LGBT+ Marvel Characters Discussion

[Drops Of Venus]

Kumail is looking good as hell. Hopefully this inspires Hollywood to cast him as more than just the quirky, ''ethnic'' sidekick.

I wonder if Brian Tyree Henry had to work out at all for the role? 'Cause I've seen pictures of all male cast members at this point regarding getting in shape for the role, except for him. God, I'll be so disappointed if the gay character is the only one who's not allowed to be a thirst trap.

[MasterOfMagnetism]

I wonder if Brian Tyree Henry had to work out at all for the role? 'Cause I've seen pictures of all male cast members at this point regarding getting in shape for the role, except for him. God, I'll be so disappointed if the gay character is the only one who's not allowed to be a thirst trap.

Yep. Honestly the entire character sounds like he's designed to be as palatable as possible to heterosexual audiences. A single, good-looking hunk who's interested in other men and always rushes in to save the day would be too threatening for straight guys, so instead we're getting a portly scientist who's in a monogamous relationship, raising children and allegedly becomes "disillusioned with humanity." Now granted I can TOTALLY see how an immortal gay man would become disillusioned with humanity over the years, but that doesn't make for a very heroic character.

[Drops Of Venus]

Yep. Honestly the entire character sounds like he's designed to be as palatable as possible to heterosexual audiences. A single, good-looking hunk who's interested in other men and always rushes in to save the day would be too threatening for straight guys, so instead we're getting a portly scientist who's in a monogamous relationship, raising children and allegedly becomes "disillusioned with humanity." Now granted I can TOTALLY see how an immortal gay man would become disillusioned with humanity over the years, but that doesn't make for a very heroic character.

I mean, don't get me wrong; I think IT'S possible for an overweight, married character to be portrayed as someone with sex appeal. But historically speaking, that's not how Hollywood treats those kind of characters, unfortunately. I mean, just looking at the MCU itself: their most notable overweight character is probably Ned, and yeah, he's definitely not the thirst trap kind of character. He was allowed to have a relationship in Far From Home, but it was completely silly and played for laughs, basically. And then we had Runaways, in which they had the opportunity to have their first plus-size HERO that has a relationship with a hot guy in the form of Gert Yorkes, but they went and cast a thinner actress instead. That doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence as to how Phastos will be treated, if he is the token overweight character... but I hope I'm wrong.

[MasterOfMagnetism]

At this point I'm just praying that Phastos gets to be in at least one cool action scene and his marriage/family isn't treated like some sappy after school special.

[Holt]

Brian Tyree Henry is damn fine, so I confess this discourse is funny to me. But of course it not being the thin blonde guy is gonna upset people, I guess. Hollywood usually likes a very specific type of gay man.

[scourge]

Yep. Honestly the entire character sounds like he's designed to be as palatable as possible to heterosexual audiences. A single, good-looking hunk who's interested in other men and always rushes in to save the day would be too threatening for straight guys, so instead we're getting a portly scientist who's in a monogamous relationship, raising children and allegedly becomes "disillusioned with humanity." Now granted I can TOTALLY see how an immortal gay man would become disillusioned with humanity over the years, but that doesn't make for a very heroic character.

On top of that, we're not getting the 'gay lead' they kept promising. We're getting a secondary character at best.
They're trying to make him as 'safe' for the fragile heterosexual types as possible.

[mace11]

Interesting that Marvel is now apparently ok having a "fat superhero" and he's going to be the gay one too, doesn't really help dispel the idea that Phastos is going to be a token diversity character.

How is he a token diversity if most of the main cast is diverse and half or most are poc anyway and the main main lead lead is asian.
So clearly he is not only the poc in the main cast and he is not token.
Folks need to stop using that word all the time because it use to much lately and incorrectly,unless you meant to say he is the token gay character(meaning the only one in the main lead role who is gay and there is little or no character development in a book or film etc..).

Note-IF he has a meaty enough role by the way he is not token.So it's best to wait to see how strong his development will be is the film.
Token means the only one and have little to do or not enough character development etc..

Also when Marvel was casting for the gay character they put out a casting call for actors who "physically look like a superhero" and they were looking for an Asian guy for the role before they cast Brian Tyree Henry, Brian must have gave them one hell of an audition.

Phastos is black in the comics anyway(and not gay) so i don't think were going to make him asian in the mcu.
There will be alot black men that are going to be upset l when they i some i saw on some youtube videos when dc cw made mr. terrific gay in the arrowverse even if they are not fans of those characters or don't them and knowing they are not gay in the comics.

[MasterOfMagnetism]

On top of that, we're not getting the 'gay lead' they kept promising. We're getting a secondary character at best.
They're trying to make him as 'safe' for the fragile heterosexual types as possible.

Exactly. This is a part of the reason why I think Ikaris was originally supposed to be the gay character and Marvel got cold feet and passed the gay role along to a minor character.

Phastos is black in the comics anyway(and not gay) so i don't think were going to make him asian in the mcu.

We know from a casting report that they were looking for a gay or bisexual Asian actor to play the role of the gay character and they were considering Conrad Ricamora. Instead they ended up hiring Brian Tyree Henry and because Phastos was the only black Eternal in the comics it made sense to make his character Phastos.

The original casting call for The Eternals didn't even include characters like Kingo and Phastos and they were originally looking for men to play Ajak and Makkari but ended up giving those characters to women. They were clearly auditioning actors to be in the movie and after hiring the ones they liked gave them whichever character from the comics fit the role best.

[NexusTenebrare]

Brian Tyree Henry is damn fine, so I confess this discourse is funny to me. But of course it not being the thin blonde guy is gonna upset people, I guess. Hollywood usually likes a very specific type of gay man.

It's beyond ridiculous not to notice the fact that every single heroic character in the MCU movies is ridiculously muscular (even that Kumail guy) and then the first actual gay character they include is the only one who deviates from that norm.
I could care less that he isn't blond or white or whatever. I would've loved if they had someone like Michael B. Jordan in the role.
But there is an obvious discrepancy going on between the Phastos character and the rest of the MCU males, who are all fit hunks by design.

[CRaymond]

Str8 guys are afraid of being attracted to the gay ones.

[mace11]

We know from a casting report that they were looking for a gay or bisexual Asian actor to play the role of the gay character and they were considering Conrad Ricamora. Instead they ended up hiring Brian Tyree Henry and because Phastos was the only black Eternal in the comics it made sense to make his character Phastos.

Phastos is not the only black Eternal of the main group.
Legba and Titanis are black too.


Titanis (Earth-616)
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Titanis_(Earth-616)

Legba (Eternal) (Earth-616)
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Legba...al)_(Earth-616)


Of course there are background eternals of varied races including blacks.

[mace11]

Exactly. This is a part of the reason why I think Ikaris was originally supposed to be the gay character and Marvel got cold feet and passed the gay role along to a minor character.

Here is list of the 616 main eternals appearances by the way.


Ajak
47 Appearances of Ajak (Earth-616)
1 Minor Appearances of Ajak (Earth-616)


Sprite
32 Appearances of Sprite (Eternal) (Earth-616)

Azura
104 Appearances of Azura (Earth-616)
2 Minor Appearances of Azura (Earth-616)

Uranos
8 Appearances of Uranos (Earth-616)

Valkin
19 Appearances of Valkin (Earth-616)

Eros
228 Appearances of Eros (Earth-616)
20 Minor Appearances of Eros (Earth-616)

Sersi
248 Appearances of Sersi (Earth-616)
5 Minor Appearances of Sersi (Earth-616)


Ikaris
115 Appearances of Ikaris (Eternal) (Earth-616)
5 Minor Appearances of Ikaris (Eternal) (Earth-616)


Kingo Sunen
20 Appearances of Kingo Sunen (Earth-616)

Sui-San
12 Appearances of Sui-San (Earth-616)
8 Minor Appearances of Sui-San (Earth-616)

Kronos
28 Appearances of Kronos (Eternal) (Earth-616)
6 Minor Appearances of Kronos (Eternal) (Earth-616)

Legba
11 Appearances of Legba (Eternal) (Earth-616)

Makkari
140 Appearances of Makkari (Earth-616)
4 Minor Appearances of Makkari (Earth-616)


Phastos
34 Appearances of Phastos (Earth-616)

Pixie
34 Appearances of Phastos (Earth-616)


Vampiro
6 Appearances of Vampiro (Eternal) (Earth-616)

Zuras
66 Appearances of Zuras (Earth-616)
3 Minor Appearances of Zuras (Earth-616)


A'Lars
Unknown


Eternals (Homo immortalis)
Representatives: Ajak, Ikaris, Kingo Sunen, Kronos (Chronos), Legba, Makkari, Mentor (A'Lars), Phastos, Pixie, Sersi, Sui-San, Sprite, Starfox (Eros), Thanos, Thena, Uranos, Valkin, El Vampiro, Zuras, among many others.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Categ...rnals_of_Earth

So Phastos is not a minor character compared to average Eternal.
He is the not at very top the main ones but he still major character.
Ajak 616 appearances are not that much higher then his and Ajak in the movie will be the leader.
Ikaris and Thena(Azura) each have less then 150 appearances in the 616 marvel universe and have been around since the 1970's.

The first photos or most of them had Phastos in all the scenes so i think he will be a major enough player in the movie.
I think his role will be bigger then you think.

[BroHomo]

I wonder if Brian Tyree Henry had to work out at all for the role? 'Cause I've seen pictures of all male cast members at this point regarding getting in shape for the role, except for him. God, I'll be so disappointed if the gay character is the only one who's not allowed to be a thirst trap.

Errr I think he's pretty cute helluva lot cuter than the that Renard Hawkeye dude

[Drops Of Venus]

Brian Tyree Henry is damn fine, so I confess this discourse is funny to me. But of course it not being the thin blonde guy is gonna upset people, I guess. Hollywood usually likes a very specific type of gay man.

Errr I think he's pretty cute helluva lot cuter than the that Renard Hawkeye dude

Again, my point is not that Brian can't be considered attractive, but if the movie will be willing to show him as such, based on how people outside of beauty standards are treated in those big blockbuster movies. And I would hate to think that the reason they chose him to be the gay character is because they knew he would be less ''sexualized'' in comparison to other characters. I would love to be wrong about this and see his character be treated with the same depth and sex appeal any other straight character has if he is indeed the gay character, but yeah, I can't pretend there aren't some double standards in the industry that concern me.

On top of that, we're not getting the 'gay lead' they kept promising. We're getting a secondary character at best.
They're trying to make him as 'safe' for the fragile heterosexual types as possible.

To be fair, Marvel never promised anything. Every piece of news we got from the Eternals casting came from secondary sources. Also, I think it's possible there was a misunderstanding as to what ''lead'' meant in this particular case. A lead role doesn't always translate to ''the main protagonist''. In an ensemble cast like Eternals, lead can usually refer to the core, top billing group of the story, so the leads of this particular film would be the 10 Eternals that were announced on SDCC and D-23. The gay character's husband, for instance, may not be a lead because it doesn't seem like he is among this group, and he's likely a smaller character compared to the gay character himself. In this context, Phastos may not be one of the main protagonists, but it's not inaccurate to say he is one of the leads.

[BroHomo]

Again, my point is not that Brian can't be considered attractive, but if the movie will be willing to show him as such, based on how people outside of beauty standards are treated in those big blockbuster movies. And I would hate to think that the reason they chose him to be the gay character is because they knew he would be less ''sexualized'' in comparison to other characters. I would love to be wrong about this and see his character be treated with the same depth and sex appeal any other straight character has if he is indeed the gay character, but yeah, I can't pretend there aren't some double standards in the industry that concern me.

There's other duplicitous reasons that Brian might not be get the same hype as the other actors. Not fitting the publics idea of hot gay isnt the most pressing one