The character posters for Avengers: Endgame sees the return of one of the franchise’s only queer heroes.
Valkyrie – played by Tessa Thompson – is shown to have survived Thanos’ snap (called ‘the decimation’) because her poster is in colour, whereas fallen heroes have received black and white promos.
31 other characters have received a poster, including Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Gamora, Starlord, Spider-Man, The Winter Soldier, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, Okoye and Nebula.
Although Thompson’s character wasn’t explicitly portrayed to be queer in Thor: Ragnarok, last year she told Rolling Stone that she filmed a scene where a woman walks out of Valkyrie’s bedroom, heavily suggesting that they had been intimate with each other.
The moment was ultimately cut from the film as it “distracted from the scene’s vital exposition.” A further scene saw Valkyrie’s all-female warrior clan slaughtered, but the film passed over one of the members being Valkyrie’s lover.
Speaking to The Independent about the controversy that arose, Thompson explained: “One thing to clarify about that… is it was so in passing. I hope we get to that space, where someone’s sexuality is as immaterial as me drinking this green juice.
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“It wasn’t Marvel or Disney or anyone extracting that because it was an issue… it just was like, that particular moment didn’t make sense in the context of the scene. And there were other beautiful things where you get a sense of her back story.”
Valkyrie hasn’t been seen since the final scene of Ragnarok, which saw Thanos and The Black Order intercept Thor and the Asgardians’ spaceship. In the first scene of Infinity War, most of them had been slaughtered, but Valkryie’s fate was left unknown.
Her poster confirms the theory that she managed to escape the spaceship before the attack. It also alludes to her involvement in helping the Avengers reverse the catastrophic events of Infinity War, which saw Thanos wipe out half of the universe.
Endgame is the culmination of 22 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and will reportedly be the final film for key actors in the franchise, such as Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans, the latter of which seemingly said farewell to his character last year.
The film will also star Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Danai Gurira and Brie Larson.
Deep breath for even more star power: Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Brolin, Evangeline Lilly, Jon Favreau, Letitia Wright, and Paul Rudd.
Watch the trailer for Avengers: Endgame below.
Avengers: Endgame will be in cinemas from 26 April.
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