‘DuckTales’ reboot introduces gay dads in season 3 premiere
Violet's fathers are the first step in the animated show addressing LGBTQ narratives
The third season premiere of Disney’s rebooted DuckTales has revealed the gay fathers of one of its characters.
DuckTales, which airs on Disney XD, reboots the iconic ‘late 80s cartoon, and follows Scrooge McDuck reuniting with his nephew Donald Duck and great-nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, and embarking on globe-trotting adventures to find treasure.
The new show has placed a greater emphasis on diversity, including making superhero character Gizmoduck (voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda) Latino, and previously teased that the character of Violet Sabrewing has two gay dads.
According to Screen Rant, Violet had mentioned her fathers in season two but they were shown for the first time in the season three premiere on April 4.
During the episode, Violet calls best friend Lena her “sister from a couple of misters” and reveals that her fathers have adopted Lena.
Tyrian “Ty” Sabrewing and Indigo “Indy” Sabrewing are then shown cheering on their daughter in a competition, with both men wearing matching “I’m with Dad” t-shirts.
Writing on his blog, DuckTales‘ co-executive producer and story editor Frank Angones acknowledged the fathers’ limited role — they have no dialogue in the episode — and said the show would start to address LGBTQ issues.
“As with all of our characters, we had a lot of conversations about who Violet was and what her background was and came up with this fun notion of her too enthusiastic, overly supportive dads who love being dads,” he wrote. “We didn’t really have a story built around them, but when the time came for an episode focusing on Huey and Violet in a particular situation, it made sense that they would be there.”
Noting that “the ‘queer representation through parents and background characters’ trope is an issue,” Angones said producers had “sort of stumbled backwards into a lot of heteronormative romances in this show due to legacy characters with pre-existing relationships.”
“But that’s really no excuse,” he wrote. “We’ve done pretty well on racial diversity and representation of people with limb differences, but we really have not done enough relevant LGBTQ+ rep. We do have some themes and ideas coming up that address relevant LGBTQ+ narratives.”
However, despite Ty and Indy’s small roles, that hasn’t stopped fans from cheering their inclusion on social media, with one person calling it a “step in the right direction” for LGBTQ representation.
#DuckTales Has canon gay dads… I’m in tears pic.twitter.com/KrYmvb1nbj
— kolbi 💕 (@PixieSphere) April 4, 2020
watched the new ducktales and !!! violet has gay dads!! pic.twitter.com/CNi38Is5dC
— mick ✨🌈 (@lechepop) April 4, 2020
HOLD THE FUCKIN PHONE DUCKTALES HAS GAY DADS https://t.co/vFCoQcxHAy
— Charlie (not my real name) (@CharliesTete) April 4, 2020
Holy shit how did this fly under the radar? One of the characters from the new Ducktales got revealed to be the child of a gay couple. And it’s just something everyone accepts without question. Why aren’t people celebrating this?? pic.twitter.com/9hINzm6xIQ
— TOM NOOK BROKE MY KNEECAPS (@FloofRam) April 6, 2020
Disney Theatrical Releases: "Okay fine we can have a gay character but they can't be obvious."
DuckTales: pic.twitter.com/wgIHxPkPcw— Corndair (@Corndair) April 7, 2020
A step in the right direction for LGBT representation… Thank you so much, #DuckTales pic.twitter.com/0wVPLLm4zP
— kolbi 💕 (@PixieSphere) April 4, 2020
DuckTales airs Saturdays on Disney XD. Episodes are also available to stream on Disney+.
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