A Gay Kiss Was Cut From the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Script – Men’s Health

Slight spoilers ahead.

Much of the emotional weight of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever came from grief, as the characters—and the cast—came to terms with losing King T’Challa following the real-world passing of actor Chadwick Boseman. But the film, which crowned Letitia Wright’s Shuri as the next generation of Wakandan superhero, was initially intended to predominantly feature a romance between two of its supporting characters.

In the original script for the movie, which can now be read in full at Deadline, Ayo (Florence Kasumba) offers to reinstate former Dora Milaje combat instructor Aneka (Michaela Coel), and after the two warriors reconcile, they share a kiss.

Ayo made her MCU debut in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War as one of T’Challa’s bodyguards, with subsequent appearances in the ensemble casts of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. She also showed up in the Disney+ series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, tracking down Baron Zemo in order to finally avenge King T’Chaka’s death. Aneka, a long-running character in the comics, was a newcomer to the movies.

The nature of the relationship between the two characters was still romantic in the final version of the movie, but the full-on smacker was replaced by Aneka kissing Ayo on the forehead—a moment of queer affection which was still edited out to comply with censorship laws in Kuwait ahead of its release in that region.

LGBTQ+ representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has long been a point of contention for queer fans: while the comics are rich in diverse character identities and relationships, the movies tend to shy away from romance as a whole, meaning any same-sex attraction tends to be more implied than depicted outright, with a couple of exceptions. In Eternals, Brian Tyree Henry’s character Phastos was confirmed to be the first openly gay superhero in the MCU, with a husband played by gay actor Haaz Sleiman. Elsewhere, a deleted scene from Thor: Ragnorak would have revealed that Valkyrie lost a lover who was a woman, a fact later confirmed in Love and Thunder.

Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.