Lena Waithe To Voice Disney’s First Animated LGBTQ Character

Disney Pixar have said that the upcoming movie Onward will feature the company's first openly lesbian animated character. Actress and screenwriter Lena Waithe (Queen and Slim, The Chi, Master of None) will voice the role of Officer Specter, a cyclops cop. (Aside: try saying that ten times fast!). The film is set in a fantastical world whose inhabitants have lost their magic. Officer Specter appears in one scene and refers to “her girlfriend’s daughter”, according to Slate.

The film’s producer Kori Rae told Yahoo Entertainment about how the character and scene came to be:

“The scene, when we wrote it, was kind of fitting and it opens up the world a little bit, and that’s what we wanted.”

The director Dan Scanlon, who previously directed Monsters University, added: “It’s a modern fantasy world and we want to represent the modern world.”

The news of Waithe’s role comes a month after Disney-owned Marvel’s CEO Kevin Feige responded to a question during a New York Film Academy event about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future plans to include more LGBTQ representation. He revealed to the audience that a project currently in filming would include a transgender character.

In addition, The Eternals movie, which is due to come out in November 2020, will feature an gay couple played by Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta) and Haaz Sleiman (Jack Ryan).

Disney and Pixar’s Onward is in cinemas March 6th

READ MORE: At What Age Does Being Obsessed With Disney Stop Being Endearing?