Culture

Loki confirmed as ‘officially gender-fluid’ in new Disney Plus series: ‘We love to see it!’

Marvel Loki

Tom Hiddleston as Loki (Disney Plus/Marvel)

Marvel has confirmed that the Asgardian trickster god Loki Laufeyson’s sex is “fluid” in its new Disney Plus series.

The show takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame when the Tesseract was stolen. An alternate version of the Marvel villaine is brought to the Time Variance Authority (TVA) – a bureaucratic organisation that monitors the multiverse – to help fix the timeline.

Marvel dropped new details about the upcoming series in a teaser trailer posted on the show’s official Twitter. The tweet read “POV: You’ve just arrived at the TVA” and showed a dossier for Loki. The file has the god’s sex listed as “FLUID” alongside other details including his weight, eye and hair colour.

LGBT+ Marvel fans are delighted by the news, with many sharing their joy that Loki has is “officially gender-fluid” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

https://twitter.com/oyprincesspearl/status/1401638869469122568

However, other fans have pointed out that the TVA documentation for Loki says his “sex” is fluid, not his gender. One person wrote: “If it said gender: fluid then that would have been confirming that Loki is gender-fluid. That said sex: fluid which simply means Loki can shapeshift.”

https://twitter.com/lusciousdean/status/1401587922080387076

Another person wrote that the news “isn’t a confirmation that Loki is genderfluid since we all know that sex ≠ gender”.

But even still, fans were celebrating that the god’s sex is “fluid”.

 

The trickster god’s fluidity isn’t a new development in the Marvel universe. Odin, Loki’s adopted father, revealed that Loki might be gender-fluid in Original Sin 5.5 in 2014 after talking about his long lost daughter. According to Comicbook.com, he described his three children – Thor, Angela and Loki – as: “My son, my daughter and my child who is both.”

In the Marvel universe, Loki possesses a highly developed shape-shifting ability where he can adopt almost any form imaginable. This has been apparent in the cinematic universe as Loki has shown off his ability to disguise himself as other people – even taking on the form of Odin for a time.

Loki: Where Mischief Lies author Mackenzi Lee wrote the god of mischief as genderqueer and pansexual. In the Marvel novel, the god said: “I feel equally comfortable as either.” He then explained that he doesn’t “change my gender” but exists “as both”.

Lee told Comics Beat that she thought “queer undertones are intrinsic to Loki and his magic”. She added: “Being a shapeshifter already makes him fluid, and as far back as versions of him in the Norse myths, we see Loki manipulating his gender and taking a variety of partners.”

Loki will premiere on Disney Plus on Wednesday (9 June) and will consist of six episodes. The show stars Tom Hiddleston as the titular villain, who he has played across the Marvel movies. The cast also includes Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Sophia Di Martino and Richard E Grant.

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