‘Agatha All Along’ Star Joe Locke Looks Back on Billy’s Witches’ Road Journey & Shares MCU Hopes (VIDEO)

Fans of Joe Locke may know him best as Charlie from Netflix’s hit series Heartstopper, but the actor took a super turn in Marvel’s magical series Agatha All Along, playing [Spoiler!] Billy Maximoff, son of Scarlet Witch, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and her synthezoid love Vision (Paul Bettany).

TV Insider caught up with Locke to discuss the role, which saw him travel down the Witches’ Road alongside Kathryn Hahn‘s Agatha Harkness and an eclectic coven that included Patti LuPone‘s Lilia Calderu, Ali Ahn‘s Alice Wu-Gulliver, and Sasheer Zamata‘s Jennifer Kale. Joined by death herself, Rio (Aubrey Plaza), it was a harrowing journey onscreen, but one Locke was excited to take.

“There’s obviously an element of pressure, ’cause Billy’s a beloved character in the comics, and there’s that wanting to do it justice,” Locke tells TV Insider. “But also, the MCU is great in that it shows a different version of those characters that you know and love from the comics.” The actor reveals that when it came to playing in Agatha All Along, there was a certain level of “creative freedom to make the characters our own, which is the dream.”

Marvel

When Locke’s character is first introduced to viewers, he’s protected under a sigil, which doesn’t allow him to say his name out loud to others. This leads to Agatha referring to him as Teen, but the season’s sixth installment digs deeper into how this teenager turned into Billy Maximoff, who had seemingly disappeared in the hex after Westview was restored.

In the episode, “Familiar by Thy Side,” we learn that Billy has inhabited the body of William Kaplan, a local boy who essentially died in a car accident at the same time the hex was dissolved. This led Billy’s consciousness to inhabit William’s body and set him on a path to find his brother Tommy, whom he was separated from.

This is what led Billy to seek out Agatha to try and find his brother by going down the Witches’ Road, which we learn is something he essentially created, similar to Wanda’s hex over Westview in WandaVision, which saw her living her TV sitcom daydreams. This meant that Locke and Hahn spent a lot of one-on-one time onscreen as their characters traveled down this winding path together.

“It was just so natural between us,” marvels Locke on his onscreen dynamic with Hahn. “When you just trust someone, you can really go deep… especially with the Billy-Agatha dynamic. It’s so twisted and confusing and mean, but also loving, and there’s something nice about us being so comfortable with each other that we can just go for it.”

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During Billy’s years spent living as William Kaplan, he digs deeper into witchcraft, starts a relationship with his boyfriend Eddie (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), and attempts to find some peace. When it came to showing off the human side of Billy, Locke says, “I love the fact that Billy’s a queer character and I love that we really showed that as a trait, but also I love that it’s one part of the multifaceted personality.

“One of the great things about Marvel is the reach it has in the world,” Locke continues. “I’m a strong believer in that you can’t change someone else’s opinion by coming at them from a place of attack and hate and saying that they’re wrong because they’re an awful person. But what you can do is change people’s opinions by showing them a positive portrayal of the thing that they’re scared of,” the actor adds.

See what else he’s sharing about portraying Billy Maximoff, his favorite Witches’ Road moments, hopes for the future, and much more in our full video interview, above.

Agatha All Along, Streaming Now, Disney+ 

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