What’s a witch without her dark magical secrets? Marvel’s Agatha All Along miniseries has one front and center. The starring turn for Kathryn Hahn’s diabolical Agatha Harkness, last seen in 2021’s WandaVision, features a plucky young witchy wannabe initially only as “Teen,” and played by Heartstopper’s Joe Locke.
The character’s real name has not yet been stated: As of tonight’s premiere episodes, there’s a clear magic effect keeping him from revealing it. He’s listed in the credits as “Teen” and referred to in the show as “Teen.” And the cast and crew has kept his identity under lock.
But if you know anything about Marvel Comics’ Scarlet Witch, Marvel magic, or the setting’s teen superheroes, you’ve got a solid hunch. If Locke isn’t playing Billy Kaplan, AKA Wiccan, it would be extraordinarily strange.
Who is Billy Kaplan?
Billy is the teenage Marvel Comics superhero known as Wiccan, or the Demiurge. He’s a frequent member of the Young Avengers, on the occasions that that team is together and adventuring. He’s got innate magical powers that allow him to warp reality simply by stating what he wishes to occur and focusing on that intention. And he has a magical destiny to grow into: It’s been prophesied that someday he will grow so powerful that he will be able to rewrite the laws of magic itself.
That might not seem Teen’s real identity is a shoo-in. Right now, all we know is that he’s a teenage boy who has a boyfriend, and wants to be a witch, and that even though he’s kind of dopey, he’s powerful enough to crack the Scarlet Witch’s imprisoning illusion around Agatha. Oh, and whenever he tries to say his name or explain who he is, Agatha just hears nonsense or muted noise. Nothing that’s happened in Agatha so far contradicts the possibility that Teen is an original character, new to any Marvel timeline.
But there’s a ton of circumstantial evidence suggesting that he’s Wiccan. For one: Locke is a dead ringer for the character design. Skinny teen boy, floppy dark hair. Check.
For another, Billy is a Scarlet Witch-adjacent character, and this is a Scarlet Witch-adjacent show. In the comics, Billy is — it’s more complicated than this, but don’t worry about it — one of the Scarlet Witch’s long-lost twin sons. Her kids, Billy and Tommy (or illusions of them, at least), have already featured in WandaVision and in the alternate universes visited in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Teen could be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s way of integrating Billy into the main timeline in a lasting way.
We also know that Teen has a boyfriend: Wiccan is one of Marvel’s most prominent queer characters. He and his boyfriend Teddy (the superhero known as Hulkling; no relation to the Hulk) have been together in comics for almost two decades.
To sum up: Billy and Teen are both witchy magic users of certain power, they share a certain look, they’re both linked to the Scarlet Witch, and they’re both queer. Agatha All Along hasn’t revealed anything that would keep Teen from being an original character, but it also hasn’t revealed anything that would keep him from being the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Billy, either.
We’ll be watching Agatha All Along closely over the rest of its episodes, to see if it’s really pulling a “Wiccan All Along,” and we’ll keep you updated. Because if this isn’t Billy Kaplan, it’s the misdirect of the century.
