In 2018, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige promised fans there would be LGBTQ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rumors began to swirl that the Russo brothers were looking to cast their first queer superhero in Avengers: Endgame. Then, the day before Avengers: Endgame came out, co-director Joe Russo revealed the film would feature the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first-ever openly gay character, played by himself. Media outlets ran away with the headline, and LGBT Marvel fans, naturally, got excited.
They were let down. After all of fanfare and build-up, the first-ever gay character in the MCU was not a superhero. He wasn’t even really a character at all. He was just a cameo for Russo, as a random man in Captain America’s “Thanos snap” support group. In a roughly 30-second scene, Russo dropped male pronouns when talking about his partner who disappeared. And that’s it. We never saw him again. That will forever be the first-ever openly gay character in the MCU.
Compare that to the—spoiler alert—passionate kiss between two men in The Old Guard, the new Charlize Theron action movie on Netflix which is based on a comic of the same name. In retrospect, I had no reason to be as shocked as I was when Joe (Marwan Kenzari) declared his love for Nicky (Luca Marinelli) in an impassioned speech, followed by an equally impassioned kiss, about halfway into the film. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood and writer Greg Rucka (who also wrote the comic) made it exceedingly clear in the first half of the film that Nicky and Joe, two immortal beings who met in The Crusades, are a couple.
“The love of my life was in the people I was taught to hate,” says Nicky with a smile, when he explains to the newest member of their group how they met. Before that, we see them spooning as they sleep. In another scene, Joe gives Nicky a flirtatious wink. You’d have to be watching this movie with your eyes closes and your fingers in your ears to think their relationship was platonic.
Yet years of throwaway virtue signaling when it comes to LGBT representation in mainstream action films had trained me to think Nicky and Joe’s obvious romance would remain in the shadows. I assumed the shared looks and lingering touches would stay in the background, leaving it to the fanfiction writers and fan artists to put their love center stage. I hadn’t read The Old Guard comic, and I didn’t know that writer Greg Rucka had stipulated in his contract that, whenever or however the film got made, it had to include that scene. So when it happened, well, it felt—and still does feel—like a huge freakin’ deal.
Nicky and Joe have just been kidnapped by armored guards, and Joe, concerned for Nicky’s well-being, asks if he’s OK. “That’s sweet,” one of the guards sneers. “What is he, your boyfriend?”
“You’re a child,” Joe responds. “He’s not my boyfriend. This man is more to me than you can dream. He’s the moon when I’m lost in darkness, and warmth when I shiver in cold. And his kiss still thrills me even after a millennium. His heart overflows with a kindness of which this world is not worthy. I love this man beyond measure and reason. He’s not my boyfriend. He is all, and he is more.”
“You’re an incurable romantic,” Nicky says as they gaze into each other’s eyes. Then they kiss.
It’s just as passionate, just as charged, and just as sensual as Han and Leia, Peter and MJ, Peter and Katniss, or any other heterosexual couple who’s had a big kiss moment in an action movie over the years. And honestly, I can’t recall an action movie with a scene like it. It: Chapter Two made clear that Bill Hader’s character was gay, but certainly didn’t include a kiss. J.K. Rowling declared Albus Dumbledore was gay after she wrapped her seven-book series, but the Fantastic Beasts prequel films, which show the wizard as a young man, opted not to make him “explicitly” gay. Sulu has a husband in the Star Trek films, but their kiss was cut from the final version of Star Trek: Beyond. These small and often empty gestures toward representation are piling up, and it’s starting to feel more frustrating than no representation at all.
The Old Guard, of course, may not come close to the same level of worldwide reach that Avengers: Endgame or the other above films. But don’t underestimate the star power of a Charlize Theron in an action movie. This is a big deal. Hopefully, Marvel will take notes.
Watch The Old Guard on Netflix
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July 13, 2020 at 07:30PM
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'The Old Guard' Kiss Is The LGBT Representation Action Movies Need - Decider
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