Does Zootopia 2 have LGBTQ+ characters? Yes, but you might have missed them

Zootopia 2, or Zootropolis 2 depending where you live, landed on Disney+ earlier this month and many have wondered if it features any LGBTQ+ characters.

When lesbian comedian Fortune Feimster joined the Zootopia sequel as Nibbles Maplestick, a beaver, fans were excited. They took it as confirmation that Nibbles would be “Disney’s first openly gay character”.

Unfortunately, the helpful character is never outright confirmed to be gay, but fans are pretty certain anyway. Regardless, she wouldn’t be “Disney’s first openly gay character”.

The film series does have two confirmed gay characters though, but you might have missed them.

Meet Bucky and Pronk Oryx-Antlerson

The first Zootopia film, released in 2016, actually featured a gay couple – Bucky and Pronk Oryx-Antlerson.

The grumpy mammals are Judy Hopps’ neighbours, often arguing with each other or butting heads, perhaps. They are species of animals which do smash their heads together, after all.

Bucky the kudu is voiced by Bryon Howard, while Pronk the gemsbock is voiced by Jared Bush.

The loud duo, who also appear in Zootopia 2, got fans talking when they noticed in the credits that they share a surname.

Voice actor Jared Bush confirmed on X in November 2016 that the characters were gay.

He wrote: “They are a gay married couple. But they don’t yell at each other because they’re gay, they yell because they’re real.”

The characters are also seen on a rather tense date in the series Zootopia+.

Gay characters in Disney movies

Over the years, there have been multiple queer characters in Disney movies.

A lesbian couple featured in Finding Dory, also released in 2016. They appeared for a matter of seconds, but the representation meant a lot to fans. However, director Andrew Stanton refused to explicitly confirm they were a couple.

Then in 2017, the live-action Beauty and the Beast was set to feature an “exclusively gay moment”. However, it turned out it was just LeFou (played by Josh Gad) dancing with a man in a group scene.

LeFou’s sexuality was said to be explored in a prequel series about him and Gaston, but it was put on an indefinite pause.

Lena Waithe played a lesbian cyclops cop in 2020’s Onward. The character mentions her wife and says “it gets better”. Again, just a small nod, but a nod nonetheless.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is under Disney, has also featured a number of queer characters, including Phastos in Eternals (2021) and Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok (2019).

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