We Spoke About *That* Amazing Thor: Love And Thunder Queer Rep Scene With Director Taika Waititi

thor: love and thunder queer representation

If you haven’t seen Thor: Love and Thunder yet, then you’re missing out on one of the most natural and beautiful examples of LGBTQ+ representation in cinema to date.

As a queer person, it was simply gorgeous to witness two main characters in a Disney/Marvel film openly discussing their relationships. There were no unnecessary punchlines, the scene took its time to explore these dynamics and it didn’t feel forced at all.

Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Taika Waititi) are two characters who are canonically queer. This aspect of their lives didn’t have to be included or even briefly mentioned in the films, but it was, and it was done so with real respect and precious attention.

Hell, the movie is called love and thunder, and who loves harder than queer folk? It’d be silly not to include what makes these characters who they are.

thor: love and thunder valkyrie
Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and The Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman).

We sat down with Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi to discuss his decision to include the scene where Valkyrie and Korg casually talk about their same-sex partners.

“Valkyrie has always been queer since Thor: Ragnorok and Korg, from the comic books, is a queer character so that was already part of his make-up,” Waititi told PEDESTRIAN.TV.

“It’s all about normalising this stuff. With a giant film like Thor, whenever we can do that it makes more of an impact than the small independent films I made ten years ago. I’m not normalising much with a tiny tiny film.

“With something like this where millions and millions of people are gonna see it, and kids are gonna see it and go: “Hey, it’s not weird! It’s normal!” It’s really awesome, I think it fast-tracks the conversation.”

According to Waititi, his aim for this scene is to show how “natural” and “normal” queer relationships are.

“You never hear someone go to the movies and go ‘I can’t believe it! Did you see that man and woman holding hands?’ No. So why should it be the other way around?”

“There are so many other things that are pissing me off in the world … I want people to not think this is an issue.”

Honestly, I applaud Waititi for advocating for representation in such a relaxed way. More scenes like this in massive blockbuster films, please and thank you.

You can catch Thor: Love and Thunder now at a cinema near you.

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