Searchlight Pictures

Opportunities Ahead

The slate for Phase Four and beyond of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) includes several films which will include LGBTQ superheroes. Eternals, set to be released November 5, 2021, will introduce gay hero Phastos as well as his husband and child. In March of 2022, Marvel will release Doctor Stranger and the Multiverse of Madness which will introduce America Chavez to the big screen. America in the comic books is a proud Latina lesbian and keeping that identity in the MCU is essential. Thor: Love and Thunder will be released in May 2022, and will continue to feature Valkyrie among the ensemble. While the last Thor film, Ragnarok, cut a scene that confirmed Valkyrie’s bisexuality, actress Tessa Thompson has confirmed that the character’s queer identity will be part of the story in this sequel and she will be searching for her queen as she takes over as the King of New Asgard. Black Panther 2 is set to be released in July 2022 and has a chance to introduce Ayo’s queerness as part of her story as a member of the Dora Milaje warriors. Ayo was recently featured in the Disney+ series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and it would make sense for her to have a larger role in the Black Panther sequel. Other inclusive upcoming Disney releases include Jungle Cruise, set for a July 30, 2021 theatrical release as well as on Disney+ the same day for an additional fee. The movie’s core trio includes the gay character McGregor, the younger brother of Dr. Lily Houghton who joins her on an adventure into the Amazon in this action-adventure film based on the Disney ride. Disney has been in talks to release a third Deadpool film, this time set in the MCU, and this would be an opportunity to have Negasonic Teenage Warhead and her girlfriend Yukio return in a larger role. This would also represent a chance to finally portray Deadpool as pansexual, which actor Ryan Reynolds has spoken on his interest in. In February 2021, Disney shuttered the Blue Sky Studios Animation banner which it acquired when the company purchased Fox. With that label closed, the animated graphic novel adaptation of Nimona, which included a core queer romance, will no longer be moving forward under Disney. There is the possibility of the project moving to another studio at a future point in time. That same month, the movie-musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie was pulled from the slate by Disney shortly ahead of its planned February 26 theatrical release. In May 2021, Disney sold the distribution rights to the musical to Amazon Studios, it will be released September 17 on Prime Video with no word yet on if Amazon will release the film theatrically.

Searchlight Pictures

Summary of 2020 Findings

3films released theatrically in 2020 under studio & official imprints

0total number of LGBTQ-inclusive films

0%

percent of LGBTQ-inclusive films of studio total releases

Searchlight Pictures, created in 1994, was a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox and known as Fox Searchlight until the Disney merger in 2019. The distributor is now known as Searchlight Pictures and still specializes in the release and distribution of independent and foreign films in the United States. Searchlight Pictures has been responsible for the release of several high-profile LGBTQ-inclusive films, including Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Kinsey (2004), Battle of the Sexes, The Shape of Water (2017), and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018).