Marvel just recast a major MCU character, but there's a good reason why

Marvel has recast a character in the Disney Plus series Agatha All Along, surprising many MCU fans but there’s a good reason why this has happened.

The latest Marvel series Agatha All Along, a sequel to 2021’s WandaVision, premiered on Disney Plus in September this year and it’s proving to be a hit with MCU fans. At the time of writing, Agatha All Along has scored 83% from critics and 81% from the audience on the aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.

Check out the Agatha All Along trailer below!

“A spell-bound Agatha Harkness regains freedom thanks to a teen's help. Intrigued by his plea, she embarks on the Witches' Road trials to reclaim her powers and discover the teen's motivations,” reads the synopsis of Agatha All Along.

Before we proceed, we are about to venture into spoilers for this series but I will try to be as vague as I possibly can. However, consider this to be your spoiler warning.

Other than Agatha, the other main character is one named “Teen” who has a sigil imposed that prevents him from saying his real name. Before the most recent episode, many suspected that he was one of Wanda Maximoff’s twin sons, Tom or Billy.

Well, it’s since been revealed that Teen is Billy Kaplan, yet some fans are puzzled as the actor who plays him in Agatha All Along, Joe Locke, is nearly 10 years older than the boy who played the version of the character seen in WandaVision, Julian Hilliard.

As spotted by ComicBook, Julian Hilliard responded positively to the recast in Agatha All Along. “Joe Locke is awesome y’all… I fully support whatever role he plays in the MCU,” he tweeted.

Still, fans were wondering why the character was recast and Redditor Drearyghost1361 explained when responding to a fellow member on the thread.

“In the comics, the twins are retroactively reincarnated," they began.

“Their souls went back in time and inhabited the bodies that would become Billy Kaplan (Wiccan) and Tommy Shepherd (Speed), who are physically identical except for their hair colour despite being born to different parents before Wanda even made the wish,” they continued. “They also have no memory of their previous lives, at least initially.”

“We have no idea if this is how it will work in Agatha All Along, of course, and if you're wondering where Tommy is, there are rumours he'll be in VisionQuest, which is the third in this pseudo-anthology series, but I think that's all we know.”

So, there you have it, the most likely explanation for the recast and the nearly 10-year age gap is that Billy is a reincarnation.

The sixth episode of Agatha All Along airs this Wednesday on Disney Plus with the series concluding with a double-bill on 30 October 2024.