Joe Locke gets vulnerable about fan backlash to his 'twinky' role in 'Agatha All Along'

We could be wrong, but Marvel has at least confirmed that his character is gay. Either way, Locke’s presence in the MCU makes him the second out actor to play a queer superhero in that universe, which is pretty monumental in itself.

That said, Locke also told Varietythat thinking about how big that truly is “gets a bit stressful” if he dwells on it, and that “being in a Marvel series is the most pinch me thing.”

The Marvel fandom, however, is quite the opposite of the Heartstopper fandom, as Locke is finding out the hard way. After the glimpse of the trailer dropped, Locke said fans were upset about Marvel exploring a 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,’” he said. “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 okay with that.”

He also said that he expected to get “really muscly and hench” getting cast in a Marvel show, but that the showrunners instead told him they wanted him to “stay small and twink-y.”

Whether it’s love or hate coming his way, Locke also says he finds the pressure of being a pioneering voice in LGBTQ+ storytelling “quite overwhelming” in a “good way,” but that there are “days that I never want to play a gay character again. Most of the casting I get sent are for gay characters.”

He also noted that he didn't know if that was a "problem with the industry, or a problem of me and my internalized homophobia."

Well, whatever his future holds, we can’t wait to see what’s in store for it. We know we’re excited to finally get the full details for his Agatha All Along character, as well as whatever Heartstopper season 3 has in store for us.