Thor: Love and Thunder is the sixth MCU film in a row shut out of China

Thor: Love and Thunder is the latest Marvel Studios joint not to premiere in China, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In this case, Chinese censors haven’t approved the LGBT+ content. That’s similar to the reason they gave for not releasing Lightyear in the region. That’s in line with China’s general media policy against all things gay; last year, China’s National Radio and Television Administration told TV broadcasters to “resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal aesthetics.” Super.

That said, it seems like China has a bone to pick with Disney and Marvel in particular. While superhero films like The Batman have released in China, the Chinese Communist Party hasn’t let a Marvel movie through since Avengers: Endgame, which made over $600 million in Chinese theaters, so it’s not like there isn’t an audience for this stuff in the region.

China started the Marvel blockade with Black Widow. We don’t know exactly why, but it might have something to do with that film not depicting Communism in the best light. Marvel followed up that movie with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals; in the first case, star Simu Liu made comments critical of China. In the second case, director Chloé Zhao did. That’s enough for the CCP to blackball a movie studio.

China’s long history of banning movies because it feels like it

According to USC professor and China expert Stanley Rosen, that’s par for the course for the CCP. For instance, in 1997, MGM released a Richard Gere movie called Red Corner that featured corruption in the Chinese government as part of its plot. Rather than just ban the movie, China banned everything from MGM. “If they could do that in 1997, they can certainly do that today as they’re a lot better off,” Rosen told Deadline. “You do one film that China doesn’t like, and none of your films are shown in China.”

And China’s excuses for keeping Marvel movies out have gotten pretty flimsy. For instance, per Insider, they justified blocking Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness because a newspaper kiosk in the background of one scene had a copy of the The Epoch Times, a paper critical of China. For Spider-Man: No Way Home, the CCP wanted to studio to remove the Statue of Liberty, which…what? The whole climax takes place there.

Basically, the authoritarians who run China are mad at Marvel and will find reasons to block their movies no matter what…until they don’t; it’s hard to tell when they might start or stop anything. Marvel hasn’t been feeling too much pain over it; Thor: Love and Thunder had a smashing opening weekend and No Way Home became one of the highest-grossing movies in history. Given this volatility, Hollywood studios just aren’t counting on Chinese box office at all. “[A]nything from China is upside,” a source told Deadline. “You plan for nothing, and if you get it, good.”

Thor: Love and Thunder is out now in most theaters around the world. And if you’re in China…well, it may be the pirate’s life for you.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels