Julian Hilliard: A gay superhero, two gay-coded boys, victims of ghosts and demons, Elijah Wood, and Shannon Kook. With some n*de costars

 


I decided to research Julian Hilliard based on this photo on the teen idol site.   He asks "Who is Craig?" and answers: "really goofy, friendly, funny." Obviously his boyfriend.

As of this writing, Julian is only 14.  Few guys have figured out that they're gay by that age, and even fewer have the guts to post about it openly in their social media.  

But maybe his coming out process was facilitated by playing a gay character: Billy Maximoff.

In the Marvel comics tv series Wandavision (2021), Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, is memory-erased and trapped in a series of sitcoms, along with her husband Vision (Wanda-Vision, get it?) and various residents of Westview, New Jersey.   Vision is dead in the real world, and their two sons, Billy (Julian) and Tommy (Jett Klyne), were created to maintain the illusion, so when Wanda learns the truth and releases the town from its curse, her husband and sons cease to exist.

Or do they?


In Agatha All Along (2024), the witch Agatha Harkness takes on a sort of apprentice, whom everyone  calls Teen because he  can't reveal his real name due to a sigil.  In a big reveal, we learn that he is Billy Maximoff, memory-wiped and moved into the body of Billy Kaplan, who died in an auto accident just as Wanda was releasing the town from its curse. 

Teen (Joe Locke) is gay, with a boyfriend who appears in two episodes.

In the comics, Billy came out in 2013, and  joined the Young Avengers as the superhero Wiccan, Marvel's first gay Jewish superhero.  He dated and eventually married Hulking (no relation to the Incredible Hulk).



Did the producers know that Julian was gay when they cast him as Billy in 2021?  Was he already out at age ten?  Or did he figure it out during his research into the role?

To determine the answer, I'll check his other acting roles and social media.  Julian was born in Dallas in 2011, into a show biz family: Mom is an actress, Dad a producer/director.  I didn't find anything of immediate gay interest in their works.






His first starring role was in The Haunting of Hill House (2018): A family moves into Hill House in 1992, and is forced to leave due to the haunting.  26 years later, the grown-up children must return. Gulp.  

Julian plays Young Luke, seen here with Young Steven (Paxton Singleton). 







The adult Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is a struggling heroin addict, and the adult Steven (Michael Huisman, left) a writer whose book about the haunting became a best-seller, alienating his family.  Both are heterosexual, but their sister Theodora is a lesbian.  So some gay representation in Julian's first major acting gig.

More after the break







 Julian next appeared in The Color Out of Space (2019), based on the Lovecraft short story.  A mysterious meteor crashes onto the alpaca farm of Nathan (Nicholas Cage) and his family, with dire consequences.  For instance, his wife and son (Julian) are fused together in a "monstrous mass" and attack. Fusing with your mother has some gay-coded Freudian symbolism, and the friendly hydrologist Ward (Elliot Knight, butt left) doesn't display any heterosexual interest.




Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2010) sends detectives Tiago and Lewis (Daniel Zovato, Nathan Lane) to solve a murder in 1938 Los Angeles. For some reason they have Nathan Lane playing a straight guy, but there are gay characters, notably Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladis) and his boyfriend, Kurt (Dominic Sherwood, who got in trouble for referring to his costar as a f*g)

Julian has a recurring role as Tom Craft, son of German immigrant Peter Craft.  He befriends Frank  (Santino Bernard), without realizing that he is one of the manifestations of the demon Magda, who has designs on Peter.

A gender-swapped gay subtext buddy bond in a tv show with gay characters.  Things are looking good.



After playing Billy Maximoff in Wandavision (2021) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Julian continued his interest in horror with The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021).   The first victims of the demonic curse are a lesbian couple.  Then it takes over David Glantzel (Julian), but his sister's boyfriend (Ruairi O'Connor) offers himself instead, so it takes over him and stabs his landlord to death. Real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take over the case.

David Glantzel returns in The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025), as the Warrens investigate a demon pestering the Smurf family...sorry, I mean the Smurls. 

Turns out that the "Who is Craig?" post is just a gay tease. Casey Makes a Mixtape (2025) is about a girl named Casey in small-town Texas in 1981, who tries to ...um, make a mixtape (better than those one-word titles that could refer to anything).  Julian plays her friend, Craig.  The trailer doesn't show them falling in love, but Craig is identified as straight by his "Disco Sucks" t-shirt. Straight men disapproved of disco because of its popularity in gay clubs.

So gay and gay-adjacent roles as a child, but the moment he hits his teen years, "Disco Sucks."  And no boyfriend.  This is quite a disappointment.

I'll check the rest of his Instagram and Facebook anyway.


No girl- or -guy hugging photos. He poses with Shannon Kook and Elijah Wood, both co-stars, and goes to events with his Wandavision co-star Jett.   In one photo, Jett tries to lick him, but given their ages, I'll interpret it as kids being goofy rather than a romantic gesture.

His Valentine's Day bag appears to have Pride flags.  Or maybe they're just rainbows.

He wishes his followers Happy Pride, and is told that he should play Wiccan from now on instead of "that twink Joe Locke."  Why, because Joe Locke is gay in real life?

I can't tell for sure, but the Craig tease was probably unintentional, suggesting that it never occurred to Julian that fans might think he had a boyfriend.  Ergo he's probably straight. Bummer


See also: Gerran Howell: The hot doc from "The Pitt" plays a vampire, troubled teens, and Ozma's boyfriend, speaks Welsh, drops his trousers.  With Oliver Jackson-Cohen.








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