Watch: 'Agatha All Along' Pays Off with Queer Representation, and the Show's Cast Are There for It
After years of teasing, with a hint here and a mention there, an MCU series is finally delivering some substantial LGBTQ+ representation on "Agatha All Along." The cast opened up about it to Variety at a red carpet event for the premiere of the new show, which debuts today, Sept. 18, on Disney+.
"Let's talk about the chemistry between you and Aubrey Plaza," Variety's Marx Malkin told series star Kathryn Hahn at the event. "I'm talking, there was, like, a 'Law and Order' meet 'Bound' meets 'Basic Instinct' [vibe] in that first episode."
Exclaiming that Malkin's sense of sapphic chemistry between the characters was his own interpretation, Hahn nonetheless did not dispute his impression; rather, she commented on how the show's queer vibes are "normalized" since "that is not exactly what it is about" — a notion that was echoed by co-star Joe Locke.
"It's got many layers and gay is one of them," Locke — who also stars in the queer romance hit "Heartstopper" on Netflix — told the entertainment news outlet.
"That's one of the great things about the show," Locke went on to add, before saying that his character, Teen, "is a queer guy on the show, but [his being queer] is not the driving force, which I think is really great. It's really nice to just have these positive queer characters."
Teen's actual identity is kept under wraps well into the nine-episode series, but fan speculation theorizes that he might turn out to be at TV version of gay comic book character Wiccan, otherwise known as Billy Maximoff. Wiccan is the son of Wanda Maximoff, a superhero known as Scarlet Witch. If that's who Teen really is, then he shares DNA with the show that "Agatha All Along" is spun off from, the 2021 sensation "WandaVision," in which Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) used magic to create a comfortable private reality for herself and deceased partner Vision (Paul Bettany).
In "Agatha All Along," Agatha Harkness (Hahn), a notorious witch robbed of her powers and left stranded in Scarlet Witch's conjured reality, is brought back to her true self and undertakes a perilous journey to regain her magical abilities. She's accompanied by a makeshift coven that includes fellow stars Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata, Debra Jo Rupp, and Ali Ahn, with Locke's Teen tagging along. Adversaries bent on revenge chase after the group, though, and Aubrey Plaza's character, a witch called Rio Vidal, promises her own brand of revenge.
There's some queer energy flowing among the fractious group, along with supernatural seals and spells.
Zamata, described by Variety as "a 'Saturday Night Live' player [who] came out as queer in an interview earlier this month with LGBTQ outlet Them," told the publication that she "would agree with that" when informed that the show has already gained a rep as being "the gayest project Marvel has ever done..."
"You'll see when you watch," Zamata added, going on to observe that "Witches are queer, inherently, just because we are outcasts and set aside for many reasons."
"This show shows a really good representation of different types of people," Zamata went on to say, "and that we can all use the power we have within to go forward and be great."
"Aubrey Plaza, who said in interview with the Advocate in 2016 that she falls in love with men and women, was tightlipped about details," Variety narrated, "but cracked about 'Agatha,' 'It will be a gay explosion by the end of it.'"
If so, it's high time. MCU shows have long dangled the prospect of queer characters, only for those teases not to be realized — as was the case with "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" — or to be minimized to the point of near-meaninglessness, as with "Loki," which thrilled fans with an early blink-and-you'd-miss-it acknowledgement of the trickster god's gender fluidity, then introduced a female version of Loki but barely mentioned his pansexual nature.
To watch Malkin's conversations with Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, and Aubrey Plaza, follow this link.
Here's hoping for a dose of real enchantment on "Agatha All Along." Watch a preview for the show below.