Harvey Guillén hopes a queer Disney princess is on the horizon

"I think they're making strides in the right direction."

Mainstream animated movies are lagging behind the rest of American entertainment when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation — but Harvey Guillén thinks the future is bright.

The  What We Do in the Shadows star, who also lent his voice to a supporting character in Wish, told ComicBook.com that he believes Disney is making progress with queer representation in its animated projects. "I think they're making strides in the right direction," Guillén said. "I think it's hard to rebuild a wheel that's already been in motion for a while, and it's hard to think of a new direction, especially in where we're at with the world, but they're putting their best foot forward, I think. And sometimes those things take time and I'm optimistic. And like you said, if a queer princess comes along, that'd be fantastic."

Guillén indicated that a queer protagonist could lead a Disney film in the not-too-distant future. “I think that we are in the lifespan of that potentially happening," he said. "It takes time with stuff like that. Representation has taken so long just in film in general with every studio and every company. And so it's taken us this far to come this far but look how far we've gotten."

In the last decade, Disney has repeatedly included queer elements and characters in various projects, though they’ve typically been miniscule at best. Some projects feature barely noticeable queer couples in the background, including Finding Dory, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Zootopia.

Other projects have included prominent queer supporting characters, though those characters’ queerness was frequently reduced to blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments of acknowledgement in movies like Onward, Eternals, Lightyear, Jungle Cruise, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and 2017’s live-action Beauty and the Beast.

The most substantial progress from the studio has come in the last few years, as Strange World and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series both have fairly significant queer romance subplots. Additionally, some fans have recognized queer coding in numerous recent Disney heroes, including Elsa from Frozen, Raya from Raya and the Last Dragon, and Luca from Luca.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content:

• Florida teacher says she's under investigation for showing students Disney's Strange World

• Josh Gad says live-action Beauty and the Beast didn't 'go far enough' depicting gay character

• Pixar employees say Disney has censored LGBTQ stories 'down to crumbs of what they once were'
  

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.