Tran was eager to add that just because she interpreted the Namaari and Raya relationship as something more than platonic, that wasn’t the official Disney line. But for the company that started touting its “exclusively gay moments” a few years back, and whose characters have long been embraced by queer communities, Raya has felt for many like one step closer to the surface. But though Raya, like Moana and Elsa before her, is a Disney princess who isn’t saddled with a male love interest in the film, Raya and the Last Dragon is the latest Disney offering to stop short of presenting a major character as explicitly queer. Tran told Vanity Fair that when recording her role for the animated film she decided there were “some romantic feelings going on there” between Raya and Namaari. If that sounds more flirtatious than ferocious there’s a reason for it. “Hey there, Princess Undercut,” Raya says with a smirk. The two women, both highly trained fighters and, yes, technically princesses, hail from different corners of the fictional land of Kumandra and are fighting tooth and nail to protect their homes. There’s a moment almost exactly half way through Raya and the Last Dragon when the titular Disney princess (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) strolls out to meet her longtime enemy Namaari ( Gemma Chan) in battle.
