“I actually just saw a Marvel movie with a gay love story and it was called Captain Marvel.”
Marvel fans have called for Captain Marvel to be gay after noticing some serious queer undertones in the film.
The long-awaited blockbuster received its worldwide release last weekend and received highly positive reviews from critics, especially for Brie Larson’s performance as the title character and for its incredible de-aging of Samuel L. Jackson.
In its opening weekend in the United States, it grossed a massive $153 million and launched with $455 million worldwide, meaning it’s already the second biggest film of the year.
So back onto the queer undertones: in the film, Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, discovers how she became one of the galaxy’s mightiest heroes after Earth is caught in the centre of a galactic conflict between opposing alien races.
During her mission to find out more about her past, she comes across fellow Air Force pilot, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), one of her oldest friends. Marie is a single mother, and we discover that Carol helped raise her daughter.
Fans were quick to ship them both as a couple, even though their romance wasn’t explicitly portrayed on screen.
However, because the film boasted several queer undertones – and Carol didn’t have a male love interest (thank god) – the LGBTQ community has declared them both as queer, and we are so here for it.
“Captain Marvel was fantastic! I was not expecting the love story, what a lovely surprise Marvel! So nice to see a canon married queer couple,” said one fan, while another opined that the film had “Strong Independent Queer Woman Energy”.
“Captain Marvel is def queer and you can fight me all you want but you won’t convince me otherwise,” said another.
Check out the best reactions from Twitter below.
my gf and i whenever there's a very subtle gay hints and lines in #CaptainMarvel yes we like crumbs like that pic.twitter.com/GyxIbfRW0n
— wendy solo coming (@sonnseunggwan) March 6, 2019
Carol and Maria invented being gay I said what I said#CaptainMarvel pic.twitter.com/nMdsYPxQT1
— Shiv (@iron_widow) March 8, 2019
https://twitter.com/finnard_/status/1104295006662156288
Carol and her bff are gay. I mean, they raised a child together. #CaptainMarvel
— verónica (@arcaneghost4L) March 8, 2019
holy shit yall captain marvel? VERY gay.
— julia who death forgot (@maidofliquid) March 6, 2019
I actually just saw a Marvel movie with a gay love story and it was called Captain Marvel. https://t.co/CaqQ7aea7w
— Heather Hogan (@theheatherhogan) March 8, 2019
#CaptainMarvel is gay and that's the tea pic.twitter.com/W5gRNKXxAF
— AWKWARDDD (@AAwkwarddd) March 10, 2019
carol and maria raising monica together captain marvel said gay rights
— hazel ♡︎ (@catboyboun) March 9, 2019
I saw captain marvel. It was great. I would rate it: gay undertones for sure. pic.twitter.com/L4W2M4lwmp
— Ashly Perez 🤙🏽 (@itsashlyperez) March 11, 2019
the phrase “Auntie Carol” being lobbed at brie larson in ‘captain marvel’ was a glitch in the gay matrix. reality as we know it in the lesbian extended cinematic universe has been fractured
— Jill Gutowitz (@jillboard) March 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/asttankova/status/1103708244487430144
Give me this full, gay af scene please! #CaptainMarvel pic.twitter.com/BHFMG0pniR
— Jordan 🪴 (@nowhere897) March 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/lulumaluma/status/1103249254666067968
She just watched Captain Marvel and she might just be gay.
Sorry Sean.
— —— 𝙇𝙔𝙇𝘼. (@SataristGal) March 8, 2019
Carol Danvers’ and Maria Rambeau literally were glued to each other’s sides throughout their time in the airforce. They flew together, went to the bar together, did karaoke together, and even raised a CHILD together before Carol died. Fellas is it gay #CaptainMarvel pic.twitter.com/vkxvd48505
— eli (@agentcastieI) March 8, 2019
captain marvel was so good and GAY pic.twitter.com/TR2TRwFYgv
— koo TFAWS SPOILERS (@ymoongi) March 10, 2019
Captain marvel was fantastic!
I was not expecting the love story, what a lovely surprise marvel! So nice to see a canon married queer couple. ☺️— HC (@oohsodade) March 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/nyghtphyre/status/1104973656113930240
Captain Marvel is queer 🤷🏾♀️
— CiCi (@CiCi_BBi) March 11, 2019
Captain Marvel was good stuff. Loved the soundtrack, so many pleasant memories. Loved the nineties throwbacks too. God, I miss the grunge vibe. Girls in distressed jeans and flannels around their waists are 👌
Also, huge queer vibe from Danvers and her friend.
— the pandalorian (@meimeimeixie) March 10, 2019
Just got back from Captain Marvel and I am catching rays from that Strong Independent Queer Woman Energy™ everyone was talking about. God Bless.
— ChipmunkuChan (@chipmunkuchan) March 10, 2019
Captain Marvel is def queer and you can fight me all you want but you won’t convince me otherwise. Thank you for coming to my lecture.
— jin ‼️ ㅇㅈㅇ (@jonjinlim) March 10, 2019
yeH captain marvel is for the queer folk 💖💖💖
— hema⁷🐝 (@TohKke) March 10, 2019
Last week, a top Marvel executive said it’s time for a gay superhero in their movies.
It was recently reported that an upcoming movie from the blockbuster studio, called The Eternals, will feature the first openly gay superhero to star in a big-screen Marvel outing, a move which is long overdue.
During the Los Angeles premiere for Captain Marvel, production chief Victoria Alonso told Variety that “the world is ready” for a gay superhero, but stopped short of confirming the rumours of The Eternals featuring a gay lead.
“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.
Alonso also reiterated Marvel’s commitment to diversity, adding: “Why wouldn’t we be?
“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 recognised 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.”
Last year, Stephen Broussard – a producer who’s worked on a series of MCU movies including Captain America: The First Avenger and Ant-Man And The Wasp – hinted at the inclusion of queer characters in future movies.
“For sure, you will see that. I know it can be frustrating if you’re part of a group that wants to see more representation and the answer is always ‘stay tuned’ – I can imagine that that’s frustrating,” he said.
“But that is happening behind the scenes, you’re going to be seeing that more and more. Representation across individual groups in the years ahead.”
Marvel has long faced criticism for the lack of minority representation in its movies, and while it made steps to introduce diversity with the critically-acclaimed Black Panther and upcoming Captain Marvel, LGBTQ characters remains non-existent.
Historically, big-budget superhero movies have chosen to tone down or erase queerness from their characters, likely because some of the world’s biggest entertainment markets (including China) don’t allow LGBTQ representation on screen.
In 2017, Tessa Thompson revealed she filmed a scene for Thor: Ragnarok which confirmed her character Valkyrie’s bisexuality, but it was later cut. Similarly, a same-sex romance was removed from the final edit of Black Panther.
Marvel’s comics, meanwhile, continue to provide plenty of LGBTQ representation. Back in 2012, Northstar entered into a same-sex marriage with his partner Kyle, and last year Iceman had his first gay kiss with a glorious full-page illustration.
In a recent issue of X-Men: Gold, Bobby Drake (Iceman) was seen discussing his hook-up with Simon Lasker (Pyro).
Related: 13 LGBTQ characters we need to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.