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Just before its release on Disney+, a headline about the new Marvel series Agatha All Along—a spinoff of the popular series WandaVision—went viral. Cast and crew described the show as “the gayest project Marvel has ever done,” a proclamation which, unsurprisingly, turned a lot of heads.
Many responded to the remark with a healthy dose of incredulity. Those familiar with Marvel and Disney content noted that this being their “gayest project” is a pretty low bar to clear.
It’s hard to forget the time Marvel announced their first gay movie character in Eternals only for him to be personally responsible for Hiroshima. Or the time Star Wars—a Disney franchise—promised queer representation that turned out to be two background characters smooching for a split second.
Some worried this would be another instance of queerbaiting, ie. media producers teasing queer content without delivering on their promise. Many feel Marvel cannot be trusted in this regard, and doing so is a fool’s errand. As a viral tweet reads: “getting queerbaited by the Marvel Cinematic Universe is like losing chess to a dog.”
Now that two episodes of the show have been released, fans were surprised to find that the soundbite wasn’t as much of an exaggeration as suspected. Heartstopper star Joe Locke’s character is canonically gay, and Patti LuPone brings her campy Broadway flair to the MCU.
But much of the discussion online has centered on the relationship between Kathryn Hahn (who plays Agatha) and Aubrey Plaza’s characters. Their chemistry is off-the-charts, and they seem to have the dynamic of a couple of unhinged ex-girlfriends. If Plaza is to be believed, their chemistry will end in a “gay explosion.”
Several years ago, fans might have worried that their relationship—which is undefined as of yet—is yet another example of queerbaiting. But the cast and crew’s open discussion of the show’s queer elements has fans hopeful, for once.
“This is the sexiest scene in MCU history and it’s not even close,” one fan on X wrote about a scene where Plaza inexplicably licks Hahn’s fingers. “I knew that #AgathaAllAlong was going to be gay, but I didn’t realize it was going to be GAYYYYYYYYY!” wrote another. Despite Locke’s inclusion in the series, it’s the sapphic tension that has captured queer fans thus far.
Though many have professed their enjoyment of the show, familiar debates about diversity and representation within franchises have re-emerged. On Reddit, several users compared press about the show to the Star Wars series The Acolyte, which was billed as the “gayest Star Wars” ever, only to receive a huge amount of backlash before being canceled by Disney. Some suggested this marketing technique is a way to shield the series from critique and use homophobia as an excuse if it gets canceled.
Fans of the show are doing their best to ignore—or laugh at—the haters, suggesting that it’s not made for them. “#AgathaAllAlong is for the gays and the girlies only,” one fan wrote. “straight men on tiktok saying they hated the first two episodes of the show like baby you don’t even get it go watch iron man or something then!” wrote another. In a rare moment of agreement, one hater concurred with this assessment, claiming that “Agatha All Along is NOT a show made for Marvel Comics fans or men in general.”
Why it matters
Popular media is often overdetermined these days, as shows and movies become laden with extraneous meaning and swept up in political debates. Depending on who you talk to, Agatha All Along is either bad for the children, (as a right-wing news host recently alleged, calling it a gay “recruiting video”), good for the gays, or responsible for the downfall of the MCU.
We’ve seen this conflict time and time again, as MCU and Star Wars fans rail against anything they see as straying too far from the norms or the lore of the franchise.
On the other hand, fans of Agatha All Along—especially queer fans—are trying to create a bubble of positivity around a show that some see as destined to fail. If the fate of The Acolyte is any indication, this endeavor may be an uphill battle.
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