'The Mitchells vs. the Machines' creators convinced executives to make the movie's lead queer with a tear-inducing letter

• Director Michael Rianda told Insider how they convinced Sony to make Katie Mitchell queer.
• Rianda praised one of the movie's animators, Lizzie Nichols, for penning a letter to the executives.

LGBTQ+ animator Lizzie Nichols just wanted to work on a movie she believed in. But she ended up being the catalyst in making "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" an anomaly in big studio animation storytelling.

Before the acclaimed movie was released on Netflix last November and became a best animated film Oscar nominee, it was called "Connected" inside the halls of Sony. Before Sony sold the movie to Netflix amid the pandemic, it was known by most as the next project shepherded by "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

But for Nichols, the animated film was way more than a story about a dysfunctional family becoming the only hope for the world against a robot apocalypse.

After seeing a storyboard screening of the movie and convincing director Michael Rianda to let her work on the film, Nichols realized something.

"Katie seems kind of queer to me," she told Insider over a Zoom call earlier this week.

The creators asked, 'Are we allowed to do that?'

Underneath this hilarious movie, its main character, Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), seemed to be gay.

"But I don't think I ever said it out loud to anyone," Nichols said. "In a way, sadly, I internalized like, Well that can't happen so I'll just keep that quiet in my mind that I think Katie's queer."

However, that's exactly what Rianda, co-director Jeff Rowe, and the other creatives were doing: making their lead character queer. Just no one knew it yet.

Rianda and Rowe are straight, but Rianda said in crafting Katie, he not only based the character on him and his sister's complex relationship with their dad growing up but the people he befriended when he went to art school.

"I noticed all the people I was basing Katie on were queer to the point that people on the movie started asking, 'Is Katie gay?' And I was like, 'Are we allowed to do that?'" Rianda told Insider in the same conversation.

In the world of studio animation, having a gay character is rare — let alone making the lead character gay. But Rianda said it fit the character, so without asking for permission he just made her gay.

In the movie, Katie sports a rainbow pin on her hoodie and has a crush on Jade, a girl who attends the same art school (before robots take over the world). Then at the end of the movie, Katie's mom asks if she and Jade are "official" and if she'll be bringing her home for Thanksgiving.

"When people were like, 'Well, they will never let us do it,' it was like we are they. We are the decision-makers in the room. We can either choose to do this or not," Rianda said.

Still, when it was finally time to let Sony executives in on what was happening, Rianda turned to Nichols, who — along with a group of LGBTQ+ artists on the film — had become major supporters in Katie being part of the queer community.

Several decided to write letters to Sony explaining why it was important that Katie was queer. Rianda said it was Nichols' letter that stood out.

"I was sobbing when I read it," he said. "And I was like, 'Well, they are not going to say no to this!'"

Nichols said she wanted her letter to 'remind people of the stakes'

Nichols' letter, which Rianda shared on Twitter in January with her permission, noted that she "wanted to be part of a movie — and of a studio — who is on the right side of history."

"We do not want to silence ourselves for fear of a bigoted few," she wrote at the end of her letter. "We don't want to cave to their worldview. We have to be on the side of what is right and just. We just need the backbone to do it. Be that backbone."

—Michael Rianda (@michaelrianda) January 20, 2022

With Nichols' letter in hand, Rianda met with the Sony executives. He said most were fully supportive, though a few were concerned.

"It was nerve-wracking," Rianda said of the meeting. "Some people who were very nervous were going, 'We don't know about returns in other countries.'"

Regardless, Rianda said by the end of the meeting there was zero pushback. Katie was queer.

"Sony really pulled through and didn't chicken out, because the truth is, you can't do this at every studio," Rianda said.

Hours after speaking to Rianda and Nichols for this story, Variety reported that the LGBTQ+ staff at Pixar alleged that Disney demanded cuts in their movies of "nearly every moment of overtly gay affection...regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar."

This followed the company-wide memo from Disney CEO Bob Chapek regarding recent Florida legislation known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, which would ban discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. In the memo, Chapek said the "biggest impact" the company can make "in creating a more inclusive world is through the inspiring content we produce."

Most recently, critics and fans pointed to Disney's alleged queer coding in a Pixar movie, "Luca," which follows two boys who are sea monsters trying to navigate a town that hates sea monsters. Insider noted after the release, it was "disappointing that Disney's Pixar wasn't brave enough to fully commit to its first queer animated tale."

"I just wanted to remind people of the stakes," Nichols said looking back on why she wrote the letter in the first place. "We need to push the narrative a little further. And I said to use my name in the letter. I wanted the people in charge to have a face. That we are not just a blob of queer people out in the world. We are real."

"The Mitchells vs. the Machines" is currently available on Netflix.