Culture

Disney Plus cut queer sex scene with Loki from Marvel spin-off series

By Sam Damshenas

22nd July 2021

Marvel viewers missed out on the franchise’s first ever queer sex scene in Disney Plus’ Loki series.

According to the brand new Disney Plus special, Marvel Studios’ Assembled: The Making of Loki, the crew of the acclaimed series pondered over whether to include a more intimate look at Tom Hiddleston’s beloved Asgardian trickster.

In the special, Loki’s lead writer Michael Waldron can be seen with a whiteboard filled with notes about potential scenes for the show. Although the whiteboard is messy as hell, Loki stans managed to pick up on two specific notes that would’ve delved deeper into the character’s queerness.

“Doing crazy mischief, a.k.a. sex,” reads one note, while another states: “More sex, bi, alien, etc.”

In the third episode of Loki, the title character opens up about his past relationships with Loki variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) and admits he’s been romantically involved with both ‘princesses and princes’ – reflecting the character’s fluid sexuality from the comics.

With this revelation, Loki made history as the first openly bisexual hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although it was a tiny moment, it was a breath of fresh air for a franchise that has notoriously only centred heterosexual characters and storylines within its roster of films and shows.

It also confirmed that Marvel executives are making good on their previous commitment to diversify their heroes.

Of course, it would have been even better to see Loki engage in some ‘mischievous’ queer sex, but it’s Marvel we’re talking about here so… baby steps.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Herron said the moment was “very important to everyone” and it was “beautiful” for her to be involved with due to her own bisexuality.

“I didn’t want it to feel like we were just wedging something in, but we had this beautiful scene where these two characters are being really raw and really honest about who they are, and I was like, “Well, it is a part of who he is and who they are.” For me, talking with Michael [Waldron] and Bisha [K. Ali], it just felt like it was the right moment for that line,” she explained.

“This episode is really beautiful for me, because it’s these two characters getting to know each other, so in that sense, it felt like the right place for that conversation to happen. And I thought it was done really beautifully by the writers.

“Obviously, like I’ve said, it’s very personal to me, and I said it was a small step in some ways — because obviously, he’s just talking about it — but in the bigger scale of things, I’m like, oh no, it’s massive actually. If I saw that when I was 10, it would be really big for me. It’s been really nice getting comments from people online.”

Loki takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame and follows an alternative version of the character who escapes imprisonment from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and creates a new timeline.

It also stars Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius, an agent of the Time Variance Authority, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer, a judge at the TVA, and Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15, a high-ranking hunter at the TVA. Richard E. Grant, Sasha Lane, Erika Coleman and Eugene Cordero round out the cast.

The entire first season is now available to stream on Disney Plus.