Marvel Deleted a Thor: Ragnarok Scene Confirming Valkyrie’s Bisexuality, Says Tessa Thompson

Tessa Thompson has been very vocal about how much she loves her character, Valkyrie, in the forthcoming Thor: Ragnarok. And with good reason—anyone who doesn’t enjoy playing an Asgardian warrior goddess doesn’t deserve to play an Asgardian warrior goddess.

Thompson has also been vocal about how important it is to her that her portrayal of Valkyrie stay true to the character’s bisexuality in the comics. Unfortunately, Marvel Studios and director Taika Waititi seemingly weren’t as committed.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Thompson talks about how she played her character with an extensive interior monologue, and always with the mindset that she was canonically bisexual. She went so far as to convince Waititi to film a scene with a woman emerging from Thompson’s bedroom.

Waititi told her that he fought as long as he could to keep the scene in the film—but that it ended up on the cutting room floor. It distracted from “vital exposition,” per RS.

So what could have been an achievement for mainstream LGBTQ representation was rejected in favor of … exposition. Okay.

This should come as no surprise with anyone familiar with the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe. They haven’t exactly been a paragon of representation. Ragnarok will be the MCU’s 17th film. Black Panther will be the 18th, and it will be the first to have a main character who isn’t a white man. And not until 2019’s Captain Marvel will Marvel finally grace us with a female-fronted solo film. It’s no wonder that Thompson, Brie Larson, Scarlett Johansson and more have been petitioning for their own all-female movie … which also doesn’t seem to be a priority.