Amidst rumors that Marvel wants to introduce its first gay superhero as the lead of the cast of their upcoming movie The Eternals, Marvel executive Victoria Alonso told Variety at the Captain Marvel premiere that she believes “the world is ready” for exactly that kind of character.

She would not confirm that Eternals will feature a gay superhero (although definitely looked to be choosing her words very carefully in the video that’s up at Variety.com, suggesting there is at least some truth to the rumor). “We are going to cast the best Eternals cast that we can and when we’re ready to announce it we promise you we will,” she said.

She did also speak about Marvel’s commitment to diversity, raising a very good point that the core of Marvel’s stories has always been people who are different:

Our entire success is based on people that are incredibly different ... Our audience is global, is diverse, is inclusive. If we don’t do it that way for them, we will fail. If we don’t put pedal to the metal on the diversity and the inclusivity, we will not have continued success. Our determination is to have that for all of the people out there watching our movies.

Alonso is correct, too; the world is ready. It was ready for Black Panther, it’s clearly ready for Captain Marvel (the movie is supposedly tracking to open in the neighborhood of $150 million this weekend), and it’s ready for whoever they cast in The Eternals. Heck, with a concept like Eternals that very few non-comics readers know (they’re basically a group of alien gods) this could be something that makes that property very special in the world of Marvel and its bigger, more famous characters.

Gallery — LGBTQ Superheroes From Marvel and DC Comics:

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