Why Marcus & Luca’s relationship in 'The Bear' is a bittersweet win for the gays - INTO
seconds, please

Why Marcus & Luca’s relationship in ‘The Bear’ is a bittersweet win for the gays

Nathan Rubin

(left to right) Lionel Boyce and Will Poulter
(left to right) Lionel Boyce and Will Poulter. Photos: Shutterstock

Whenever a new series drops, queer audiences often can’t help but start shipping their favorite cast members together. Hulu’s Emmy-winning series The Bear is no different, and well into the release of season three, fans are still talking about the brief but alluring chemistry of two supporting characters.

Marcus (Lionel Boyce) is one of the original employees of The Original Beef, a family-run Chicago restaurant that undergoes an extreme makeover when the central character, Carmen (Jeremy Allen White), returns after his brother’s passing to salvage the business. 

Through grit and determination, Marcus develops into a skilled pastry chef with the personality of a teddy bear. He first meets Luca (Will Poulter), a traditionally trained pâtissier, in season two, when Carmen sends him to Copenhagen to study with a former colleague at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Audiences gravitated toward the pair’s natural chemistry — so much that people started to make fancams of the two and their intimate interactions. (If you weren’t convinced the queers were taking it seriously, there’s also fanfiction.)

Hulu released season three of The Bear on June 26, with plenty of viewers anticipating the potential new relationship.

And it wasn’t just the queer community getting excited. Couples of all sorts were rumored, particularly a match between chef de cuisine Sydney (Ayo Edibiri) and Carmen, but things quieted down after fan obsession started to blur the lines between fiction and reality, which led to some uncomfortable red-carpet interviews. 

The swirling hopes were so high that the actors had to publicly deny the possibility of an on-screen relationship ahead of the new season.

Queer fans were disappointed, though, when we didn’t receive as much “Marca” (as we’ve grown to call the pairing) content in the new season as hoped for. Expect some heartwarming flashbacks and a brief interaction in the final episode, but beyond this, the relationship doesn’t seem in the cards — yet.

Perhaps viewers sensed the men’s natural on-screen intimacy, a same-sex vulnerability rarely seen on television. These relationships are also rare in the real-life restaurant industry, which is often steeped in a patriarchal hierarchy and antiquated values despite a new wave of queer chefs and restaurateurs. 

But queer fans shouldn’t be totally disappointed. Would legendary gay culinary icon James Beard be gleaming from heaven if Marcus and Luca shared a smooch? Absolutely. But the fact that this ship was given breathing room in the first place signals a win for the queer community. The nuance of the relationship between Marcus and Luca shows that there is room for progressive growth in the restaurant industry and far beyond.

The queers may not have the pleasure of watching a steamy gay relationship unfold in one of our favorite shows, but the fact that it’s holding space for this kind of same-sex intimacy is a step in the right direction. 

Related
Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear,” and the Return of Sleepy Masculinity

Marcus and Luca’s dynamic is a victory for a generation dismantling traditional gender norms. We’re not used to seeing male relationships like this on TV, and perhaps that’s exactly why the queers are quick to project our hopes for a gay romance on the pair. But it’s a step in the right direction, ushering in a new kind of entertainment that offers much more than simple lines of sexuality drawn in the sand. The Bear welcomes the beginning of a wider spectrum of dynamics to explore, a broader interpretation of masculinity to interpret, and a much richer landscape of vulnerability to dig into — whether it be between men or not. 

Still, though, we’re crossing our gay little fingers for something explicitly queer in the already-greenlit season four. The Bear writers’ room — if you’re reading, we’ve had the amuse bouche, now give us something to feast on!

featured image: (left to right) Lionel Boyce and Will Poulter.
Photos: Shutterstock / Photo illustration: Matthew Wexler

Read More in TV
The Latest on INTO