrived Monday, Feige also confirmed that a major gay character will appear in the film. 

"He's married, he's got a family, and that is just part of who he is," Feige said.

So, we're definitely getting a gay character in Eternals when it arrives late next year, but it's interesting that Feige didn't actually say who "he" is here. None of the major Eternals characters are canonically gay, and nothing's necessarily stopping Marvel Studios from making any one of the male characters joining the film someone who's married to another man. We also know that the central cast will branch out from the titular heroes to include new characters like Black Knight, who'll be played by Game of Thrones alum Kit Harington. He could be a gay character in his film incarnation, or it could be yet another character we haven't even heard about yet, and Feige and company are waiting to announce which character he's referring to until they have an actor in place. 

Whatever the cast, the future of LGBTQ representation in the world's biggest film franchise is looking brighter, and Eternals is itself is looking like a particularly bright spot in Marvel's future release schedule. The star-packed cast includes the likes of Richard Madden, Brian Tyree Henry, Kumail Nanjiani, Salma Hayek, and of course Angelina Jolie, who told Yahoo! while at D23 that she just couldn't say no to the MCU. 

"I am actually a big fan of the Marvel universe and everything [Kevin Feige has] done and what all the other artists have done, so when you get the call that you might be joining, you feel like you've been called up for service, it's very exciting in fact," she said.

Eternals is in theaters November 6, 2020.