'Game Of Thrones' Star Kit Harington Raises a Big Problem With Marvel Movies

When it comes to Hollywood, representation is becoming a much bigger piece of the creative agenda. [...]

By Megan Peters

When it comes to Hollywood, representation is becoming a much bigger piece of the creative agenda. Still, the progress made in some film genres has been slow-going at best, and Kit Harington admits he's unhappy with how little queer representation there is in superhero flicks.

Recently, the Game of Thrones star addressed his concern with Variety at the Toronto Film Festival.

"There's a big problem with masculinity and homosexuality that they can't somehow go hand in hand," Harington pointed out.

"That we can't have someone in a Marvel movie who's gay in real life and plays some super hero. I mean, when is that going to happen?" he added.

Joined by co-stars Thandie Newton and Emily Hampshire, the cast of The Death and Life of John F. Donovan rallied behind the social changes they're seeing in the world. Director Xavier Dolan even went on to praise social media for becoming an empowerment tool for queer youth looking for camaraderie but still says work needs to be done. And, as Harington pointed out, plenty of progress still needs to be made within Hollywood.

Of course, progress is being made within Hollywood in terms of queer representation, and superhero films are moving in the right direction. Earlier this year, Deadpool 2 shared Negasonic Teenage Warhead's sexuality with the world when the X-Men favorite introduced her girlfriend. However, the MCU and DCEU have fared worse with their representation, and the franchises were chastised by GLAAD earlier this summer as such.

"There have been several films in recent years that have erased a character's queer identity as they moved from page to screen. In 2017, Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok and DC's Wonder Woman both included characters who are queer in the source material, but did not include any on screen confirmation of their identities. This must change going forward," a report by the organization stressed back in May.

"Though wide release films this year like Love, Simon, Annihilation, Blockers, and Negasonic and Yukio's relationship in Deadpool 2, have raised the bar for LGBTQ images, studios must still do more to ensure that LGBTQ storylines and characters are included in fair and accurate ways. We hope that these films are the start of an upward trend of sustained progress, and not just a blip in the radar of next year's SRI," the report added.

So, do you stand with Harington on this subject? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

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