By Marvel Studios unleashes “Agatha All Along” this Fall on Disney+ with the lead male role being played by “Heartstopper” breakout star Joe Locke.
The 20-year-old actor has received outspoken adoration from those he’s worked with and become something of a queer icon for younger generations thanks to the success of “Heartstopper” which has been a big hit for Netflix and returns with a third season in October.
He’s also playing a teenage witches’ familiar in the Marvel series, the character name officially under wraps for now but is widely reported to be comics character Billy Kaplan/Wiccan who is a member of the Young Avengers which Marvel seems to be building.
Speaking with Variety, Locke talks about his role saying the character has dimensions to him which was a big draw:
“The show never shies away from his queerness, but it’s not a defining feature of his character, it’s just one layer of him as a person.”
Upon landing the part, he learned that he wouldn’t be getting into superhero shape like so many other Marvel actors:
“I thought you get cast in a Marvel show, you get paid to get really muscly and hench. We want you to stay small and twink-y’ is basically what they said, in a very corporate way.”
Whereas the “Heartstopper” fandom has been almost universally supportive, the Marvel fandom is much bigger and much more varied with some likely set to hate the series and/or his character before watching it. Locke says he’s preparing for the reactions to his character which he expects to run the gamut:
“I’m fully aware that the Marvel fandom is far less nice than the ‘Heartstopper’ fandom. There’s going to be a lot of people that just hate everything about the character and everything about what I’ve done with it, and I just have to be OK with that. Marvel fans are very open with their opinions.”
“Agatha All Along” premieres on Disney+ on September 18th and runs through November 6th.
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