Fans Want Elsa To Get A Girlfriend In 'Frozen 2'; Marvel Directors Discuss "Strong Chance" Of An LGBT Character

Disney's heavy-hitting franchises are slowly getting more diverse. The Force Awakens has more female and non-white characters in speaking roles than the first three Star Wars movies combined. Captain America: Civil War introduces a new black superhero this weekend (and he's getting his own movie in 2018). This fall's Moana introduces Disney's first Polynesian princess. And so on. But even as these universes gradually open up to women and people of color, they've continued to leave LGBT people out in the cold. And fans and filmmakers alike would like to see that change.

Recently, GLAAD called upon the studio to include LGBT characters in the Star Wars universe. Now the Frozen faithful are campaigning on social media to "#GiveElsaAGirlfriend" in the sequel, while Civil War directors Anthony and Joe Russo field questions about when the Marvel Cinematic Universe will get its first major gay character. 

During a recent press day for Captain America: Civil War, Collider had the chance to ask the Russos if and when the MCU movies will get their first gay character. While the MCU shows have had a few gay characters, like Jessica Jones' Jeri Hogarth and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Joey Gutierrez, the movies have not. Here's how Joe Russo responded to the question:

I think the chances are strong. I mean, it's incumbent upon us as storytellers who are making mass-appeal movies to make mass-appeal movies, and to diversify as much as possible. It's sad in the way that Hollywood lags behind other industries so significantly, one because you think that it would be a progressive industry, and two it's such a visible industry. So I think it's important that on all fronts we keep pushing for diversification because then the storytelling becomes more interesting, more rich, and more truthful.

Indeed, Anthony Russo added, Marvel's massive success should make it easier for them to bring in LGBT characters:

I think this is a philosophy of Marvel, in success it becomes easier to take risks. There's a lot of unconventional ideas in Civil War in terms of what people's expectations of a superhero movie are, but I think we were able to do that because Winter Soldier worked and Marvel's been working in general, so there's more of a boldness in terms of what you can try and where you can go. So I think that's very hopeful for all of us moving forward that bolder and bolder choices can be made.

The directors' comments echo the ones Kevin Feige made when our own Peter Sciretta posed a similar question last year:

The answer is, there is no reason why that can't happen any time soon. You know, we pull the characters from the comics, for the most part, and they've been forging new ground for decades in the comics. They've been very progressive in the comics. And even more recently in a very important and progressive way. And we keep track of all of those things and are inspired by all of those things, so I'd love it to find an organic, meaningful and natural way for that to happen at some point in the not so distant future.

All of this talk is very encouraging, especially since they're coming from people who actually have the power to make these decisions. But it's easy to say all the right things; hopefully these filmmakers won't stop at idle chatter. If Marvel is really serious about bringing LGBT characters to the forefront in the near future, they'll have plenty of chances coming up — following Civil War, they've got about 12 more films coming up in the next five years.

To be sure, Disney's not the only studio with this glaring blind spot, and their movies aren't the only ones mysteriously devoid of LGBT characters. Of the seven studios analyzed by GLAAD, four got "Adequate" ratings and three (including Disney) got "Failing" grades. None were rated "Good" or "Excellent." Nor is Disney the only studio that decided not to feature any gay characters at all in 2015 — none of Paramount's 12 films did either.

Not that we really needed these numbers to tell us this story. Warner Bros.' DC Extended Universe and Sony's last two Spider-Man reboots haven't been much better than Disney's MCU about highlighting LGBT characters. 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise has lots of intentional gay subtext but no obviously gay characters; Deadpool might be pansexual offscreen but came across as totally heterosexual onscreen. Universal's Fast and Furious leads come from all over the ethnic rainbow but are, as far as we can tell, all stubbornly straight and cisgender. Ditto Paramount's Star Trek and Mission: Impossible series. And so on.

But as the studio behind some of the biggest franchises in Hollywood (Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Disney Animation, all those live-action fairy tales, etc.) Disney is naturally going to attract a lot of scrutiny. Which puts them in a position to lead the industry into a more inclusive era, if they choose to do so.

As the quotes above indicate, the people running their flagship franchises know how to talk a good pro-LGBT game. The fans are loudly clamoring for more LGBT heroes. And the larger Disney corporation has a pattern of supporting LGBT rights. Just recently, for example, the studio threatened to boycott the state of Georgia over an anti-gay bill. Now what's left is for this studio to take the next step, and actually start including LGBT characters in their stories.