Marvel's Victoria Alonso stresses studio's commitment to future LGBTQ characters

Are gay superheroes on their way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? If Victoria Alonso has her way, they are, and soon.

Alonso, who is executive vice president of physical production for Marvel Studios and (along with Kevin Feige and Louis D'Esposito) makes up one third of the key trio of producing minds at the company, was on the red carpet at the Captain Marvel premiere earlier this week, and was asked about a future for LGBTQ characters in the MCU.

"The world is ready, the world is ready," Alonso (pictured above, with Kevin Feige) told Variety.

Captain Marvel is the 21st feature film in the cinematic universe that began with 2008's Iron Man, and it's the first to feature a sole female lead in its title (Ant-Man and the Wasp featured a woman sharing the title). That long-awaited milestone comes a little more than a year after Black Panther became the studio's first film with a black lead and a largely black cast. Black Panther went on to become a phenomenon, crossing the billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office and winning three Academy Awards.

With all of that in mind, a film starring or co-starring an LGBTQ lead character would be among the next milestones for the MCU. Studio president Kevin Feige confirmed last year that such characters were on their way, and that they would likely even include some MCU characters we've already seen. Feige has made his commitment to that inclusivity clear, if a little vague. Alonso made the same commitment at the Captain Marvel premiere, but with more passion.

“Why wouldn’t we be? Why wouldn’t we be?” Alonso said. “I’m so passionate about this, I’ve got to tell you. Our entire success is based on people that are incredibly different. Why wouldn’t we? Why would we only want to be recognized by only one type of person? Our audience is global, is diverse, is inclusive. If we don’t do it that way for them, we will fail. If we don’t put pedal to the metal on the diversity and the inclusivity, we will not have continued success. Our determination is to have that for all of the people out there watching our movies.”

Alonso has a point, and she has the success of films like Black Panther to back it up. Inclusive casting is both a progressive move and a potentially lucrative one, and it sounds like we might hear more definitive news on that front from Marvel sometime very soon. As for the rumors floating around that the studio is hoping to cast a gay lead for its upcoming Eternals film, though, Alonso took a step back and kept things noncommittal.

“We are going to cast the best Eternals cast that we can, and when we’re ready to announce it, we promise you we will,” she said.

Captain Marvel is in theaters Friday.