Agatha All Along's legacy needs to be more than the MCU's "queer explosion"

ill the queer precedent set by Agatha All Along extend beyond the nine-episode series into the wider MCU?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to representing the LGBTQ+ community, whether it be cutting same-sex kisses or their films being censored in some countries due to “queer themes”. Bringing us into 2024, it’s time to cue the music, because it looks like the key to flying our pride flags in the MCU was Agatha All Along, all along.

Agatha All Along isn’t your traditional MCU series - but along with boasting a cast of LGBTQ+ actors, including Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata and Aubrey Plaza, it’s been described as a “gay explosion” by fans and cast members alike. This does make sense, as Agatha All Along definitely has the queerest cast yet, and also features legendary Broadway star Patti LuPone, a gay icon that needs no introduction.

As the MCU struggles under the weight of its own superhero saturation, it’s trying different things with experimental projects like WandaVision, Werewolf by Night, and Wonder Man. But with the world’s highest-grossing franchise still failing to balance diversity and box-ticking, Agatha All Along always had to be more than a gay pride march to prove its sceptics wrong. While introducing LGBTQ+ members of the Young Avengers and having a lesbian relationship with Death are all well and good, Agatha All Along (thankfully) ends up feeling like a story that genuinely needs to be told without just filling a quota.

Something Wiccan this way comes

Sensationalist headlines are calling Jac Schaeffer’s series the “gayest” thing the MCU has ever done, and while that may be the case, it shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a badge of honour. The cast itself has sparked this flurry of clickbait headlines, inadvertently trotting Agatha All Along out like a gay show pony due to comments made by Plaza (via Variety) on the red carpet.

The actor delivered the seemingly perfect soundbite when she said, “It will be a gay explosion by the end of it.” We understand why you’d want to promote Agatha All Along as something different, but surely it’s supposed to be more than just a diversity hire.

Thankfully, Joe Locke seems to be trying to veer away from LGBTQ+ Albatross. The Hearstopper star told Variety, “It’s got many layers and gay is one of them. That’s one of the great things about the show.” Saying that while his character of Teen (this was before the big reveal) is queer, Locke reiterated, “It’s not the driving force.” Undoubtedly though, it’s the inclusion of Locke as a queer actor of the moment and the reveal that he’s playing Wiccan - a major LGBTQ+ presence from Marvel Comics - that’s garnered the most chatter. 

Elements, like Locke’s Billy Kaplan/Maximoff having a The Wizard of Oz poster in his bedroom just to hammer home his sexuality seems a little on the nose, but considering it led to the fan-favourite episode 7 with LuPone doing her best Glinda impression, we can let that one slide. Locke also told The Wrap about the awkward inclusion of a “Not a Phase” sticker under a rainbow. While this might seem great on paper, the fact it was loosely used to tie into the show’s themes about phases of the Moon meant it had to go. Others might’ve spotted a “Trans Lives Matter” poster in Billy’s bedroom, which hopefully paves the way for Zoe Terakes’ casting as the MCU’s first trans actor in the upcoming Ironheart series.

At least it feels like Agatha All Along naturally handles the relationship between Billy and Smile 2’s Miles Gutierrez-Riley as his boyfriend, Eddie. Speaking to Out Magazine, Gutierrez-Riley discussed the honour of playing Eddie and how the MCU touches so many people through its authentic representation of different minorities.

Those up on the comics will know that Wiccan ends up with a pretty famous boyfriend in the form of another Young Avenger called Hulkling, meaning the Heartstopper fans are already waving their placards that Kit Connor should land the part. This is something Connor has downplayed, and splitting up Billy and Eddie for the sake of some sensationalist Heartstopper reunion is an easy cliché that would undo the great work surrounding Gutierrez-Riley’s casting. 

Losing chess to a dog but more embarrassing

Remember that it took the MCU 11 years to introduce its first openly gay character for Avengers: Endgame, and even then, it was the blink and miss “Grieving Guy” played by straight director Joe Russo. There was the similarly botched inclusion of Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos in Eternals, which overhyped the movie’s promise of the MCU’s first openly gay hero and led to some thinking Richard Madden’s Ikaris (the movie’s poster boy) would be portrayed as gay. 

We’ve seen a same-sex kiss for Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie land on the cutting room floor, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was censored in some countries due to a throwaway mention of “two moms”, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever cut a lesbian kiss from its script. Like the inclusion of Xochitl Gomez’s underdeveloped America Chavez as a lesbian hero wasn’t the “win” Multiverse of Madness pitched it as, at least the MCU is building a queer-friendly roster of heroes for the rumoured Young Avengers project.

Sadly, it’s a case of one step forward and two steps back, and don’t even get us started on Deadpool & Wolverine. Aside from a few jokes about butt stuff from Reynold’s Merc with a Mouth, it completely ignored the LGBTQ+ history of its leads. We always knew this was going to be a buddy comedy rather than Brokeback Mountain, but still, the MCU continues to queerbait its audiences. The MCU’s queer representation is summed up by THAT viral tweet that reads: “Getting queerbaited by Marvel is like losing chess to a dog but more embarrassing.” 

We’re supposed to lose ourselves in these fanciful stories about a tree and a raccoon exploring the cosmos or a magician using his magical ring to hop between dimensions, and yet, the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters always ends up being the biggest talking point. Anything with Patti LuPone in a starring role was always going to appeal to the hes, shes, thems, and theys, but why can’t we just enjoy the story for what it is? 

Turning 'Deadpool and Wolverine' into a bromance for laughs completely ignores the queer history of both characters

For all of Agatha All Along’s fault, at least it wears its pride…with pride. Sadly, as the MCU continues to evolve for better or for worse, it seems not all fandom is willing to. As soon as Agatha All Along debuted, it was review-bombed with all the typical cries of “woke” that Star Wars’ The Acolyte was also branded by. It’s the same unfortunate trend that saw The Last of Us’ award-winning gay episode featuring Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett bombed into oblivion. 

To Agatha All Along’s credit, the handling of Agatha’s relationship with Rio has taken a leaf out of The Last of Us’ book and lived up to Hahn’s promises that LGBTQ+ themes would be normalised without making a big deal out of it. From that premiere tease that Agatha and Rio had romantic history, to Hahn’s excellent delivery of the line, “If you want straight answers, ask a straight lady,” it became second nature. Plaza teased that things would get gayer with each episode, and with the finale pulling off the MCU’s first lesbian kiss after Wakanda Forever missed out on that honour, it feels correct that Agatha All Along gets to mark this milestone. 

Hahn herself might not identify as queer, but as a staunch ally and telling Zavvi she thinks of Agatha as a drag queen means she’s more than welcome here. She also said that the writers were “unapologetic about making these characters openly queer,” but wait a second, there should be nothing to apologise for. The show's lead at least makes a valid point about the persecution of witches saying something about the persecution of the LGBTQ+ community, but whether that’s nothing more than a convenient afterthought translated into a soundbite, it’s a little convenient. 

Faithfully representing queer stories without it coming off as virtue signalling is a tough one to pull off in a franchise as vast as the MCU, and it’s an art form that hasn’t quite been mastered yet. It all comes back to Locke, who previously told Digital Spy how the MCU is behind the times in terms of how it showcases queer voices. It’s not that there aren’t those characters out there, but as Locke reiterates, it tends to come across as superficial because we don’t dive deeper into their lives. This is why the handling of Billy and Eddie’s relationship felt so real. Like his comments about Agatha All Along having many layers, Locke says that Billy being queer isn’t his only facet.

The MCU needs fewer incidents like Griffin Matthews playing a flamboyant fashion designer in She-Hulk and more hard-hitting conversations like Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie coming out while bathed in bisexual lighting. Agatha All Along isn’t exactly subtle with its gay themes and finding kin among your tribe, and while it sometimes bashes you over the head with a rhinestone-encrusted broomstick, we can still award the MCU top marks for trying.

The question is, will the queer precedent set by Agatha All Along extend beyond the nine-episode series into the wider MCU, or is this like a hen party turning up at a drag brunch, enjoying the colourful costumes, and then going back to their straight lives? 

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Tom is a Manchester-based writer who grew up on a diet of The Simpsons and the spandex-clad X-Men. Thinking of himself as something of a Gale Weathers, Tom is something of a horror hound and goes with the mantra of, "If it bleeds, it leads." When not rewatching A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, you can find Tom writing about all things Marvel, Star Wars, and Westerosi.

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