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Tyrus forever!
Disney Channel’s groundbreaking series Andi Mack, which featured the network’s first character to come out as gay, concluded Friday night with the introduction of the network’s first gay teen couple.
It was announced in April that the popular show’s third season finale would also serve as its series finale.
Andi Mack made history and headlines in October 2017 when 13-year-old Cyrus Goodman (Joshua Rush) confided in friends Andi (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and Buffy (Sofia Wylie) that he had a crush on Andi’s boyfriend, Jonah (Asher Angel), marking the start of Disney Channel’s first coming-out storyline. The GLAAD Media Award-winning series made history again in February when Cyrus became the first Disney Channel character to say “I’m gay.”
In the final episode, which featured a group singalong of Lady Gaga’s LGBTQ anthem “Born This Way,” Cyrus reunited with friend TJ (Luke Mullen). The young men shared an intimate moment at a party—“Is there anything else you wanna tell me?”—that indicated they would began dating. Oh, the hand-holding! The knowing smiles! The unsullied innocence!
“i can tell you now: tyrus endgame canon and confirmed,” Rush tweeted, referring to the characters’ ship portmanteau, so it’s Twitter official.
“Honored to be a part of such a groundbreaking show,” Mullen wrote. “I hope my character can inspire people to be proud of who they are and love who they love.”
guys, gals, and nb pals, i can now tell you: tyrus endgame canon and confirmed
— joshua rush (@JoshuaRush) July 27, 2019
TYRUS. IS. ENDGAME https://t.co/mhHzXwLred
— Luke Mullen (@thelukemullen) July 27, 2019
Honored to be apart of such a groundbreaking show. I hope my character can inspire people to proud of who they are and love who they love. #AndiMack #tyrusisendgame
— Luke Mullen (@thelukemullen) July 27, 2019
Andi Mack creator and showrunner Terri Minsky spoke to Paste about the special moment—and why Tyrus didn’t share what would have been a historic TV kiss.
“I feel like… they’re still in middle school, you know,” she explained. “And I know that people do things in middle school, but I guess I feel like it’s so. much. for, you know, the captain of the basketball team, to hold hands with a boy in the middle of a party. Like, the look on his face? I feel like a kiss, in a way, would have not been realistic to these characters.”
“A lot of that story, a lot of that journey between Cyrus and TJ was subtext, and I think that whatever they were saying to each other, they weren’t actually saying in words,” Minsky continued. “And even that final conversation isn’t explicit. I love that they have that moment reaching for each other and holding hands, in my mind, in the world that we live in, in the story of this relationship, that is a lot.”
“In terms of the story, it didn’t need a kiss. Adding a kiss would have been doing it just to do it, to be first, and I didn’t want that. I would love if we were going to go on and have another season or another story, I would love to have the first LGBTQ kiss on Disney.”
Andi Mack/The Disney Channel
“With more and more young people coming out as LGBTQ, Andi Mack is reflecting the lives and lived experiences of so many LGBTQ youth around the country,” said GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis in a previous statement. “Television reflects the real life world and today that includes LGBTQ youth who deserve to see their lives depicted on their favorite shows.”
“Andi Mack was a labor of love for a room of impassioned, inventive writers, a talented and dedicated crew, and an extraordinary, miraculous cast who inspired us all,” said Minsky in the cancellation announcement. “We had the honor of breaking a lot of new ground for Disney Channel. We were its first serialized show, its first series centered around an Asian American family, and its first to feature an LGBTQ character who spoke the words ’I’m gay.’ But the best part of making Andi Mack was our audience, who let us know we mattered to them. The series finale is for them.”
Andi Mack, which premiered in April 2017, became Disney Channel’s most-watched series overall and its highest-rated show among kids aged 6-14.
Disney Channel, a leader in LGBTQ inclusion, introduced a pair of lesbian moms in a 2014 episode of Good Luck Charlie. Disney XD’s animated series Gravity Falls featured a gay male couple in 2016.
Watch Andi Mack’s sweet gay goodbye below.
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