Pop Culture Fix: Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie Is Looking for Her Queen (Will it Be Captain Marvel?)

This is your weekly Pop Culture Fix, and I’m your host, Heatherman Jack.


+ At the SDCC panel where we found out Natalie Portman will be returning to the Thor franchise AS THOR, Tessa Thompson also had a thing to say, which is that Valkeyrie’s first order of business as King of Asgard is to FIND HER QUEEN.

+ EXCUSE ME TAYLOUR PAIGE WILL PLAY VIOLA DAVIS’ LOVE IN MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM.

+ Your girl Jasika Nicole has been promoted to series regular on The Good Doctor!

+ She’s Gotta Have It won’t be back for a third season on Netflix.

+ Rose Leslie is leaving The Good Fight.

+ Supergirl’s back… with bangs! (Related: How to save lives in the Arrowverse. Bonus Batwoman content.) (Speaking of Batwoman, her friendship with Supergirl will be explored further in the coming season.)

+ Black Lightning‘s back with big wishes!

Nafessa Williams: “There’s a lot going on with Grace in her head and in her heart, so I hope we can come to some kind of resolution and give the fans what they want because I know how much fans appreciate that relationship. I also hope we get to see more of what’s she’s like on a personal side, non-romantic. Like who is her best friend, what are some secrets she shares with her best friend, what is she like with her friends? I’d like to see that. I’d also like to [see her and Jennifer] kick ass together. Can you imagine two Black superhero sisters with braids and fly hair, flying and doing stuff? I’m ready for that.”

+ Janelle Monáe is replacing Julia Roberts in Amazon’s Homecoming!

+ Mj Rodriguez and Amber Riley are teaming up for Little Shop of Horrors.

+ Harley Quinn’s animated series feels p. queer.

+ Please enjoy this peek at several Laura Zak-penned episodes of Twelve Forever.

+ Didn’t we almost have it all?

+ There are some queer faves on IndieWire’s list of 100 Best Indie Movies of the Decade.

+ Hunter Schafer charmed the heck out of everyone on Late Night With Seth Myers this week.

+ Starz’s new spy-fi show The Rook is already contributing to the LGBTQ+ canon

+ In conclusion:

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

13 Comments

  1. Couple things:

    1. I stopped watching OITNB after the incident that shall not be named. Is there a reason to go back to it?

    2. Lena Waithe/Megan Rapinoe for 2020.

    • Not really. I’m only watching the end because I’m a completionist and I want to see if they somehow fix any of the mess they created but if you stopped after “the incident” then don’t continue because the 2 seasons that follow are rage-inducing in terms of how they handle the fallout from that storyline. There are also a couple of other things that really set me off. For example, the fact that they keep trying to tell these heavy-handed social justice storylines about how hard black and brown women are treated or use those characters as mouthpieces for centrist talking points when they don’t have a single black and/or latina woman in that writers room.

  2. Now I’m having a heart attack!!!! Are you kiding me? A Ma Rainey’s biopic? A biopic of the woman that sang “I went out last night with a crowd of my friends/It must’ve been women, ’cause I don’t like no men” in 1928?

    I’M DEADDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srSLnF8xcj8

  3. janelle monae acting in a tv show is something i never knew i needed until now, bless. i also cannot wait to watch all of the new gay movies i found out about today, can’t believe i missed an entire lily tomlin movie coming out.

    (by the way, valkyrie doesn’t have the extra “e” in it!)

  4. Personally, I feel like Supergirl having bangs is a bad idea, logistically and emotionally. I’m already the weirdo that keeps mentally shrieking “tie back your hair!” when Sueprgirl fights because it’ll be less of a hindrance when it’s not flapping about your face right? That combined with bangs that fall into your eyes…ugh. And then growing them out! Double ugh.

  5. “Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie Is Looking for Her Queen (Will it Be Captain Marvel?)”

    How dare you suggest Carol and Maria’s love might not be eternal?!

  6. OMG, anything Harley Quinn is my absolute kryptonite.

    All my old, early-aughts Harley/Ivy feels are rushing back.

  7. I know that it’s probably not big news for most of you all but The Rook is my favourite book and the TV series was already one of the most exciting things that’s happened all year for me even before it started getting queer.

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