Julian Hiliard: Gay superhero, gay-vague German boy, 19th century aesthete. With bonus Nicholas Cage and Ruairi O'Connor

Instagram suggested that I follow  "Julian Hillard," who has 183,000 followers: "gamer, dog lover, actor."

Never heard of him, until I started doing research, and realized that I had seen him in several movies and tv shows.

He was born in Dallas in 2011, and began acting in 2012.  He was nominated for a Young Actor Award for his performance as the young Luke Crain in The Haunting of Hill House in 2018.

The adult Luke Crain, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, is gay-vague.

Julian appears in nine episodes of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020), about paranormal events in Los Angeles in 1938.  His Tom Craft meets and becomes best friends with German refugee Frank (Santino Barnard).  

Hudson West (right) plays his older brother, Trevor.

Julian played Billy Maximoff, son of The Scarlet Witch, in Wandavision (2021) and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022).   Billy is gay in the Marvel Comics and in Agatha All Along, where he is played by Joe Locke.  

More after the break

Julian has some gay representation going on at an early age.  No indication of whether he is gay in real life -- if he's growing up in a heteronormative environment, he may not even know yet.  But this 19th century Aesthete outfit is gay-coded.

Julian in London.  I love the books.

Disenfranchised urban youth.

Julian has also played the son of Jack Gardner (Nicholas Cage) in an adaption of the H.P. Lovecraft story The Color Out of Space (2019).

And a boy possessed by a demon in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), with Patrick Wilson as the Exorcist.

To get some beefcake in, Ruairi O'Connor, who played the older sister's boyfriend, is in the top photo, and here's a young Nicholas Cage.

Back to Julian: blowing out the candles on his 13th birthday cake.

He says that he wants to be in a zombie Apocalypse movie, but I'd prefer some more gay-vague or gay roles.

Or a guest spot on The Simpsons. 

See also: Agatha All Along: Gay teen and witch trapped in a bad tv show world.

Angels in America: A Tearjerker about AIDS, Mormons, and some 1950s guys  With Patrick Wilson

Gavin's Cute/Cool Photos, Part 4: A boy and his bicycle, a boy and his stuntman, Kelton Dumont, Santa Claus, and some n*de dudes.