Exclusive: We at the GWW have acquired information regarding another casting that is underway for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, under the codename “Jessica.” The role is for an upcoming Marvel Studios project that is filming sometime in 2020, and thus the possible options are ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’, ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, ‘Loki’, ‘Hawkeye’, or ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’.
“Jessica” is a role for a transwoman actress of any ethnicity in her 20s to 30s. With Marvel Studios’ recent trend of diversifying existing characters for Phase Four, such as changing the Eternals’ Makkari from a white male character to a black, deaf female, “Jessica” could be any character in any of the projects aforementioned. However, I think the role is for ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, as the casting breakdown calls for “transgender actresses only.” Therefore it could very well be Marvel’s only existing transwoman superhero: Sera.
In the comics, Sera is an Anchorite, a small group of male, wingless Angels who were kept inside a temple in Heven, the Tenth Realm. Sera was the only one of the Anchorites who identified as a woman, thus being the first and, so far, only major transwoman in Marvel comics. She was kept inside the temple until she met Angela, Thor’s long-lost half-sister, and helped her defeat a monster. For her help, Angela freed Sera and they stuck together through many adventures across the Nine Realms, eventually becoming lovers.
Sera’s presence in ‘Love and Thunder’ would suggest that the Tenth Realm will play a major role in the movie. In the comics, the Tenth Realm, Heven, was once connected to Yggdrasil, but the Angels started a war against Asgard and the Queen of the Angels seemingly killed Odin’s daughter, Aldrif. As punishment, Odin sealed off Heven from the other Nine Realms and the Angels would live in solitude. As it turned out, however, Aldrif was alive, kidnapped and raised as Angela in Heven. When Thor and Loki discovered this, they reopened the door to Heven. Later, in the War of Realms storyline, the Angels invaded Midgard and Asgardia. These elements could be used in ‘Love and Thunder’ to make the Angels the primary antagonists against New Asgard. Perhaps Sera will be the queen Valkyrie is looking for, if not Jane Foster herself.
Taika Waititi (‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’) will write and direct ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, which will see the return of Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, and Natalie Portman. It will film in Sydney, Australia in August 2020.
It will hit theaters November 5, 2021.