We've known for a while now that Thor: Love and Thunder will follow Valkyrie's quest to find a Queen after being named King of New Asgard in Avengers: Endgame, and speculation continues to run rampant about who she'll find love with. Captain Marvel remains a fan-favourite suggestion, though this particular plot does appear to be one Marvel Studios is keeping under wraps.
Regardless of who it is, the main hope is that Marvel Studios will commit to exploring a same-sex relationship, especially after Eternals went some way towards normalising that in the MCU.
Talking to The Wrap, Tessa Thompson spoke about playing the MCU's first openly LGBTQ+ character.
"It’s totally exciting. We talk so much about representation and obviously, in terms of the LGBTQIA community, there’s still so much work to be done," she explained. "But if you look at the comics in the canon, there are so many queer characters! It’s hard because Taika [Waititi] and I would’ve even liked to go further, but in the context of the movies, there’s only so much we can do."
"Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of time invested in love stories in Marvel movies in general. I think that will be a little different on the new 'Thor,' which is exciting. And getting to play a character that historically is not written for somebody that looks like me, all of that felt exciting."
It's interesting that Thompson and Waititi wanted to take this even further, and it's hard not to wonder what that would have entailed. It could be as simple as more queer characters appearing in the movie or just a greater exploration of what being openly gay means for a warrior character like Valkyrie.
On the plus side, Thor: Love and Thunder definitely sounds like a movie that will put relationships front and centre, which is a good indication that Valkyrie's romance subplot won't fall by the wayside. Start placing your bets now on who she'll find love with!
Thor: Love and Thunder is set to blast into theaters on July 8.