Tom Holland is definitely in favor of making the Marvel Cinematic Universe a bit more diverse.
The Spider-Man star told The Times that he’d “of course” be on board with his character identifying as gay in a future film.
“I can’t talk about the future of the character because honestly I don’t know and it’s out of my hands,” said Tom, who has appeared as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in five films, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
“But I do know a lot about the future of Marvel, and they are going to be representing lots of different people in the next few years.”
“The world isn’t as simple as a straight white guy,” he continued. “It doesn’t end there, and these films need to represent more than one type of person.”
Buzz about an openly LGBTQ+ superhero has heated up after Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, assured fans that one would be “coming soon” in an interview last month.
“We haven’t been shy about saying that that’s coming,” he told Gizmodo, “and that there’s much more prominent LGBT heroes in the future.”
Kevin also opened up about the debut of a minor gay character in Avengers: Endgame.
The character, listed in the credits simply as Grieving Man and played by the film’s co-director, Joe Russo, makes a brief reference to being in a relationship with another man during a conversation with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).
Given the scarcity of openly LGBTQ+ characters in blockbuster films, the appearance of Grieving Man was heavily scrutinised and drew a mixed response from critics. Esquire’s Justin Kirkland deemed it “a half-baked attempt at diversity,” while Gizmodo’s Charles Pulliam-Moore said the scene felt like “an inconsequential afterthought.”
But Kevin said Grieving Man was “never meant to be our first focussed character” and was intended simply as “a matter of fact and a matter of life and a matter of truth.”
“It was never meant to be looked at as our first hero,” he added. “I guess it’s the first reference so it does, of course, get a lot of attention.”