‘Game of Thrones Star Kit Harington On Gay Actors In Marvel Films

Kit Harington Marvel Comics Hero Game of Thrones

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Movies, television shows, all various forms of entertainment absolutely have to be representative of how the world looks, functions, and works nowadays. Not can be, but pretty much must. But since they’re all the rage, let’s focus on the comic book films. It seems that when one threshold is reached, the goal post is moved. Take Marvel Studios, for example, as Game of Thrones star  Kit Harington had a few words.

Harington, who portrays Jon Snow on Game of Thrones, wanted to know why a homosexual actor had not been cast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a hero. Keep in mind that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has already indicated in the past that this is the case going forward. Coupled with what Black Panther did for the studio and the future apparently being female with Captain Marvel on the horizon, the MCU may indeed start to look more like a Hands Across America advertisement.

Doesn’t mean the question can’t be posed for Marvel’s lack of gay leads, as Kit Harington put it:

“There’s a big problem with masculinity and homosexuality that they can’t somehow go hand in hand. That we can’t have someone in a Marvel movie who’s gay in real life and plays some super hero. I mean, when is that going to happen.”

That’s absolutely nothing to say about the numerous actors in prior Marvel films- not Marvel Studio specifically- that are not heterosexual, such as Alan Cummings, Brianna Hildebrand, Ellen Page and Ian McKellen in the X-Men films, that Valkyrie, played by the bisexual Tessa Thompson, was, at one point, hinted at being bisexual in Thor: Ragnarok, Jeri Hogarth on Jessica Jones- although actress Carrie Ann Moss is heterosexual, there are many examples not just of gay characters, but gay actors in Marvel films.

But okay, this belongs in context. Harington isn’t just saying this to say it. He is, after all, promoting a film about a closeted celebrity. And with Marvel Studios films being the latest “IT” thing, it’s not impossible that this would be addressed, given the rallying cry for more diversity in comic book films. In fact, it seems like the comic book adaptations on television seem to be checking all of the boxes first.

When this happens in a Marvel film remains to be seen, but Harington’s comments are part of an ongoing conversation from many in the industry, as well as the viewers themselves, who are searching for more characters who represent them.

What do you make of Kit Harington’s comments? Is it time that there was a gay actor headlining a superhero role in a Marvel film? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Variety

Omari Daniels

Omari Daniels

Guy mostly into journalism and interested in geek culture. So...why not write about it? Get the best of both worlds that way.