New ‘Shazam’ Movie Has Gay Super Hero Because Of Course It Does

One of the superheroes in the new movie “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” is gay, according to one of the screenwriters.

Pedro Peña is superhumanly strong, able to “hold up a Ferris wheel and contend with the Seven Deadly Sins,” according to one of those super nerd websites that keeps track of these kinds of things.

Well, I guess the superhero can’t handle that deadly sin of lust too well.

But yes, for some reason Pena is gay and the movie will be “more forthright” about his sexual preferences, said writer Henry Gayden.

“The only new addition for this movie is being a lot more forthright about Pedro being gay,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.

Pedro’s sexuality was “hinted at in the first movie very subtly,” Gayden said. “And I thought it was really important and really, really fought for us including that and bringing that to the fore in this movie.”

“Pedro, played by Jovan Armand and D.J. Cotrona, briefly alluded to his sexuality in a scene from the first film after the kids were teleported to a strip club,” the U.K. paper wrote. “As they left, Pedro remarked, ‘Not my thing.’”

So edgy.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

Look, gay is fine. Really. For adults. They’ll make whatever choice they make about their sexuality. And in the 21st century, it’s really nobody’s business. We’ve all got plenty of friends and family who are gay.

But there’s really no need for a PG-13 movie to feature a gay superhero. Children at that age are struggling with enough things and don’t need any more confusion. And really, why can’t we just have a superhero movie where the superheroes do superhero stuff? Do we really need sexuality in everything?

Apparently we do. Disney’s latest agenda-pushing is “Strange World,” an animated film featuring a gay teen romance.

“Strange World” tells the story of gay teen Ethan, voiced by Jaboukie Young-White, who has the support of his loving, biracial parents, Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal), and Meridian (Gabrielle Union). The family rejects its fabled heritage to be farmers, but ends up pulled back into the family business to hunt for Searcher’s father, Jaeger (Dennis Quaid), who went missing when he was a child. Their search, aided by their disabled dog, takes them to Avalonia, a strange world with a fragile ecosystem. Ethan struggles to get past his shyness around his love interest, a boy named Diazo.

But also, apparently, people don’t much want to see these gay-driven movies. “Strange World” opened with a poor $4.2 million in ticket sales on its first day.

“That’s a terrible result for the $180 million-budgeted animated adventure,” wrote Variety’s Brent Lang, noting that last Thanksgiving’s Disney animated film, “Encanto,” was deemed a disappointment after taking in $40.3 million over the long weekend.

It’s all about virtual signaling now. If, say, “Shazam” were to have superheroes doing superhero stuff, the vocal gay community would say, “Why no gay superhero?!” So, to preclude that sort of thing, movie companies just drop them in willy-nilly. It doesn’t add to the story (or detract), but it’s still just pointless.

Superhero movies have always been different — the main characters are not like us at all. We don’t see them eat, or poop — we don’t even know if they do, they’re superheroes! We really don’t need to know about their sexuality. Can we just get two hours off to enjoy pure fantasy?

Disclosure: The Daily Wire has announced plans for kids’ entertainment content.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.