Analyzing the new ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ trailer for signs of queer life (Spoiler: There’s a LOT!)
When the first official teaser for Thor: Love & Thunder—the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fourth Thor-lead film—dropped last month, it had fans in a tizzy over its alleged queerbaiting, with many theorizing that it could be hinting at a relationship between Chris Hemsworth’s titular God Of Thunder and Star-Lord, played by Chris Pratt.Though Pratt’s (confirmed bisexual) Guardian Of The Galaxy is only briefly glimpsed in the latest trailer, there’s still plenty of canonized queer characters to be found, as well as theatrical imagery and other showy choices that have us hoping this could actually be Marvel’s gayest movie yet.After all, it does come from the mind of writer/director Taika Waititi, who gave us Cate Blanchett as an antlered drama queen in his last MCU movie, in addition to HBO Max’s goofy pirate comedy, Our Flag Means Death, which surprised us all by becoming one of the queerest shows of the year.Just how gay is Thor: Love & Thunder?
The movie—which also stars Natalie Portman, Tess Thompson, Christian Bale, and Russell Crowe—doesn’t hit theaters until July 8, so, until then, we’re left to scavenge the new trailer for hints of queerness, reading too far into things and blowing small moments way out of proportion, as we are wont to do.Take a look at it for yourself, and then read below for our breakdown of all of the trailer’s gayest moments.The trailer’s first spoken dialogue comes from none other than Korg, the rocky Kronan voiced by writer/director Taika Waititi, who stole every single scene in Ragnarok.
While the beloved Korg is canonically gay in the Marvel comics, Waititi already broke fans’ hearts when he shared in a recent Instagram Live that the character’s sexuality would go unaddressed in the new film..
