Could ‘Agatha All Along’ face the same fate as ‘The Acolyte’?

We’re only a few episodes in, but Marvel Television’s latest endeavor, Agatha All Along, has already activated the “anti-woke mob”—and it’s all eerily reminiscent of the criticism surrounding a little-known Star Wars show, The Acolyte, which people were totally normal about … right? Right?!

I’ve chimed in on The Acolyte discourse before, but for the sake of my argument here, I’ll reiterate some of my talking points. In short, having an opinion about a TV show or movie is perfectly fine. Being straight-up sexist, homophobic, and racist on main? Not fine, actually! And now, a corner of the internet is baselessly spewing the same vitriol onto the newest MCU show, Agatha All Along. So how did we get here?

First, let’s go back to June 2024. Essentially, one side of the Star Wars fandom seemed to enjoy showrunner Leslye Headland’s slow-burn mystery-thriller The Acolyte when it debuted on Disney+ while others adamantly despised it, generating a truly headache-inducing sludge of weekly discourse that continued for all eight episodes. The series, which featured a female lead and—gasp!—dared to introduce LGBTQ+ characters to the mix might not’ve been perfect, but the digital warfare between its core group of dedicated fans and its haters certainly shouldn’t have escalated to the point it did.

Now that we’re caught up on The Acolyte saga, Agatha All Along is here, and based on what we’ve seen so far—on top of some cheeky remarks from its cast—we could be in for Marvel’s “gayest” TV show yet. With the miniseries already repeating some of The Acolyte’s not-so-greatest hits, it’s worth asking: will Agatha All Along suffer a similar fate?

To absolutely no one’s surprise, people are being weird about Agatha All Along

Going off of reviews alone, things are actually looking up for Agatha All Along. The WandaVision spinoff currently sits at an 81% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it well above previous Marvel Television endeavors like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and the ill-fated Secret Wars. Comparatively, The Acolyte sits at just 18%. The general consensus is that Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness is just as devilishly charming and witty as ever, with Joe Locke’s Teen and Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal being promising supporting characters.

So far, Marvel has kept the nature of Agatha and Rio’s relationship somewhat ambiguous, but it’s safe to assume that the two witches share something of a … history. If the show ends up confirming their past (?) romance in the coming episodes instead of doing the usual “will they, will they not” sort of thing, we could see the same homophobes who scrutinized The Acolyte crawling out of the woodwork again to attack Agatha All Along, based purely on their distaste of same-sex romances. To them, it’s not a matter of how good the show actually is, but rather, a part of Disney’s so-called “woke agenda.” Yawn.

In reality, it’s probably not all that black-and-white, but this is the internet, after all—where nuance and rationality go to die. I think Agatha All Along might be spared of similar bad faith sentiments if the chemistry between Rio and Agatha (and maybe even Teen and his boyfriend) is believable and the story is stronger than The Acolyte, which admittedly suffered from stilted dialogue, among other things. But let’s be real: a lot of these aren’t real criticisms. Complaining about LGBTQ+ representation or well-written female characters will get you absolutely nowhere, even if some view the cancelation of The Acolyte as a “win.” And bullying the cast and crew in real life? Truly bizarre behavior.

It’s also worth noting that Disney has recently come under fire for supposedly making releases like Inside Out 2 and even X-Men ’97 “less gay” (per a damning IGN report). Not very “woke” of them! So if you want to moan about corporate diversity attempts and studios’ long and storied history of sidelining LGBTQ+ characters, that’s one thing, but the MCU isn’t exactly known for its gay heroes, of which there are very, very few.

Still, I wouldn’t put it past some of these toxic Marvel fans to bash Agatha All Along for its LGBTQ+ representation, but really, maybe think about what you’re actually trying to say before you review-bomb what others consider to be a good show, yeah? The Acolyte backlash and its subsequent cancelation are veritable proof that studios are listening to what we have to say in online spaces, and I don’t think it benefits anyone if shows like The Acolyte get axed before they ever have the chance to improve.

Agatha All Along is a refreshing change of pace for the MCU (and just a blast, really), so while it’s perfectly fine to harbor opinions about the show, again, think long and hard about if you actually have an issue with its musical numbers, plot, or characters, or if your personal biases are just poking through. Because seriously, I don’t think anyone wants a repeat of The Acolyte discourse anytime soon.