12 Almost-Queer Characters That Were Straightwashed Or Changed At The Last Minute

1.Actor Jessica Cauffiel — aka Margot from Legally Blonde — revealed that the original ending of the movie suggested that Elle and Vivian ended up together, not her and Emmett.

She told the New York Times, "The first ending was Elle and Vivian in Hawaii in beach chairs, drinking margaritas and holding hands. The insinuation was either they were best friends or they had gotten together romantically."

Fellow Legally Blonde actor, Alanna Ubach, recalls the ending as well, but co-screenwriter Karen McCullah says they never wrote that. Either way, I would very much like for it to exist, please and thanks.

2.The fan-favorite Friends character, Chandler Bing, was almost gay. In 1996, the show's co-creator David Crane told The Advocate that they hadn't determined Chandler's sexuality when they started working on the show.

He revealed that the characters sexuality depended on who they ultimately cast. As the role went to the late Matthew Perry, they decided Chandler would be straight. "If we had cast a different actor – who was gay – there was the option that we would have taken the character in that direction," David revealed.

3.Writer James Gunn revealed that Velma — played by Linda Cardellini — was gay in the first draft of the 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo movie, but the studio was hesitant. Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Daphne, revealed that a "steamy" kiss was filmed between her character and Velma, but was cut.

In a now-deleted tweet, James Gunn said, "In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script. But the studio just kept watering it down & watering it down, becoming ambiguous, then nothing & finally [her] having a boyfriend [in the sequel]."

4.Listen: they knew Scooby-Doo would be too powerful if it were gay because another character from the movie — Fred — was originally meant to be queer.

Icon Sarah Michelle Gellar once again spoke on the topic, telling Andy Cohen that Fred has always been a character that's implied to be "interested in both parties." Revealing a cut line from the film, she said, "Daphne and Fred were having a fight and I yell at him, 'That ascot makes you look gay!’ I slam the door [at him]. They cut that, too. I think that was the reason I signed onto the movie. It’s something everyone’s thought for a long time."

Mathew Lillard — who played Shaggy — confirmed this in a Reddit AMA, elaborating that a lot of "above the kids headline" comedy was cut. "When we tested the parents flipped their lids and Warners got scarred. Its' one of the crown jewels in their library and couldn't risk a back lash."

5.Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds — as played by Matthew Gray Gubler — was originally supposed to be bisexual, however, this was shut down by "the powers that be" in the fourth episode of the show.

The show's creator, Jeff Davis explained on Twitter that Reid's crush on JJ in the first season of the show made it impossible. While fans quickly pointed out that he could still like JJ and be bi, Jeff simply said that he got pushback from the studio regardless.

6.While Valkyrie's sexuality is more directly addressed in Thor: Love and Thunder, a scene in its predecessor Thor: Ragnarok that confirmed her bisexuality was cut.

Originally, the film included a scene where a woman walked out of Valkyrie's bedroom, which writer and director Taika Waititi kept in the film "as long as he could." Ultimately, it was cut "because it distracted from the scene's vital exposition."

Tessa Thompson told Rolling Stone she personally pitched to maintain Valkyrie's bisexuality in the movie, and what couldn't be done explicitly, she tried to do through her portrayal of the character. She went on to explain, “There’s a great shot of me falling back from one of my sisters who’s just been slain. In my mind, that was my lover.”

7.After lots of queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect movies, Beca and Chloe, played respectively by Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow, were supposed to put all those "rumors" to rest and finally kiss. While the kiss was filmed, it never made it into the movie.

At Pitch Perfect 3's Australian red carpet, Rebel Wilson — who played Fat Amy — revealed to fans that on the last day on set, Anna Kendrick pushed for a kiss between Chloe and Beca to be filmed. It was, but the studio didn't want to put it in the finished movie.

Other cast members confirmed Rebel's claim, like Hana Mae Lee — who played Lilly Onakuramara — in a fan Q&A...

...as well as Chrissie Fit, who played Florencia "Flo" Fuentes.

If anything, the third and final film in the franchise only furthered fans' claims of queerbaiting, going so far as to use a video of Beca and Chloe almost kissing as promo for the film before it came out.

8.Oscar Isaac has hinted at and pushed for his Star Wars character, Poe Dameron, to have a romantic storyline with Finn (played by John Boyega), however, he revealed that "the Disney overlords were not ready to do that."

In an interview with IGN, he explained, "I think there could’ve been a very interesting, forward-thinking — not even forward-thinking, just, like, current-thinking love story there, something that hadn’t quite been explored yet; particularly the dynamic between these two men in war that could’ve fallen in love with each other."

While Disney doesn't seem to have any plans to make the characters canonically gay, Oscar appears to have his own plans up his sleeve to give fans what they want. In an interview with Ellen ahead of The Force Awakens's release, Oscar said, "You have to just look very closely you have to watch it a few times to see the little hints but there was. At least, I was playing romance. In the cockpit I was playing, there was a deep romance there."

9.Riverdale star Cole Sprouse told Teen Vogue that he "did a lot of research" on asexuality after being cast as Jughead Jones, who is asexual in the Archie comics. Unfortunately, his asexuality is not portrayed in the CW show.

When asked if he was advocating for it in the show, he responded, "I hope that huge corporations like the CW recognize that this kind of representation is rare and severely important to people who resonate with it."

10.In the Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe novel by Fannie Flagg — which the Fried Green Tomatoes movie is based upon, Idgie and Ruth are explicitly sapphic and in a romantic relationship. In the 1991 film, however, their queerness became subtext and their relationship was portrayed as platonic.

The film's director, Jon Avnet, said, "You can take it how you want to...I had no interest in going into the bedroom.” Similarly, on The Dennis Miller Show, when Dennis commented on how it'd be sweet if the pair had been lovers, Mary Stuart Masterson — who played Idgie — replied, "I know what you mean...The movie isn’t really about their relationship in terms of their sexuality, no matter what that might be."

Regardless, the film won a "best feature film with lesbian content" GLAAD award in 1992. GLAAD executive director Ellen Carton said of the decision, "Tomatoes‘ filmmakers may have wanted to tone down the lesbian content. Too bad. But we recognize these women as lesbians. And giving the award is a way for us to acknowledge that these are lesbians.”

11.Melody Pendras — from the Netflix series Archive 81, based on the scripted podcast of the same name — was originally a queer character who was straightwashed by the on-screen adaptation.

In the podcast, Melody has a wife she's been married to for 20 years. In the show, her queerness is never addressed and she does not have a wife. She does, however, have romantic encounters with male characters, like an occultist, Samuel.

12.John Constantine — aka Hellblazer — is canonically bisexual in the DC comics. However, in NBC's Constantine TV show, he was straightwashed. According to an EW interview with Daniel Cerone — the show's executive producer — Daniel suggests that John's bisexuality "is not a crucial aspect of the character."

"In those comic books, John Constantine aged in real time...Within this tome of three decades [of comics] there might have been one or two issues where he's seen getting out of bed with a man. So [maybe] 20 years from now? But there are no immediate plans," Daniel continued.

John was not portrayed as bisexual by Keanu Reeves in the 2005 film adaptation of the comics, either. At long last, his sexuality was brought to the screen in the CW series DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

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