Figuring It All Out: My Genderfluid Life

I’m going to try to be light on spoilers & just give enough info so folks can know what they’re getting.

Axl Heimdallson is the trans kid of Idris Elba’s Heimdall from the first three Thor films.

When we first meet Axl though, Thor DOES use Axl’s deadname so just be aware of that. This is because Thor doesn’t know about Axl’s gender yet. Thor introduces the character as, “(Deadname), Heimdall’s daughter.” Axl then corrects Thor saying he chose the name Axl after a, “cool earth singer,” & there’s a bit of back & forth where Thor says, “Your father gave you a strong viking name & I want to honor his wishes,” before Korg tells Thor to be quiet & listen to, “him (Axl).” (I think that’s what Korg says. It all happened kinda fast.) (Also him is in quotes because I’m specifying that the dialogue uses those pronouns, I’m not putting him in weird air quotes or something.)

During the rest of the movie everyone uses the right pronouns & calls Axl Heimdall’s son. Axl is not a minor background character, he has a decent and memorable supporting role throughout the film.

Axl is played by Kieron L. Dyer, who was in the Netflix film Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Story. I don’t know for sure if Kieron is trans but I THINK he is.

Obviously everyone wants different things from their representation but I walked away from that movie DELIRIOUSLY happy with the representation. The more I thought about it on the way home the bigger my smile got. Because of the brief deadnaming I don’t think everyone will love it but I feel like it was an honest moment involving someone who loves Axl even though he doesn’t totally get it yet, but ends up respecting Axl fast. So yeah, I’m really good with it.