Which Coven Academy characters are gay? Season 1 leaves one of them bitten
Coven Academy has witches, warlocks, a vampire love interest and Tiffani Thiessen running the school. It also has exactly one queer couple, and the season finale gives one of them a problem with teeth in it.
Coven Academy premiered on Freeform on October 1, 2026, as part of the channel's 31 Nights of Halloween, and the whole season landed on Disney+ and Hulu the next day, per Wikipedia. Tim Federle created the show, which follows Briar Roberts (Malina Weissman), a telekinetic teen from Brooklyn who arrives at New Orleans' Crescent Veil Academy, comes into her powers and starts digging into her mother's murder. Freeform aired it as 10 episodes; Disney+ and Hulu split it into 21 shorter chapters.
Disney+ renewed it for season 2 on October 26, per TVLine. Federle, who has described himself as a gay creator, is already fielding questions about the show's queer couple.
The queer couple: Tegan and McKenna
The confirmed queer storyline in season 1 belongs to two witches:
- Tegan Kimball (Ora Duplass): A bubbly, time-bending witch with ADHD and one of Briar's coven sisters.
- McKenna (Swayam Bhatia): Jake's stepsister, a witch who spends much of the season clashing with Briar.
TVLine's interviewer called them a favorite budding couple, and Federle answered that there's "a lot of protection around queer romance," in the post-finale interview. By the finale, Tegan and McKenna are exploring their feelings for each other, per JustWatch.
The rest of the show's romance is straight, at least so far. Briar is stuck in a triangle between Jake (Malachi Barton), a flirtatious warlock, and Ollie (Louis Thresher), an insecure vampire. Among the adults, headmistress Emma Graves (Thiessen) and teacher Peter Cole (Devon Sawa) finally make time for their long-simmering feelings. None of the coverage of season 1 confirms any other character as queer.
Who gets bitten
McKenna. During the breach of the academy's campus, a vampire bites her. The show doesn't say which vampire, and it doesn't spell out what the bite will turn her into.
It's not the only vampire twist in the finale. Ollie leaves town because of his own fledgling vampire tendencies, and Sasha (Jordan Leftwich) learns her presumed-dead brother Mason is alive and living as a vampire. Tegan, meanwhile, finds out what happened to McKenna and promises her she won't go through it alone.
The show's one queer couple got exactly one season of uncomplicated flirting before a vampire got involved. For a Freeform witch drama, that's practically a honeymoon.
What Federle says about season 2
Fans of the pair know where this kind of storyline usually goes, and Federle knows they know. He told TVLine that McKenna is facing big feelings and big consequences and that "something is going to happen," but he doesn't want the arc to turn tragic, especially with McKenna being a young woman of color.
"Really mindful of the tropes around queer tragedy."
— Tim Federle, creator, on Tegan and McKenna in season 2, to TVLine
According to TVLine's renewal report, McKenna is transitioning after the bite, and Tegan will stay by her side through whatever comes next. Federle has also called this the beginning of their story, which is about the most reassuring thing a showrunner can say about a girl who just got bitten.
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