Drag Race stars feature in world’s first animated drag superhero film: ‘It’s important to have queer people seen as heroes’

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Or is it a six foot man in a towering blonde wig and pink thigh boots? If it’s the latter, you’ve probably just seen a drag queen superhero.

You could say that drag queens and superheroes are cut from the same spandex cloth. Characters clad in extravagant costumes, each with their own special skills, entertaining the masses and doing good in the world, either by saving lives or lip-syncing to Whitney Houston.

Entertainment giants are slowly starting to catch on. In 2019, Marvel revealed its first ever drag superhero: Darkveil/Shade (though she’s only appeared in comic books, not TV or film). Six years later, and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Shea Couleé joined Marvel’s miniseries Ironheart as former drag queen and non-binary hacker, Slug. We’ll take it, sure.

Before this though, drag and superhero fans had noticed the lacking crossover. Particularly director and writer, Anthony Hand. “In 2018 after seeing yet another comic book movie, I was like, ‘Where are all the queer superheroes?’,” he sighs over Zoom. A major drag fan who grew up watching 1980s Saturday morning cartoons, Hand’s brain began fizzing with inspiration. Seven years later and Maxxie LaWow: Drag Super-shero, the world’s first-ever animated drag superhero film, is on the scene, cape and all.

The film follows Simon, a bashful barista who, upon finding a magical wig while on shift, is turned into all-singing, all-dancing drag diva Maxxie LaWow. With his newfound powers (and confidence), it’s up to him to stop a dastardly plan hatched by drag villain Dyna Bolical, who is on a mission to harvest drag queen tears – an apparent anti-ageing elixir – for her cosmetics company.

It’s vivid in colour – Scooby Doo and Sailor Moon were some of Hand’s influences – big on heart, and should be a huge hit with queer animation aficionados. It’s already won numerous awards, including Best Animated film at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival. Plus, there’s an appropriately dragged up voice cast to boot: Drag Race legends including Jinkx Monsoon, BenDeLaCreme, Heidi N Closet and Rosé all crop up throughout.

For many a drag queen, getting into drag feels akin to slipping into a superhero persona. “It’s kind of a common phrase, or the idea of it at least, to refer to your drag as a suit of armour,” says Rosé, who voices multiple, minor characters in the film, including Legendary Queen. “It kind of gives you both a shield and also, I don’t know, just a costume that kind of becomes an amalgamation of super powers.” It’s a phrase she still believes about herself, eight years into her drag career: “I was like a superhero version of myself when I was in drag.”

To Rosé then, a drag queen superhero character makes perfect sense. But even a decade ago, it would have been a pie in the sky idea. Even today, while LGBTQ+ representation on screen is extensive, there are still certain forms of media that lack it – including superhero blockbusters and animation hits.

Hand knows this too well. When he initially told friends he was creating and directing a drag-centric, animated superhero film, they “didn’t get it”, and he had to crowdsource for funding too. He eventually raising over $50,000, proving how much the community has been craving something like Maxxie LaWow.

“I think that, you know, if I had seen something like this when I was a kid, I would have felt so much more seen and understood a lot more about myself,” Rosé says. “It is really important and forward-thinking to have heroes very blatantly presented as queer people.”

Hand grew up during the AIDS crisis, a time where media depictions of queer people saw them as “typically victims, typically [having] to die for the sin of being gay”. Now they can be the heroes of the story, or even the “villain, if we want to,” Hand grins.

In plot, Maxxie LaWow couldn’t be further from being a political mouthpiece. Its ideas are preposterous, big swings – Maxxie has the power to pull anything out of her wig, including on one occasion, a stripper pole – and Hand describes the film as simply “a love letter to drag”. Yet right now, with a Trump administration hellbent on depicting the LGBTQ+ community as the enemy, the film’s mere existence is political. In honesty, I’m surprised it hasn’t already been dragged through the mud by right-wing commentators and publications.

“When we have pop culture moments like this film, that’s an uplifting, positive message about the community where we can try to claw back some of that positive messaging,” says Hand, adding that it’s a chance to “reinforce that we are here, we’re wonderful people, and all these attacks are completely unwarranted”.

All people, both Rosé and Hand agree, can find joy in drag if they just allow themselves to. One of the reasons Hand created Maxxie LaWow was to honour his mother, a huge drag fan who has now watched his movie multiple times.

“There tends to be, from the conservative standpoint these days, this idea that queerness is infectious for the wrong reasons,” says Rosé, “and I have experienced so many times in my life, even with people who are friends or colleagues who know me very well, the infectiousness of drag is joy and it’s palpable. It’s real and it holds gravity.”

She believes it’s impossible to get into drag and not crack a smile, even if you’re simply laughing at how ridiculous you might look. 

“There is so much joy coded in drag. I think the only time it doesn’t feel that way is when you’ve been in it for hours and you haven’t had time to take it off,” she adds, with the sort of rip-roaring laugh that only a drag queen can muster.

Maxxie LaWow: Drag Super-shero is streaming now on Prime Video, Apple TV+, iTunes, and Fandango.