Joe Locke, one of the stars of Agatha All Along, is defending his casting in the upcoming MCU series. While Agatha All Along will center on Kathryn Hahn as the character Agatha Harkness, Joe Locke’s casting has received a lot of attention from some Marvel fans. He is notably only credited as “Teen”, but all the clues point to him playing Billy Kaplan, aka Wiccan, who in the comics is the reincarnated son of Wanda Maximoff and Vision’s son Billy. The character was last seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness played by Julian Hilliard. Wiccan is notably one of Marvel’s most prominent queer superheroes, so casting Locke is a good sign of representation.
However, not everyone has embraced Locke’s casting in Agatha All Along. Speaking with Variety, Locke admits he has heard criticism of his performance from LGBTQ+ fans following the release of the show’s trailers. Pushing back against claims that he is playing a “campy gay stereotype”, Locke says it is an authentic representation.
“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.’”
Locke, who has been a fan of the MCU since he was five years old when Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were released in 2008, fights back against some of the more toxic Marvel fans who don’t want any queer representation in the movies. Locke says he is okay with the criticism and knows Marvel fans will be vocal, but he also playfully pushes back against them. 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 OK with that. Marvel fans are very open with their opinions. But they’re not in a Marvel show, so—I’m doing the one thing that they really wish they could be doing. Sorry!”
The Importance of Representation
While the MCU fandom might not have the same overly toxic problems the Star Wars fandom has been facing over the past few years, there is no secret that it does have its own share of toxic tendencies. There have been targeted review bombs for MCU projects centered on women (Captain Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), people of color (Ms. Marvel), and LGBTQ+ leads (Eternals).
In many ways, the criticism of Locke’s character being a “gay stereotype” speaks more to the issue the MCU has had with so little LGBTQ+ representation. So much weight is put on Locke’s Wiccan to represent the LGBTQ+ spectrum that is not placed on straight heroes like Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America. Regarding superheroes on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, Marvel Studios has some notable names such as Phastos from Eternals and Valkyrie from the Thor franchise. It is worth noting that Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos) is a straight actor. With Phasto’s fate unclear following the cancelation of Eternals 2 and Valkyrie being a supporting character, the MCU is lacking in leading LGBTQ+ superheroes, so more pressure is put on Locke’s Wiccan to represent everyone who identifies as gay, which is an unfair burden to put on him.
However, one criticism of Locke’s casting as Wiccan raises a different type of concern. In addition to being one of Marvel Comics’ most famous gay superheroes, Wiccan is one of their most prominent Jewish superheroes. Locke himself does not identify as Jewish, and with that being a major part of Wiccan’s identity, some fans have taken issue with the casting. Combined with the criticism of white-washing Doctor Doom with Robert Downey Jr.’s casting, the conversation about representation in Hollywood has become a greater topic of conversation. There is a big difference between that type of critique as opposed to being upset that an openly gay actor is playing a popular gay character in a style that they feel comfortable with.
