Disney film Luca nearly featured a gay romance between main characters
For queer folks who watched Disney and Pixar’s 2021 film Luca, the gay subtext between main characters Luca and his friend Alberto were incredibly hard to miss.
So we’re not surprised at all that in an interview with The Wrap, Luca director Enrico Casarosa has revealed that the creative team behind the colourful film had actually “talked about” including a potential romance between the two main characters.
For those who don’t know, Luca released in June 2021 and follows the incredible friendship between two young boys (Luca and Alberto). The two of them are sea monsters who reside in the ocean just outside of Portorosso, a fishing town that both hates and fears the existence of the aquatic race. Even with danger surrounding them, the two of them take on the form of two ordinary-looking human boys and enter the town in search of a Vespa – a scooter that they believe will grant them freedom away from the rules and regulations of their society.
It’s a heartfelt and fun film with a message about discovering yourself and embracing what you find. A message that you could also argue is undeniably queer in how its conveyed through the relationship between the two boys and their connection to the human town they try to hide from. It’s only when they reveal their authentic selves to the people around them that Luca and Alberto are able to take the next big step forward in their lives.
In spite of how queer this message feels and how a possible gay romance was talked about for Luca, Casarosa speaks about being surprised at “the amount” of people talking about a romantic connection between the two boys.
“We were really focusing on friendship and so pre-romance,” Casarosa tells The Wrap. “But it is a kind of love, right? There’s a lot of hugging and it’s physical and my experience as a straight man certainly wasn’t that. The things we did talk a lot about is what is the metaphor here for being a sea monster, for being different? And some people seem to get mad that I’m not saying yes or no, but I feel like, well, this is a movie about being open to any difference.”
In fact, rather than being an allegory to the LGBTQ+ community and being an outsider in that way, Casarosa’s Disney film instead focused more on race and how that led to himself and his friend (also named Alberto) to feel like outsiders.
“My version was certainly we were two geeks, losery, and so it’s not where I was coming from,” Casarosa explains. Nonetheless, the Disney director finds the gay community finding solace in Luca and its message to be “wonderful and even more powerful.”
“I think, again, we didn’t immediately see it as only that [queer] reading. Maybe that’s the difference, but what is clear is that there’s this owning of your identity and, Here I am. Let the world deal with me,” Casarosa tells The Wrap. “And that is such an owning of your own true self that we thought it would resonate with everybody in whichever way they feel different, which I think it does but you’re absolutely right. That is a coming out moment.”
It is unknown whether a sequel will release that will convey a queer love story between Luca and Alberto, or if a sequel is on the way at all.
Luca is available to watch on Disney+.
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