Encanto director Jared Bush has teased that fathers Félix and Agustín actually have hidden gifts like the rest of the family. The film saw great commercial success and was the first Disney movie to have the No. 1 album and single on the Billboard 100. Encanto delivers a family-fun musical that deals with hard topics like generational trauma and parental expectations while doing it through music and the powers of each family member.
In Encanto, the Madrigal family is each given a unique power when they turn five years old due to the magical candle that saved the family’s Abuela Alma when she lost her husband. The candle also powers the Madrigal family’s magical house, and allows the family to better serve the community via their gifts. Mirabel, one of the grandchildren and main protagonist, must deal with finding her purpose without a special power granted by the candle, and the fathers who married into the family, Félix and Agustín, are notably powerless as well.
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However, director Jared Bush has now teased on his Twitter that Encanto's Félix and Agustín had powers all along in a way others can’t see. This is likely pointing to the film's overarching theme that everyone has their own special power within themselves, despite what Abuela Alma says, and Félix and Agustín seem to have found their place in the family without actual special powers. Checkout Bush's tease below:
Encanto's Félix and Agustín’s acceptance into the family had been restricted by Abuela Alma’s set ways of running the family, which could be why they weren’t included in the portraits of the family in the house. Mirabel repairing the house with the addition of herself and Félix and Agustín in the portraits shows that the three still have a special place in the family and their own unique traits, despite not being directly gifted from the candle. Unlike Mirabel, though, Félix and Agustín never seem to doubt their place in the family from the beginning, so adding them to the family portrait only cemented what they knew in their hearts.
While Bush may not directly mean Félix and Agustín had magical abilities, it should be comforting for audiences to know they had their own hidden gifts, even if they weren’t magical. Both are supporting, loving fathers who made a life for themselves in a broken family and show unconditional love, which is what gave the Madrigal family their gifts in the first place. Magical powers or not, Félix and Agustín certainly have their own special talents and reflect the message of Encanto that everyone can be something special.