Breaking down the moments of LGBTQ romance in Thor: Love and Thunder
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder.
There is no same-sex kiss in Thor: Love and Thunder, but the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film directed by Taika Waititi does several moments for its LGBTQ characters to express themselves.
When Thor: Ragnarok hit theaters in 2017, Waititi and star Tessa Thompson made clear that her character Valkyrie is bisexual, but that characteristic wasn't super prevalent in the text of that film. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige said in 2019 that "the answer is yes" when asked if there would be an LGBTQ storyline in Thor: Love and Thunder, and the new film does make explicit that when all the other valkyries were killed by Hela, the Thompson character's girlfriend was among them. This helps explain why she was so disillusioned and alcoholic throughout Ragnarok, but Thor (Chris Hemsworth) naming her King of Asgard at the end of Avengers: Endgame has clearly given Valkyrie a renewed sense of purpose. She is flirty and thriving throughout Thor: Love and Thunder.
Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie in 'Thor: Love and Thunder.'
Valkyrie is clearly interested in the new Jane Foster incarnation of Thor (Natalie Portman), even telling Thor Odinson at one point that "we're both on the same team: Team Jane!" She doesn't get the girl in the end (all the characters in the film eventually have to accept that even the mighty hammer Mjolnir can't stave off a stage-four cancer diagnosis forever) but she still gets to have fun flirting with other women, like the handmaidens of Zeus (Russell Crowe). Valkyrie kissing the hand of one of these godly attendants on her way out the door of Omnipotence City is definitely the closest Thor: Love and Thunder comes to a same-sex kiss.
But Valkyrie isn't the only LGBTQ character in the film. Toward the end of Thor: Love and Thunder, Waititi's own character, Korg, reveals that on his home planet of rock people, rock babies are born when two rock men hold hands over molten lava, each giving part of their own substance to create new life. Believe it or not, this concept is actually drawn from Marvel comics — specifically the 2008 issue World War Hulk: Warbound #4 by writer Greg Pak and artist Leonard Kirk.
Waititi is just coming off the first season of HBO Max's pirate series Our Flag Means Death, in which his character Blackbeard goes through a very heartwarming (and heartbreaking) romance with Rhys Darby's gentleman pirate, so he clearly had no issues incorporating this element of Korg into his performance.
Marvel Studios Taika Waititi as Korg in 'Thor: Love and Thunder.'
In both the comic and the film, the rock people are technically described as genderless but are clearly coded as male. Comics Korg reveals this information as a confession of love towards his male comrade Hiroim, while Waititi's Korg ends up performing the mating ritual with a stone man named Dwayne (get it?), depicted with a mustache. Hopefully they live happily ever after with their new rock baby.
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