Falcon and The Winter Soldier may be within the rear-view mirror for Marvel and Disney as the corporate turns its eyes to Loki, however the discourse across the present returned to the forefront of fandom final evening within the wake of a brand new interview with Captain America himself, Anthony Mackie. But the furor round Mackie’s solutions to a pointed query goals its frustration within the unsuitable route.

As a part of Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast series, Mackie mentioned the timeliness of his ascension to the Captain America mantle in Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s finale, however was additionally requested concerning the sequence’ portrayal of the connection between Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, and why the present had not offered the duo’s relationship as extra than simply pleasant.

“So many things are twisted and convoluted. There’s so many things that people latch on to with their own devices to make themselves relevant and rational,” Mackie mentioned when requested about enjoying their relationship as male mates, slightly than as probably romantic. “The idea of two guys being friends and loving each other in 2021 is a problem because of the exploitation of homosexuality. It used to be guys can be friends, we can hang out, and it was cool. You would always meet your friends at the bar, you know. You can’t do that anymore, because something as pure and beautiful as homosexuality has been exploited by people who are trying to rationalize themselves.”

“So something that’s always been very important to me is showing a sensitive masculine figure. There’s nothing more masculine than being a superhero and flying around and beating people up,” Mackie continued. “But there’s nothing more sensitive than having emotional conversations and a kindred spirit friendship with someone that you care about and love.”

The feedback have been additional ignited on social media when the commerce broke down Mackie’s response right into a sequence of threaded tweets. In doing so, lots of Mackie’s factors about each his aversion to discussing fandom matters like transport in addition to his commentary concerning the exploitation of queerness on a company stage, have been offered in isolation, resulting in commentators selecting alternative excerpts from Mackie’s response to dunk on.

Audiences searching for extra queer illustration from Marvel’s cinematic and televisual output have greater than a proper to be irritated at Mackie’s response, given the studio’s lackluster strategy to together with outstanding LGBTQIA characters in over a decade of output up to now. And, even learn at its most diplomatic, Mackie’s response is probably clumsy at finest, and dismissive of real concern and disappointment from audiences at worst. But on the identical time, it’s clear that the actor is uncomfortable responding to questions on fandom interpretations of his character— “I try to stay away from fan stuff,” Mackie says within the run as much as the query concerning the present’s lack of queerness within the podcast, “the fandom is a very dangerous place, so I just let it be what it is and move on.”

Whether or not his reply ought to be clumsy is a distinct query. The push for bigger conversations round numerous illustration in tentpole franchises just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars and different myriad Hollywood blockbusters has been an ongoing course of for years at this level. It’s a degree the place, maybe, actors—or extra particularly their PR brokers—ought to be conscious that critics and journalists are going to need them to deal with questions on illustration, queer or in any other case, so they need to be ready formulate a response to these inquiries. Even if that reply is so simple as “it’s not something I get a say on, but there should be more and better representation in our media to reflect the society we live in”, it’d higher than the form of scorching water Mackie discovered himself touchdown in as a trending subject on Twitter final evening.

Speaking of Star Wars, working example: John Boyega and Oscar Isaac’s historical past of discussing the potential for his or her sequel trilogy characters Finn and Poe Dameron to be in a relationship collectively. Both have been supportive of the push, however non-committal concerning the actuality of their characters being queer till somebody who did have management about that form of inventive determination may come alongside and reply (of their case Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams, who shut down the likelihood within the run-up to the movie’s launch, to a lot disappointment).

Yet regardless of Mackie’s unpreparedness to subject the critique—a sound critique of each Falcon and Marvel’s wider output—the ensuing fandom ire at him looks like misdirected anger, particularly contemplating the best way Variety framed Mackie’s reply on social channels, a call that ended up in most frustration on the actor himself. The actual query will not be whether or not we should always maintain these large exhibits and films to activity for his or her occasional platitudes about numerous illustration, queer or in any other case, however to purpose these questions on the individuals who truly management the output of those studios: writers, administrators, and producers. In explicit at an establishment like Marvel Studios, the place increased echelons of administration have a really public face within the type of Kevin Feige, the function of producers as forward-facing architects of those movies and exhibits is an concept the general public is already acquainted with.

After all, they’re not simply the individuals who get to make inventive selections like whether or not or to not painting a beforehand ambiguously straight character as queer, or body a second between two characters with homoromantic undertones. In Falcon’s case particularly, they’re the individuals who have a historical past of teasing the present’s probabilities of queer illustration within the first place, and due to this fact are the individuals who ought to be held to activity when that teasing seems to be nothing extra than simply that. Malcolm Spellman, one of many present’s lead author’s and now a co-writer on the Mackie-starring Captain America 4, instructed press and followers alike that they need to “just keep watching…” when requested about theories that Bucky Barnes could possibly be portrayed in Falcon and the Winter Soldier as bisexual in an interview with NME—just for that viewership to be rewarded with nothing in any respect. The aforementioned Kevin Feige, who additionally has producer credit on Falcon as he does most on Marvel Studios output, has a historical past of providing lackluster solutions to “wait and see” incidents of Marvel’s lack of numerous characters—like within the run as much as Avengers: Endgame when he mentioned that followers had a proper to see themselves in Marvel’s films, solely to again observe and say that he didn’t suppose it might be such an enormous deal that followers can be outraged that Endgame gave the MCU its first explicitly queer character within the type of a minor cameo by director Joe Russo.

It’s clear that, despite what looks like years of guarantees that change is approaching this entrance (the primary on-screen queer relationship and kiss in a Marvel film is about to come back in Chloé Zhao’s The Eternals later this 12 months, and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie can be portrayed as a bisexual girl in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder subsequent 12 months), a scarcity of queer illustration continues to be an ongoing drawback in Marvel Studios’ movies and exhibits. Fans have each proper to be pissed off by that situation so long as it continues to persist, and reporters ought to maintain folks on the studio accountable to reply why their materials fumbles when it does.

But the individuals who do want to be held accountable on this situation, and others prefer it, will not be essentially folks like Mackie—actors who can at most lend help to these frustrations and hope for optimistic change. Instead these issues have to be addressed by individuals who truly can change them. We’re speaking concerning the architects of a system that has failed thus far in bringing queer characters to prominence, at studios like Disney, corresponding to Spellman and Feige. Perhaps particularly so at a studio like Disney, which has an extended historical past of struggling to current LGBTQIA+ characters on the forefront of its tales.

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