X

Loki episode 3: The MCU gets its first official bisexual character

The latest episode of the Disney Plus series sees Loki become the first canonically bisexual character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
Expertise Film and TV Credentials
  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Jennifer Bisset
3 min read
ltr2130-103-comp-v039-22aeb1df

Loki and Sylvie discuss their past romances.

Marvel

June is Pride Month and, befitting that celebration,  Marvel just revealed its first canonical bisexual character. In the purple cinematography of episode 3 of Loki, currently streaming on Disney Plus, the god of mischief gives us a rare window into his love life -- and confirms that he's bisexual. This makes Loki the first canonical bisexual character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

"How about you? You're a prince," says Sylvie, another version of Loki from a different timeline, as the pair discuss each other's love lives. "Must've been would-be princesses or perhaps, another prince."

"A bit of both," Loki replies. "I suspect the same as you."

As for Sylvie's love life, a few theories about The Postman she managed to maintain a long distance relationship with are now surfacing online.

Marvel had planned the moment

"From the moment I joined Loki it was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge Loki was bisexual," Kate Herron, director of all six episodes in the first season of Loki, wrote on Twitter.

"It is a part of who he is and who I am too. I know this is a small step but I'm happy, and heart is so full, to say that this is now Canon in MCU."

Loki is also gender fluid

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has spent his series on Disney Plus exploring and later running from the Time Variance Authority, a bureaucratic organization monitoring The Sacred Timeline. In episode 3, he teams up with Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), aka The Variant, to escape a moon called Lamentis-1 before another planet crushes it.

Episode 1 drops another detail about Loki: A brief shot of Loki's file in the TVA says that his gender is "fluid."

What about Valkyrie?

Loki isn't the first bisexual character in the MCU (he's the first to be made canon).

In 2019, Tessa Thompson revealed that her character Valkyrie had a female love interest in Thor: Ragnarok. A deleted flashback scene from the 2017 flick sees Valkyrie, who kisses a woman in the Marvel comics, grieve the death of a fellow warrior in battle with Hela. Valkyrie's dialogue implies she was a love interest.

To be even more explicit, director Taika Waititi had shot a scene where a woman walks out of Valkyrie's bedroom. But this was also deleted, because it detracted from the scene's "vital exposition."

The MCU's first openly gay superhero will appear in Eternals

Marvel's upcoming Eternals, slated for a November release, will feature Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, an inventor who has a child with his partner, an architect played by Haaz Sleiman.

Earlier this year, Sleiman said in an interview that his character is "married to the gay superhero Phastos, played by Atlanta's Brian Tyree Henry, and we represent a gay family and have a child."

Sleiman also said that the Chloé Zhao-directed flick will show Marvel's first on-screen gay kiss.

"It's a beautiful, very moving kiss," Sleiman said. "Everyone cried on set. For me it's very important to show how loving and beautiful a queer family can be."

Everyone's pretty stoked about it

Twitter has seen a flood of positive responses, including from Sylvie actor Sophia Di Martino.

Catch the remaining three episodes of Loki on Disney Plus, arriving on Wednesdays.

New Movies Coming in 2023 From Marvel, Netflix, DC and More

See all photos