The following article contains spoilers for: Thor: Love and Thunder†Thor: Love and Thunder enjoyed a spectacular opening weekend worldwide apart from a huge market that has consistently escaped the MCU over the past year as China's censorship policies have nearly closed the door for the God of Thunder to land in the country.
Since 2019 Spider-Man: Far From Home, not a single Marvel film made by Sony or Marvel Studios has been given the green light by Chinese censorship authorities. Every MCU movie since Black Widow has been blocked by Chinese censors, with both Venom: Let There Be Carnage and morbius suffer the same fate. As to why that's the case, although the Chinese government doesn't explicitly state its motives, it's been speculated that many of these decisions were due to instances of LGBTQ representation, backlash against the people who participate in the films, or what the country sees as an unfavorable mix of culture and politics.
Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, in Thor: Love and Thunder's In this case, it's unlikely that Chinese censors will ever give Taika Waititi's film a future release date due to some LGBTQ-themed scenes around characters like Valkyrie and Korg. The display of LGBTQ stories in China has been largely banned, as the country did not decriminalize homosexuality until 1997 and health authorities balked at its classification as a mental disorder until 2011. Yet the Chinese Communist Party has gone so far as to demand less effeminate men in video games.
Thor: Love and ThunderThe controversial scenes would be those that seemingly confirm that Valkyrie is bisexual and Korg fathered a child with another male Kronan. This looks a lot like Eternals containing a gay couple and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness starring América Chávez, yet another LGBTQ superhero. In Eternals', but that means China is censoring all references to director Chloe Zhao because of comments she made about criticizing her native government.
One thing's for sure, China's list of reasons to ban Marvel movies has grown considerably since the Infinity Saga ended. For example, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had to do with unapproved depictions of Chinese mythology and with Simu Liu's negative comments about the Chinese government, similar to Venom: Let There Carnage star Tom Hardy. In front of Black Widow, they were brief mentions of communism and in No way homeIn this case, it was the mere fact that the Statue of Liberty is part of the latest battle, perhaps suggesting that China simply no longer wants the MCU's cultural influence within its borders.
On the bright side, Disney's decision to sacrifice Thor's profits and disregard Chinese censors seems to have had a more positive effect on audiences around the world. A similar concept was proven by blockbuster movies like Top Gun: Maverick†
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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