Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Captain Jack Harkness
1. He Was Named After A Popular Marvel Villain
During the DVD commentary for The Stolen Earth, Russell T Davies reveals that he named Captain Jack Harkness after none other than Marvel's Agatha Harkness. The witch and former nanny to Franklin Richards is clearly one of RTD's favourite Marvel characters, which is presumably why he uses the name Harkness so much in his work!
In one of his earliest shows, the family fantasy series Century Falls, there are the Harkness sisters, who help the show's young lead avert the resurrection of an ancient godlike being. A few years later, RTD's hotel drama The Grand featured Esme Harkness, who was one of the titular hotel's residents. Hilariously, and purely coincidentally, the hotel was run by the suspiciously similar-sounding John Bannerman!
While Captain Jack may not return to the show anytime soon, Agatha Harkness continues to inspire Russell T Davies' approach to Doctor Who. In a recent interview, the showrunner compared Sutekh's return to WandaVision's ability to get general audiences excited about a deep-cut character like Agatha Harkness, of whom most viewers would have zero prior knowledge.
So yeah – turns out Sutekh was actually Agatha All Along.