WandaVision was for the gays in more ways than one. Aside from introducing Wanda’s son Billy, a key hero in Marvel‘s gay lore, Wanda herself resonated deeply with queer fans who saw themselves reflected in her story.
Sure, she’s not queer herself, unless you count Wanda’s nontraditional love for Vision, a non-binary android who presents as male, but her resilience and search for family in the face of loss still hits particularly hard for queer fans watching. Beyond the trauma, WandaVision was also extremely camp, especially when it came to Agatha Harkness, the “nosy neighbour” who turned a new generation gay with just a wink and a cackle.
Agatha even “came out” through song before going on to become a chart-topping icon — and it doesn’t really get gayer than that. Because what is camp, if not gay persevering?
But with Kathryn Hahn‘s turn to take the spotlight in the new series Agatha All Along, fans have been wondering if the “gay” perseveres in her first solo venture too.
First off, we must address Joe Locke‘s character, the actual “gay” in the room. Mononymously named “Teen,” much like Britney, Cher, or Madonna, the cast’s youngest witch (or witch-in-training) was revealed to be gay before Agatha’s show even came along.
Without endlessly dredging up Marvel’s less than marvellous track record with gay stuff, Teen’s position at the forefront of the show is actually a very big deal, especially with the involvement of Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke. But that didn’t stop some so-called fans from pushing back at his portrayal based off the trailer online.
Read more: Agatha All Along star Joe Locke reveals one scene completely broke him
It seems people were mad that Locke’s skinny jeans and eyeliner perpetuated a femme gay stereotype which culminated with a gay gasp in an early promo for the show. Yes, a gay gasp. How dare a gay gasp in such a fashion.
We’re worlds, even multiverses away from a time when gay characters were only portrayed as feminine in harmful stereotypes. The truth is that some queer people are just femme, and that’s just as valid as any other kind of queer representation. In fact, gay femme guys deserve to be superheroes too, and any queer person who fights that is probably battling some internalised homophobia of their own.
Part of this pushback also stemmed from the idea that Teen is actually Wiccan, Wanda’s son, who grew up to be a gay superhero in the comics. For some fans, Locke’s interpretation is too flamboyant, never mind that the MCU often deviates from the source material or that Teen might not even be Wiccan at all.
Can’t we just be happy that we finally have a gay central character at last, one who loves to sass and looks good doing it?
When Agatha first encounters Teen rummaging through her attic in Westview, she asks what the boy is looking for. His answer? “The respect of your peers and a fulfilling home life, but you were fresh out of both.” Well, damn.
More sparky than the dog Agatha killed in WandaVision, Locke’s Teen goes on to fangirl the hell out of Harkness and the other witches too in the second episode, citing Agatha’s “Salem-era” as one of his faves. And when Patti Lupone’s clairvoyant describes Agatha as the most infamous witch in America, Teen immediately calls her out and says “Name a badder bitch in South America or Europe.”
It’s giving Swiftie… If Taylor Swift was an actual witch as Republicans like to make out (No, really. Google Kandiss Taylor).
But the point is that Teen stans Agatha in the same way gays watching back home do as well. Even when she’s a bit mean to him, throwing his pen out of the window, for example, Teen’s admiration for her remains unfazed.
Gays are long used to being treated badly by their favourite divas. Just look at how long Rihanna has taken to release new music. But Teen is potentially in much more danger than the average gay stan though…
At least Locke’s character has a boyfriend to look out for him, who pops up on the phone briefly in episode two. “He worries,” says Teen after hanging up to focus on the (literal) road ahead.
It’s a small moment, but a very cute one that’s incidental without feeling like a concession to appease us. Perhaps if this had been the sole example of queerness throughout all nine episodes of Agatha All Along, then the “Boyf” caller ID might have felt forced. Thankfully, there’s a lot more going on than that.
Ahead of the show’s release, Hahn told GamesRadar that queerness is “in the bones of [Agatha All Along],” and that’s true beyond Teen’s inclusion.
The premiere’s opening credits are extremely camp in the way they jokingly channel Scandinavian cops shows. Seeing that Agnes of Westview was based on a Danish show named “Wandavisdyen” got a witch’s cackle out of me, and that’s only the beginning.
The addition of more queer actors like Sasheer Zamata and beloved queer icons like Patti Lupone — singing Broadway-style songs, no less — speaks to the queer DNA, those queer bones at the heart of this story.
Because witches have always been gay, persecuted while looking fabulous, so it’s only natural that Agatha All Along would lean into that. Well, maybe not, actually, because this is still Marvel and Disney, after all. Thankfully, the creator of Agatha All Along didn’t care and decided to gay things up anyway.
In an interview with Zavvi, Jac Schaeffer revealed that she actually thinks of Agatha as a drag queen: “Not only is she an icon, but she’s a performer above all else, and a code switcher depending on who she’s with. With all of this in mind, the writing team as a group were unapologetic about making these characters openly queer.”
This comes into play early on when Aubrey Plaza, a woman whose very existence makes the world 15% more bisexual, confronts Agatha in Westview. Her character, Rio Vidal, is revealed to be a warrior witch with a grudge and it’s not long before she attacks Harkness with a dagger.
“This isn’t what you want,” says Agatha. “Me without power. This is undignified. Don’t you want me at my best? Admit it, you prefer me-“
“Horizontal?” Rio’s technically saying she would like to see Agatha in a grave, six feet under, but the amount of sheer sexual tension that pulsates throughout this encounter suggests a very different kind of horizontal is on her mind.
Talk of “anticipation” heightens all the horniness until it full-on explodes when Rio says her heart beats for Agatha and then *licks* the palm of her hand. And it’s not just a tentative darting of the tongue either. We’re talking a full-on tongue slowly covering as much surface area as possible.
The credits roll then, reminding us through song that it’s The Season of the Witch. But if we want to be completely accurate here, it’s actually The Season of the Extremely Horny Queer Witch, and it’s about damn time.
We’re not going to spoil what comes next for Agatha and Rio, or Teen for that matter too, but just know that the mantra Be Gay Do Crime is more relevant than ever this spooky season thanks to Agatha who, with a mere swish of her cloak, is already more queer than the rest of the MCU combined.
Agatha All Along premieres with its first two episodes on Thursday, 19 September.
