David Bridges
Whereas Marvel followers nonetheless don’t know precisely who Joe Locke is enjoying in Agatha All Alongside—formally his character’s title is “Teen,” although hypothesis has narrowed it down much more than that—the Heartstopper breakout may be very assured about what he’s bringing to the desk within the WandaVision spin-off. In a brand new interview, he talked about enjoying a queer character within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and what it means to him each personally and professionally.
Chatting with Selection, Locke says Agatha All Alongside has made him much less involved about being typecast as a homosexual character, as a result of the function he has is so advanced and multi-faceted. “The present by no means shies away from his queerness, but it surely’s not a defining function of his character,” he instructed the commerce. “It’s only one layer of him as an individual.”
Elsewhere within the article, Agatha Harkness herself, Kathryn Hahn, remembers how quickly after she began working with Locke she was impressed along with his sense of self. “He corrected me early on, as a result of I mentioned, ‘’hese witches and this attractive wizard,’” she recalled to Selection. “And he was like, ‘No, we’re all witches.’ That basically caught with me.”
Although Locke considers being in a Marvel collection “essentially the most pinch me factor,” he’s additionally able to face naysayers—even fellow members of the LGBTQ+ group—who’ve taken from the Agatha All Alongside trailers that his efficiency as “Teen” (or whoever he finally ends up being) can be a “campy homosexual stereotype.” He defined why that didn’t sit proper with him.
“It actually irritated me as a result of I used to be like, ‘You possibly can’t ask for genuine casting after which be upset when you have a camp character’ … I’m totally conscious that the Marvel fandom is way much less good than the Heartstopper fandom,” he mentioned. “There’s going to be lots of people that simply hate all the pieces in regards to the character and all the pieces about what I’ve carried out with it, and I simply should be OK with that.”
And if Agatha All Alongside consists of musical numbers, as has been rumored, Locke’s theatrical abilities will are available further helpful; earlier this yr, he starred as Tobias Ragg—following Stranger Issues‘ Gaten Matarazzo—within the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Avenue.
Agatha All Alongside, which additionally stars Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Patti LuPone, Debra Jo Rupp, Emma Caulfield Ford, and Aubrey Plaza, was created by Jac Schaeffer (Black Widow, WandaVision). It’s going to run a complete of 9 episode, and can debut with a two-episode premiere September 18 on Disney+.
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Ethan Carter
Brandon Fletcher
