What’s a witch with out her darkish magical secrets and techniques? Marvel’s Agatha All Alongside miniseries has one entrance and heart. The starring flip for Kathryn Hahn’s diabolical Agatha Harkness, final seen in 2021’s WandaVision, contains a plucky younger witchy wannabe initially solely as “Teen,” and performed by Heartstopper’s Joe Locke.
The character’s actual identify has not but been acknowledged: As of tonight’s premiere episodes, there’s a transparent magic impact conserving him from revealing it. He’s listed within the credit as “Teen” and referred to within the present as “Teen.” And the forged and crew has saved his id below lock.
But when you already know something about Marvel Comics’ Scarlet Witch, Marvel magic, or the setting’s teen superheroes, you’ve obtained a strong hunch. If Locke isn’t taking part in Billy Kaplan, AKA Wiccan, it will be terribly unusual.
Billy is the teenage Marvel Comics superhero often known as Wiccan, or the Demiurge. He’s a frequent member of the Younger Avengers, on the events that that workforce is collectively and adventuring. He’s obtained innate magical powers that enable him to warp actuality just by stating what he needs to happen and specializing in that intention. And he has a magical future to develop into: It’s been prophesied that sometime he’ll develop so highly effective that he’ll have the ability to rewrite the legal guidelines of magic itself.
Which may not appear Teen’s actual id is a shoo-in. Proper now, all we all know is that he’s a teenage boy who has a boyfriend, and desires to be a witch, and that regardless that he’s type of dopey, he’s highly effective sufficient to crack the Scarlet Witch’s imprisoning phantasm round Agatha. Oh, and every time he tries to say his identify or clarify who he’s, Agatha simply hears nonsense or muted noise. Nothing that’s occurred in Agatha to this point contradicts the likelihood that Teen is an unique character, new to any Marvel timeline.
However there’s a ton of circumstantial proof suggesting that he’s Wiccan. For one: Locke is a lifeless ringer for the character design. Skinny teen boy, floppy darkish hair. Test.
For one more, Billy is a Scarlet Witch-adjacent character, and this is a Scarlet Witch-adjacent present. Within the comics, Billy is — it’s extra difficult than this, however don’t fear about it — one of many Scarlet Witch’s long-lost twin sons. Her youngsters, Billy and Tommy (or illusions of them, at the very least), have already featured in WandaVision and within the alternate universes visited in Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity. Teen might be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s means of integrating Billy into the primary timeline in a long-lasting means.
We additionally know that Teen has a boyfriend: Wiccan is one in every of Marvel’s most outstanding queer characters. He and his boyfriend Teddy (the superhero often known as Hulkling; no relation to the Hulk) have been collectively in comics for nearly 20 years.
To sum up: Billy and Teen are each witchy magic customers of sure energy, they share a sure look, they’re each linked to the Scarlet Witch, they usually’re each queer. Agatha All Alongside hasn’t revealed something that might hold Teen from being an unique character, but it surely additionally hasn’t revealed something that might hold him from being the Marvel Cinematic Universe model of Billy, both.
We’ll be watching Agatha All Alongside carefully over the remainder of its episodes, to see if it’s actually pulling a “Wiccan All Alongside,” and we’ll hold you up to date. As a result of if this isn’t Billy Kaplan, it’s the misdirect of the century.