Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams ‘excited’ to portray a queer superhero in love in her new X-Men film
The New Mutants features a love story between Wolfbane and Dani Moonstar, played by Maisie Williams and Blu Hunt.
Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams has said she is “excited” to play a queer superhero in love in upcoming X-Men spinoff The New Mutants.
The film will feature a relationship between superheroes Rahne Sinclair (Williams) and Danielle Moonstar, played by Blu Hunt.
Speaking on a panel at Comic Con @ Home, Williams spoke of the importance of representing same-sex love on-screen.
“It was really wonderful to be able to see a relationship look like this,” Williams said.
“In the typically quite masculine world of superheroes, it was just lovely to see these two fragile women who just protect one another and bring light out in each other, but I’m glad that the fans are so excited for it because I think it’s really important to see relationships like this.”
Maisie Williams said her storyline in The New Mutants is a ‘really lovely love story’.
She continued: “I think at the heart of it is just this really lovely love story. It just brings it back to reality, I think.”
Meanwhile, Hunt spoke of her nerves at kissing Williams during a screen test for the film.
“You can’t imagine how nervous I am. Like, oh, I have go kiss Maisie Williams? It was very nerve-racking.”
Josh Boone, the film’s director, said the relationship is the “spine” of the movie.
I think at the heart of it is just this really lovely love story. It just brings it back to reality, I think.
“We just wanted to have them be characters that you fell in love with as they fell in love,” he said.
It was revealed earlier this year that Williams would have a same-sex love story in the long-delayed X-Men spin off.
The film, which was shot in 2017 but had its release stalled by Disney’s acquisition of Fox, adds some long-needed visible queerness to the X-Men film universe – which, aside from R-rated spin-off Deadpool, has largely kept any hint of LGBT+ visibility contained within a laborious mutant-y metaphor.
Their relationship will not be labelled or questioned in the film.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in March, Williams said the film’s plot is “a real extension of what is touched on in the comics”.
“Rahne and Dani have a telepathic connection in the comics, and so we just wanted to extend that in the film and put that within reality.
“If they really could understand each other on that level, then you’d probably end up falling in love with that person.”
She added: “It’s not really a story about these two characters understanding their sexuality. It’s not centred around that and they don’t necessarily label it.”
“No one else does either and no one really questions it.”
