According to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, the appearance of Eternals’ Phastos as the first openly gay hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is “just the start” of a new wave of LGBT representation headed to the publisher’s silver screen adaptations.
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Speaking with Variety on the red carpet during October 18th premiere of Eternals, Feige touched upon the subject of Phastos and his sexuality, telling the trade news outlet that “There have been gay heroes before in the comics. It is more than past time in the movies.”
“It’s just the start,” he added.
"There have been gay heroes before in the comics. It is more than past time in the movies," Kevin Feige says of the Marvel film's first gay superhero. "It's just the start." https://t.co/F6rov2HB1g pic.twitter.com/XZXMs5G4zo
— Variety (@Variety) October 19, 2021
Separately, screenwriter Kaz Firpo, who co-wrote Eternals with his cousin Ryan and was also present at the film’s red carpet, was asked by the trade outlet to speak on the pair’s “groundbreaking decision” to debut the MCU’s first gay hero, to which he replied, “No, it’s not groundbreaking.”
“It’s real life… I grew up with two moms, and it was part of my life just in a very normal way,” he explained. “[Ryan and I are] from the Bay area; it’s something we wanted to see reflected in this film. I think the way we’ve done it, and the way [Director Chloé Zhao] has brought it to life, it’s beautiful. It’s very nuanced. It’s not hanging a lantern, we’re not screaming it from the hilltops. It’s just showing that this is real life and these are real people.”
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Previously, Haaz Sleiman, the actor who portrays Phastos’ human husband, said that to him, it was “very important to show how loving and beautiful a queer family can be.”
“Brian Tyree Henry is such a tremendous actor and brought so much beauty into this part, and at one point I saw a child in his eyes, and I think it’s important for the world to be reminded that we in the queer community were all children at one point,” he continued. “We forget that because we’re always depicted as sexual or rebellious. We forget to connect on that human part.”
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