Knowledge Bank

Deafness and Indigeneity historically are seen as magical in film and television. In the past 5 years (2020-2025), Magical Indigenous Deaf Women appeared as characters in major films and television series, specifically in fantasy genres. A few examples of these productions are Godzilla vs. Kong, the subsequent sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Marvel’s Eternals, and Marvel’s Echo. The characters in these productions exhibit similarities to other longstanding film tropes like the “magical negro”. The characters portray Indigenous Deaf women as wise, magical, and helpful with little focus on the work and experiences that comes with the intersectional identity of being Deaf AND Indigenous. The use of subversive casting in speculative fiction creates an exciting space for representation of Indigenous Deaf women. However, it runs the risk of portraying them in ways that rely on harmful stereotypes. This paper looks at three characters, Maya Lopez in Echo, Jia in Godzilla x. Kong, and Makarri in Eternals, using the frameworks of Deaf and Indigenous scholars to assess the addition of Indigenous Deaf women in these fictional magical worlds and what these characters represent outside of aesthetic diversity.