Perhaps inspired by the casting of openly queer actor Ezra Miller in the title role of The Flash (set to hit the big screen in 2018), TheWrap asked a number of Hollywood’s out and prouds (plus a few allies) to weigh in on Hollywood’s recent LGBT superhero surge — both in terms of the characters themselves and the people who play them.
While the casting of gay, lesbian, or bisexual actors in superhero or villain roles is hardly novel (witness Wentworth Miller as Captain Cold on the TV version of The Flash, John Barrowman as Malcom Merlyn on Arrow, or Ian McKellen, Ellen Page, and Anna Paquin in the various X-Men movies), are audiences ready to accept an actual LGBT superhero?
Yes, says Modern Family‘s Eric Stonestreet. “If you you buy in that it’s possible there is such a thing as a superhero, you also have to buy into the fact that there are gay superheroes.”