In the latest instance of a franchise actor dismissing the fan concerns, Agatha: All Along star Joe Locke has claimed that the various criticisms leveled towards his on-screen portrayal of Billy Kaplan are nothing more than jealous whining.
Perhaps better known by his codename of ‘Wiccan’, the Marvel Comics character set to be portrayed by Locke in the upcoming-but-largely-unwanted-TV series is – at least in the source material – the magically-manifested son of Wanda Maximoff and Vision, who thanks to his bloodline possesses the ability to manipulate reality at its base level.
But unlike his outgoing friends and sociable family members, a combination of his own self-doubts as well as his fear of persecution for being gay have lead Billy to develop a much reserved personality, with the young hero often taking a back seat to the main action of a given battle in favor of searching for a way to end the conflict with the most minimal amount of fighting.
However, Billy’s entire personality seems to have been flipped on its head during his translation to the small screen, with Locke’s portrayal of the founding Young Avengers member leaning much more into the ‘gay camp’ archetype than the ‘quiet teenager battling with his own self-esteem’ he was originally portrayed as.
And though many fans from across the spectrum have spoken out against Marvel Studios yet again butchering the MCU debut of a beloved comic book character, Locke himself is apparently not interested in any of their critiques.
Speaking to the backlash to his performance in Agatha: All Along during a recent interview with Variety’s Adam B. Vary, the actor asserted, “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,” he added, making reference to the Netflix drama which helped propel him to widespread recognition. “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.”
To this end, Locke waved off these complaints as nothing more than sour grapes, ultimately declaring, “Marvel fans are very open with their opinions. But they’re not in a Marvel show, so— [*blows raspberry*] I’m doing the one thing that they really wish they could be doing. Sorry!”
For all four of the Marvel fans who still think the series’ eponymous gag song is still absolutely hilarious, Marvel’s Agatha: All Along is set to begin walking the Witches’ Road on September 18th, 2024.
