"The Transporter": Ex-gay?

One of the most appealing elements of the Transporter series of films — besides the frequent shirtlessness of star Jason Statham — has been the idea (fomented by one of the creators of the first two movies) that the lead character is gay.

Transporter 3, alas, suggests otherwise. Find out more after the jump!

The Los Angeles Times' "Hero Complex" blog notes today that the stealth homosexuality of the Frank Martin character played by Statham may have gone out the window with Transporter 3, which gives the character an obnoxious Ukrainian love interest.

When Transporter 2 came out, director Louis Leterrier told the Times that he made the Martin character gay to keep the film from being a "Steven Seagal kind of movie," adding, "If you watch the movie and you know he's gay, it becomes so much more fun. It's so great — the first gay action movie hero! Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, 'The Transporter, that's such a great movie!’ If they only knew they're really cheering for a new kind of action hero."

Statham himself laughed off the claims but acknowledged that Leterrier told him that Transporter 2 would make him a gay icon. ("Icon" may be overdoing it, but the ripped, scowly Statham definitely has a queer fanbase.)

Alas, someone decided that the lone-wolf Transporter was too open to interpretation, so the new movie gives him a love scene with a hostage played by Natalya Rudakova. It begins with her calling all the shots — she's holding his car keys — but he seems to be at least fairly into it by the time it's over.

It's something of a letdown for gay fans, of course, but we'll always have our first two Transporter DVDs ready for study and reflection. And maybe Gore Vidal could be brought in to bring some Ben-Hur–style subtext to the next sequel?