Tessa Thompson Reacts to Her Valkyrie Being in the Comics

Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie is making her way to the pages of Marvel comics, and the actress is ecstatic about it.

Along with director Taika Waititi, Thompson created a completely different take on the original Valkyrie character in last year's Thor: Ragnarok, and fans responded with overwhelming positivity. Many preferred Thompon's unique and badass Valkyrie to the blander, blonder version found in the comics.

Thankfully, the writers and editors at Marvel listened. It was recently announced that Black Bolt writer Saladin Ahmed would be writing a new Exiles series, and Thompson's Valkyrie was set to be the final of the team's five members.

This week, Thompson took to Twitter to show fans just how ecstatic she was that her take on the character was making the jump back to the comics. In the first of a string of tweets, Thompson posted a celebratory gif of herself, dancing in the Valkyrie costume.

when you find out she’s in the comics— pic.twitter.com/LUy00JWRpD

— Tessa Thompson (@TessaThompson_x) January 12, 2018

Thompson also used the tweets as a way to thank Ahmed, not only for pushing to include her character in the comics, but because the move helped push for representation of people of color and the LGBT community. See, the original Valkyrie was a blonde, white woman, and Thompson, a person of color, brought diversity to the role. Additionally, Ahmed made sure to note that the character would be queer in his comics, just as she was portrayed by Thompson in Ragnarok.

"What an honor. And thank you!" Thompson wrote in one tweet. "Representation matters."

The addition of this Valkryie comes at a time when many have been calling for Marvel to include more diverse characters in its properties. Ahmed's Exiles team goes a long way toward helping on that front, as it's led by a female (Blink) and includes two women of color, Valkyrie and Khan.

Thompson took one tweet to mention that she "loved what Saladin Ahmed wrote about Valkyrie" in his initial statement regarding her addition to the team.

"Valkyrie's a character who's always appealed to me. Her iconic warrior-woman look -- spear! sword! flying horse! -- but also the juxtaposition of a kickass ancient fantasy hero operating in contemporary New York City. She's a classic Marvel heroine," said Ahmed. "But the EXILES version of Valkyrie is a bit different from what we've seen in comics thus far. Our Valkyrie is known as the Lone Defender of Asgard, and she's a tankard-draining, maiden-wooing, giant-slaying thunderbolt of a woman. Though she's not technically from the Marvel Cinematic Universe reality, she's basically the literalization of the larger-than-her-physical-frame swagger that Tessa Thompson displayed in THOR: RAGNAROK, turned up to 11."

The new Exiles series will hit shelves on April 11, 2018.