Frozen 2: Elsa won’t be first LGBT+ Disney princess in new sequel
Studio bosses were previously encouraged to provide better LGBT representation in its animation
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Following the release of Frozen 2‘s trailer earlier this year, many believed that a mysterious new female character could have been Disney’s response to the fan campaign to make Elsa the studio’s first LGBTQ+ princess.
The unnamed character – who is not featured in the first Frozen movie – can be seen about a minute and 20 seconds into the first trailer, leaving some fans to wonder whether she could be a love interest for Elsa, who is voiced by Idina Menzel.
It turns out that hopeful fans were wrong. Speaking to IGN, the film’s songwriter Kiristen Anderson-Lopez said that Elsa won’t be romantically linked to any character in the sequel.
“Like the first movie, Elsa is not just defined by a romantic interest,” she said. “There’s so many movies that define a woman by her romantic interest. That’s not a story that we wanted to tell at this point in time. What we really wanted to tell was if you have these powers, how do you grow and change and find your place in the world and find answers that haven’t been found before?”
While this suggests that Disney might reveal Elsa to be openly lesbian in a future instalment, it won’t be happening in the new film.
The campaign to make Elsa Disney’s first LGBTQ+ princess began in 2016. Named #GiveElsaAGirlfriend, it hoped to encourage the studio to improve representation in its movies.
“I love everything people are saying and people are thinking about with our film,” co-director Jennifer Lee said in response.
Frozen was widely praised as being one of the studio’s most LGBT-friendly productions yet. Mindhunter star Jonathan Groff is Disney Animation’s first openly gay actor to play the protagonist’s love interest, while character Oaken (Chris Williams) is arguably the studio’s most visible LGBT character, thanks to a brief shot in the film of what appears to be his husband and children.
Frozen 2 arrives in UK cinemas on 27 November 2019.
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