Podcast: Why Disney can’t let its queer characters be themselves
In the latest episide of NOW What, our staffers wonder why Disney s Cruella, Marvel s Loki and Pixar s Luca all flirt with queer representation, but won t let their characters act out By Norman Wilner
Courtesy of Marvel Studios
Last week, the Disney+ series Loki canonically identified its hero as bisexual, making Tom Hiddleston’s Asgardian trickster god Marvel Studios’ first openly queer leading character. But his sexuality arrives with an asterisk, as it does for so many characters under the Disney umbrella.
Are the sea monsters voiced by Jacob Tremblay and Jack Dylan Grazer in Luca just good friends, or are they connecting on a deeper level? Is Artie, the Bowie-adjacent vintage-shop clerk who becomes Emma Stone’s confidant and wardrobe consultant in Cruella, a watershed for Disney’s representation of gay characters, or just another snippy sidekick? And what about the kiss between two women in t