But as for the films in the MCU, over its 14 film run starting with Iron Man in 2008, there haven't been any gay characters. Hot off the blink-and-you'll-miss-it gay 'moments' in 2017's Beauty And The Beast and 2017's Power Rangers, the comments by Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn are unnervingly non-committal and honestly felt a lot like queer-baiting. But seeing as it's 20-freaking-17, the MCU has been going since 2008, you have to wonder if there isn't something a little more sinister at hand.
Which, there kind of is.
The unfortunate issue with the MCU being so damn popular is that a large source of that popularity and income is from foreign markets. And not every country is as liberal as North America when it comes to depictions of LGBTQ characters on television. Some countries can straight up ban films for depictions of same-sex romances, transgender characters or advocacy of LGBTQ rights. Two such countries are Russia and China.
China especially has strict censorship laws, which we can see from when popular Chinese drama Addicted was pulled from being streamed on Chinese websites, and how the country had banned 2016's hilarious and well received Deadpool from theatres. Now, this isn't to say that China is inherently a homophobic country but China's strict censorship from its government creates a roadblock on the path to diversifying the MCUs hero roster. Sure, known gay characters like Iceman or Daken might be hard because of licensing issues, but heroes such as Spiderwoman (Jessica Drew), Wiccan, Hulkling are all fair game, were it not for censorship in foreign markets.
Russia is another such a country. Going back to Beauty And The Beast's gay moment, the film came under scrutiny (although was luckily not banned) over Lefou's feelings for Gaston by Russian officials due to Russia's "Gay Propaganda Law", as it has come to be known. The legislation was passed with the intent to prohibit spreading "gay propaganda" to minors (ah yes, because films will brainwash your child into sucking dick. Stay classy, Putin). While it may not have prohibited, this obviously creates concerns among filmmakers. Film studios are for-profit businesses aiming to maximise on returns and gay characters are now a risk to their financial well-being due to foreign market censorship. The conversation is also hard to get off the ground when comment sections frequently get dominated by straight white men loudly screaming that "no one cares" or that they've had enough of this "gay romance crap".
While film makers probably are trying to create more diverse casts and stories, they're unfortunately restricted by marketing politics.
Despite what James says, no, there are likely no secretly gay characters in the films of the MCU. And until foreign countries decide to play ball with LGBTQ representation, there likely won't be, because its costing film makers money.
But then again, for a multi-billion dollar film franchise, you'd think the financial loss might from time to time be worth the hit in order to show solidarity with the LGBTQ.
Then again, film makers could also just not give a fuck about us and merely pursue diversity when it helps sell films.
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