Agatha All Along actor Joe Locke opens up about portraying a gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The next Marvel Studios TV show that will be coming out of the MCU timeline this fall is Agatha All Along, serving as the first WandaVision spinoff series after Kathryn Hahn’s debut as Agatha Harkness. The Marvel TV series will explore Agatha after the events of WandaVision and her path to gaining her powers back after what Scarlet Witch did to her in the finale.
In a new feature piece by Variety, Locke shared his thoughts on joining the MCU, as well as some of the responses to him playing a gay character in the franchise. To Locke, who is openly gay himself, he felt it was contradictory of Marvel fans to initially call for “authentic casting,” only to then call his character “a campy gay stereotype,” sharing the following:
I’ve never really thought about it. It’s one of those things that gets a bit stressful if you think about it too much. But being in a Marvel series is the most pinch me thing. […] 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.
It was like, ‘Oh, why has Marvel done this campy gay stereotype?’ It really annoyed me because I was like, ‘You can’t ask for authentic casting and then be upset if you have a camp character.’ 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. But they’re not in a Marvel show, so [blows a raspberry]. I’m doing the one thing that they really wish they could be doing. Sorry!
Who Is Joe Locke Actually Playing In Agatha All Along?
The Actor Is Currently Credited Simply As ‘Teen’
For the longest time, Locke’s character has been one of the biggest mysteries in the Agatha All Along cast. As of now, Marvel Studios and Disney+ are only referring to his character as “Teen,” which Locke has echoed in all of his interviews leading up to the release of Agatha All Along. All that is known about “Teen” is that he is a familiar who will be part of Agatha’s coven on her journey to walk the Witches’ Road.
Agatha All Along premieres Wednesday, September 18 on Disney+, with the first two episodes dropping on the same day.
However, there have been rumors that Locke is actually playing a very key Marvel character and one that fans have already met in the franchise. While Disney+ and Marvel Studios haven’t confirmed it, Locke is believed to be playing Billy Kaplan, a.k.a. Wiccan, one of Scarlet Witch and Vision’s twins. The MCU first featured a younger version of Billy in WandaVision as part of Wanda’s Westview takeover, alongside his brother Tommy, a.k.a. Speed, whose variants later returned in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Agatha All Along is believed to feature an older version of Billy.
If Locke is truly playing Billy, it will be exciting to see what the MCU does with the character after the events of Agatha All Along. If it is a proper introduction of Billy, that means Tommy’s arrival may not be far away, as it would make sense if they are saving him for the next WandaVision spinoff, Vision. But for now, the world will have to tune in on September 18 to find out who Locke is actually playing in Agatha All Along.
