What?? ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Literally Cut Valkyrie’s Queerness From The Film

We were this close to getting some queer shit in the new Thor movie!!

Last week, Tessa Thompson tweeted that although the character she plays in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok is not explicitly queer, like she is in the comics, the actress played Valkyrie as a bisexual womanAsgardianpowerful being with a sword. Well, it turns out that we almost got a much more legibly bi addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In a new profile by Rolling Stone, the actress reveals that she did, in fact, film a scene that made queerness an indisputable part of who her character is. The scene, Thompson’s idea in the first place, showed an unnamed woman walking out of Valkyrie’s bedroom. Director Taika Waititi reportedly kept the scene in the film “as long as he could,” but it eventually got cut because “it distracted from the scene’s vital exposition.”

And yet Bladerunner 2049 gets to be 17 hours long!

In a new profile by Rolling Stone, the actress reveals that she did, in fact, film a scene that made queerness an indisputable part of who her character is. The scene, Thompson’s idea in the first place, showed an unnamed woman walking out of Valkyrie’s bedroom. Director Taika Waititi reportedly kept the scene in the film “as long as he could,” but it eventually got cut because “it distracted from the scene’s vital exposition.”

And yet Bladerunner 2049 gets to be 17 hours long!

@TessaMaeThompson is Valkyrie. Get your tickets to #ThorRagnarok now! [link in bio]

A post shared by Marvel Entertainment (@marvel) on Oct 21, 2017 at 1:10pm PDT

Despite the unfortunate edit, Thompson told Rolling Stone that she did work to bring moments of implied queerness to her character’s portrayal.

“There were things that we talked about that we allowed to exist in the characterization, but maybe not be explicit in the film,” Thompson told the mag. Pay attention to her agony in a flashback where Blanchett’s Goddess of Death murders the rest of Valkyrie’s warrior clan. “There’s a great shot of me falling back from one of my sisters who’s just been slain [by Cate Blanchett’s character, Hela] In my mind, that was my lover.”

It’s cool that Thompson put in the effort to portray Valkyrie in a way that feels authentic to the source material, it would’ve been cool to see that scene she fought for included in the final cut of the film. Always the implied maid, never the explicit bride, as they say. Maybe next time?

Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters on Friday, Nov. 3.