Loki is bisexual, confirmed at last. (Twitter/@dilfhiddleston)
Loki bosses have said that there won’t be any further exploration of the trickster god’s bisexuality in what is no doubt a blow to LGBT+ fans.
The Disney Plus series confirmed Loki is attracted to more than one gender in episode three, which aired last week. It saw Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief and his gender-fluid alter-ego Sylvie arrive on a far-flung moon literally soaked in bisexual lighting.
As they strike up a conversation about love, Sylvie asks if there were any “would-be princesses” or princes in his past. Loki pauses for a moment before replying: “A bit of both, I suspect the same as you.”
From the moment I joined @LokiOfficial it was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge Loki was bisexual. 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 💗💜💙 pic.twitter.com/lz3KJbewx8
— Kate Herron (@iamkateherron) June 23, 2021
It was a massive moment in LGBT+ representation, considering Disney’s spotty track record with it in the past. And for a character – a lead one, no less – as beloved as Loki to be canonically and boastfully bi is groundbreaking, making good on the Loki of the comics.
But it seems that brief conversation might be it for now. Showrunner Kate Herron, who herself is bi, told Entertainment Tonight about the future of Loki.
She explained how she knew how powerful the scene would be for so many LGBT+ viewers, so she wanted the reveal to be in no way shoehorned in.
“I didn’t want it to feel like we were just wedging something in,” she said.
“But we had this beautiful scene where these two characters are being really raw and really honest about who they are, and I was like: ‘Well, it is a part of who he is and who they are’.”
She added: “This episode is really beautiful for me because it’s these two characters getting to know each other, so in that sense, it felt like the right place for that conversation to happen.
“And I thought it was done really beautifully by the writers.”
Will there be any more bi Loki time, though? Probably not, Herron said.
“I’m trying to think how to answer your question,” she said. “I would say in our story, this is how we acknowledge it. But I hope that that paves the way for deeper exploration.”
The turbulent, decades-long trajectory of queer representation on the small screen has gone from flat one-episode secondary players to fully-fleshed characters central to storylines.
Indeed, the amount of queer characters on our screens has consistently hit new heights each year, according to annual reports by GLAAD.
And Herron said she knows just how monumental it is for a Marvel character to come out as LGBT+ – she even said it was long her “goal” to acknowledge Loki’s bisexuality.
“Obviously, like I’ve said, it’s very personal to me,” she told ET, “and I said it was a small step in some ways — because obviously, he’s just talking about it.
“But in the bigger scale of things, I’m like, oh no, it’s massive actually.
“If I saw that when I was 10, it would be really big for me.