Before Loki even premiered on Disney+, a promo clip revealed Tom Hiddleston’s character is gender fluid. Now, in the latest episode of the limited series, the Asgardian’s sexual orientation has also been addressed: Loki is officially the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first openly bisexual character.
Loki’s gender fluidity, something that’s canon in both Norse mythology and Marvel Comics history, was casually confirmed in a shot of a Time Variance Authority dossier on the time-displaced villain. His bisexuality, however, was a bit more explicitly stated.
In Episode 3 of the show, which debuted today, Loki has a discussion with the antagonistic female variant of himself (Sophia Di Martino). When Loki mentions that he’s technically an Asgardian prince, his trickster counterpart asks if he’d ever been wooed by a “would-be-princess or perhaps, another prince.” “A bit of both,” Hiddleston’s Loki replies. “I suspect the same as you.”
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Early in the morning of the episode’s debut, director Kate Herron took to Twitter to confirm this indeed meant Loki is bisexual. “From the moment I joined @LokiOfficial it was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge Loki was bisexual,” wrote Herron, sharing stills from the “coming out” scene. “It is a part of who he is and who I am too. I know this is a small step but I’m happy, and heart is so full, to say that this is now Canon in #mcu.”
While it’s still a relatively small mention and not a focused LGBTQ+ storyline, making one of the MCU’s longest-lasting and most beloved characters bi can be seen as a huge step in representation for the franchise. To this point, the only other openly queer character in the MCU was a man (played by director Joe Russo) sitting in Captain America’s group counseling session during Avengers: Endgame.
A scene intended to confirm Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie is a lesbian was infamously excised from Thor: Ragnarok for expositional flow reasons. The actress and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige have both since confirmed that Valkyrie will “find her queen” in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder. Then there’s Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos from Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, a character long ago confirmed to be the MCU’s first openly gay hero on the big screen. That movie hits theaters on November 5th.
From the moment I joined @LokiOfficial it was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge Loki was bisexual. It is a part of who he is and who I am too. I know this is a small step but I’m happy, and heart is so full, to say that this is now Canon in #mcu #Loki
pic.twitter.com/lz3KJbewx8
— Kate Herron (@iamkateherron) June 23, 2021
