This is the Sunday Edition of Paging Dr. Lesbian. If you like this type of thing, subscribe, and share it with your friends. Upgrade your subscription for more, including weekly dispatches from the lesbian internet and monthly playlists.

It’s happening again: the Katie McGrath fever.

Longtime PDL readers may recall the piece I wrote a couple of years ago about McGrath and her passionate fanbase. For the uninitiated, McGrath is an Irish actress known for playing sapphic roles (Dracula, Dates, Secret Bridesmaids' Business) should-be-lesbian roles (Supergirl), hot witches (Merlin), and having a jawline that could cut glass. McGrath has no social media presence to speak of, is rarely seen in public, and her birthday isn’t even listed on Wikipedia. Her fans – who are primarily lesbians and queer women – eagerly await new content from their beloved, subsisting in the meantime on SuperCorp gifs and old interview clips. 

Recently, Katie McGrath fans have received a much-awaited offering in the form of the upcoming Peacock series The Continental. Set in the 1970s, the show is a spin-off of the John Wick movies and follows the goings-on at the Continental hotels, which serve as neutral ground for members of the criminal underworld. McGrath plays The Adjudicator, a member of the High Table whose job it is to enforce the rules and look fashionable. (The Adjudicator was played by Asia Kate Dillon in the films.) 

In the first trailer for the series, released in April, McGrath only appears for a split second, yet it was enough to put fans in a tizzy and get McGrath trending on Twitter. The second trailer features McGrath for a sizable five seconds, including two striking silhouette shots and an entire line: “Well, that’s lovely.” (Another version of the trailer has her calling someone a “silly boy” and saying “how foolish of you.”) McGrath was trending once again when the second trailer dropped in August, with fans describing themselves as “feral” in response. 

The Adjudicator does not appear to be a main character in The Continental, yet a cursory search for the series on Twitter yields almost exclusively Katie McGrath content. Jon Cryer, who played McGrath’s villainous older brother in Supergirl, put it best when he wrote “Katie McGrath stans… Activate!” in response to the trailer. Indeed, activation is an apt description here, as some fans have described themselves as coming out of hibernation as a result of the series. 

The queer nature of McGrath’s fandom is readily apparent, and this dynamic manifests itself in a few different ways. That McGrath’s three canonically queer roles have engendered her a lesbian fanbase is not surprising. What is more interesting is the way queerness is understood to seep into all of her roles, canonically queer or not. Her performance as Lena Luthor on Supergirl – in which she plays one-half of the popular ship SuperCorp – is the most obvious example of this, but many fans believe everything she touches becomes gay. “I just watched Dracula, and I gotta say that it has proven to me once and for all that Katie McGrath is simply unable to play any role that requires her to be a “friend of a woman” LOL,” one fan noted on the r/supergirlTV subreddit. “At least in this Lucy was actually a lesbian. Usually it's just supposedly straight Katie oozing gay from every pore,” another user responded.

According to my official Katie McGrath correspondent, Jazz (@DerpSwan on Twitter), McGrath’s support of her queer fans is part of the reason this fandom is so enthusiastic. “She's been so accepting and defensive of queer fans and their experiences that she won the hearts of many,” Jazz explained. McGrath has always supported fans who ship her characters in lesbian relationships, whether it be Lena on Supergirl or Morgana on Merlin. One of her most famous quotes is “You cannot make a show without lesbianism.” Fans of McGrath also appreciate her kindness, Jazz told me. Katie McGrath fan accounts are filled with anecdotal stories of her going out of her way to support her castmates, crew, and fans. She’s been known to mail letters back to fans thanking them for their artwork or gifts. Despite her lack of digital presence, she is far from inaccessible, and what fans have seen of her personality makes them love her even more.

In the eyes of McGrath’s fans, every character she plays is rife with the possibility of queer subtext, readings McGrath herself presumably supports. With each role she takes, her lesbian fandom is there to cheer for her. While those on the outside looking in might not understand these fans’ passion, there’s no doubt it’s good for business. SuperCorp fans have largely kept the excitement for Supergirl – which ended in 2021 and is now streaming on Netflix – alive. (SuperCorp is also the most popular lesbian couple on Archive of Our Own.) This dynamic between streaming services and fans has become more common as of late. Think of the sudden popularity of the USA series Suits, which has become one of the most-watched shows on Netflix despite ending several years ago. Streamers like Netflix tend to do very little to promote the shows on their platforms, instead relying on fans to do the work for them. 

Promotion and/or artistic creation by fans is sometimes referred to as fan labor, and the practice has become even more pervasive as the amount of content available to fans expands. Peacock doesn’t seem to be doing much to promote The Continental on social media, and most of the discussion generated about the show is from fans of Katie McGrath. This fan hype is even more significant for streamers and studios during the strike, as actors are unable to promote their projects themselves. 

When I spoke to Jazz about this, she said she doesn’t see it through the lens of labor. She told me it’s “more so about our excitement at seeing her, and telling current fans about her work” than it is about promotion. It’s clear that fans take a lot of pleasure in sharing and engaging with Katie McGrath content, and they do it for each other rather than for some faceless corporation. The reward is in the act itself, not just the end result.

Such affections are especially complex when it comes to lesbian and queer fans. Lesbian shows and films have historically received less publicity than their mainstream counterparts, and fans often take it upon themselves to do this promotion. We saw this routine play out with the Netflix series First Kill, as showrunner Felicia D. Henderson alleged that the series’ cancellation was the result of poor marketing. (Fans of the series championed it on social media, but this fervor wasn’t enough to save it.) More recently, a new Taylor Sheridan series, Special Ops: Lioness, appeared on Paramount+ with little fanfare – except for the enthusiastic responses from fans of its lesbian storyline. 

In most cases, networks and streamers capitalize off of this fan labor without actually doing anything to acknowledge these fans. Adding lesbian elements to a show is a surefire way to garner a devoted fanbase, yet these storylines aren’t always treated with care. In the case of McGrath, it’s unclear if producers or showrunners are aware of her devout, migratory group of fans. Intentional or not, the addition of Katie McGrath to any cast is a foolproof strategy for attracting a deliriously thirsty fanbase. McGrath’s gay ducklings will continue to follow her around for as long as she’s working, regardless of whether she ever gets cast as the bossy power lesbian of our dreams.

This is the state of media today – run by out-of-touch studios and streamers, but powered by fans. Despite a history of poor treatment by writers and producers, lesbian and queer fans are exceedingly faithful to the objects of their affection. McGrath’s fandom illustrates this fact with marked clarity, even if sightings of the mysterious woman are few and far between. Her jawline may be covered by a sinister mask this time around, but her power is no less impressive.