Sam (He/Him) is the former Managing Editor of DualShockers and is now Senior Reporter at TheGamer. He’s been in and around games media for six years now and has held a variety of roles within the industry, including staff writer, SEO editor, managing editor and global head of gaming content.
During this time, he’s hosted a PAX panel, interviewed game directors, reviewed some of the biggest games, attended Gamescom, Summer Game Fest, and Tokyo Game Show and covered some of the hottest news stories.
He’s been playing video games for as long as he can remember, and you can regularly find him on his PS5 or Nintendo Switch. When he’s not playing games, he’ll no doubt be watching his beloved Ipswich Town.
For years now, a popular fan theory has circulated on the internet, speculating that Metroid’s Samus Aran is trans. These theories cite her size and build as key elements as to why she could be a trans woman, and fuel was only added to the fire in 2015, when Metroid background designer Hirofumi Matsuoka claimed, in a derogatory way, that Samus was trans.
Now, speaking to us at TheGamer, prominent trans actress Abigail Thorn (Baldur’s Gate 3, House of the Dragon, Andor), has called on Nintendo to “come out and tell us what we already know” and confirm the long-running fan theory.
Abigail Thorn Wants Nintendo To Confirm That Samus Is Trans
We spoke to Thorn last week as part of a larger piece set to hit TheGamer in the future, but with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in the public consciousness, the actress has her say on the series’ protagonist.
“I still think Nintendo should come out and tell us what we already know, which is that Samus is trans,” She says with a wry smile and a chuckle. “People just think that we’ve misunderstood her character. They think that she’s like a mother. And it’s like, no, she’s a badass trans bounty hunter from space, okay?”
She then moves on to talk about how good The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is, stating that it’s great that Nintendo has given players control of the titular character, before circling back to her previous point, interjecting, “Also, Nintendo, call me when you make the [Metroid] movie.”
While Thorn’s comments were a little tongue-in-cheek, they’re relevant to ongoing discussions about diversity and representation within the games industry.
After years in development hell, Metroid Prime 4 finally hit shelves this week, and, while the reception has been solid, the game hasn’t lived up to the acclaim of the original trilogy.
We scored Beyond a 4/5 in our review, saying, “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is the game I wanted it to be, but I can’t say the same for anyone else. It’s a series that has been on hiatus for so long that fans have likely built up impossible expectations inside their heads that are never going to be met”.
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There’s not many women lead heroine already, I feel this one should stay as and not get reappropriated. And we can have room for a new one that’s officially trans from the get go.
I also feel people are confusing the armor for her build, her build is quite the attractive model like body.
2025-12-05 17:54:25
Another case of someone getting wrapped up in their headcanon and taking it too far by demanding actual canon be changed to match their fantasy.
I fully support playing and experiencing media however you like, and I love fan works of all kinds, especially fanfiction. But you always need to remain clear where the line between your imaginings and the actual creator’s content is. Pretending your fantasies are facts and pushing that on other people or asking the original creators to change their vision to match yours is incredibly inappropriate and disrespectful.
If you want a badass trans bounty hunter in space, go out there and make your dreams reality. Don’t demand an existing IP change to cater to your vision rather than the original creator’s.
2025-12-06 12:08:32
They won’t because they know it will FAIL hard. They need to destroy an already successful IP with a real hot female protagonist. Nobody wants this crap.
2025-12-06 22:28:00
If that’s the way they want to take the character then fair enough. The speculation has always seemed slightly like it was doing down women though, ie a big muscular character can’t have been born a woman. This isn’t some Terf type comment, I’d have no problem with Samus being trans. But it doesn’t feel it acknowledges the fact that when the character was created playing as a woman was pretty revolutionary. The games of my youth pretty exclusively had male protagonists. Outside of Samus it wasn’t really until Lara Croft that mainstream gaming accepted that a woman could be a protagonist at all. I’m sure there were games before that but that felt like a watershed moment. Again though if it turned out she’d been trans all along then it shouldn’t be an issue.
2025-12-06 07:35:47
Imagine being a character that changed the whole videogame industry for being the first female protagonist ever… just for people now to say that you’ve always been a dude.
2025-12-06 21:23:41
First off, I’m not pro or anti trans, and I’m also not into Metroid lore; it won’t bother me whether Nintendo does this or not (I doubt they will just based on some people suggesting they do it.)
But, whether she’s slim as DinDanDoo says and it’s all suit, or if she’s large and muscular… well, what’s wrong with having a muscular, powerful female protagonist? It seems a bit late after like 30 years to retcon that she’s actually trans. And it seems a bit off to me, like “A (biological) woman couldn’t possible be that strong, they must be trans”. Like, of course you can be a woman and also be ripped. But, again, it’s no skin off my nose.
2025-12-06 15:02:41
Why not just a badass woman?
Why does she have to be trans??
So dumb
2025-12-08 09:23:03
I don’t remember what material this fan theory is built on, yet doing it to Samus feels too much like the idiots who said that Abby from TLOU2 must be trans because she’s fit. I doubt Abigail Thorne holds that take on Abby, mind you.
Also, isn’t Samus like, one of, if not the first female playable protagonist of an action game, since Metroid came out in 1986 and also showed Samus without the armor suit. Lara Croft Jill Valentine showed up almost a full decade later. The Metroid series is inspired by Alien, IIRC, with Samus a sort of paralell to Ellen Ripley? I wouldn’t retcon Lara, Jill or Ripley to be trans either. They and Samus feel too established for that sort of change.
2025-12-06 17:05:52
