After Heartstopper, Coven of Chaos star Joe Locke shows he's more than just 'sickly sweet'

Joe Locke remains on alert, even as he fights fatigue in front of his Zoom screen on an early Saturday morning in Atlanta this past May. The curly haired 19-year-old star of Heartstopper, dressed in a simple red shirt with white stripes running along the seams, was up until midnight Friday shooting sequences in the city for Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Marvel's WandaVision sequel series starring Kathryn Hahn's witchy Agatha Harkness. With his apartment blurred out in the background of the computer screen, he's careful of anything he reveals.

Why? Patti LuPone. The Broadway legend, who also has a part to play in Coven of Chaos, went on The View in April to promote the movie Beau Is Afraid and she ended up spilling the juicy Marvel beans without batting an eye.

"She didn't have any filter because she's Patti LuPone," Locke tells EW. "She's incredible and I love her so much, but I remember we were all on set watching the interview and we were like, 'No! Patti, stop talking! Stop talking!' It was like a ripple effect. Everyone was like, 'Have you seen Patti's interview?!'"

The Evita songstress had explained how the show focuses on a circle of witches that includes Hahn, Aubrey Plaza, LuPone's Sicilian sorceress Lilia Calderu, and apparently Locke. The young actor is scared to say more, or even confirm what LuPone slipped. It's understandable. One could call this a bucket-list role for Locke, and he doesn't want to mess it up.

When Heartstopper, the Netflix series sensation that kickstarted the careers of Locke and his costar Kit Connor, premiered, the openly gay teen from Northern Europe's Isle of Man told press that he had hopes of playing the first queer Disney prince or Marvel superhero. He's at least achieved part of that dream. "Putting your energy into something is never gonna harm a situation. With Marvel, I was very determined to get the part," he says. "I had never been that determined about anything before, which I think meant that I was putting my energy into it. But I also think I've just been one of the luckiest people in the world in the last two years."

It has been an eventful couple years for Locke, and with Coven of Chaos on the horizon and Heartstopper returning for season 2 on Aug. 2, he can feel a change within himself.

Season 1 of Heartstopper marked his first professional acting job, but it also made him a public figure instantaneously. At a time when people were rooting for the optimism of shows like Ted Lasso, viewers fell in love with this queer YA romance about the blossoming love between Locke's gentle, gangly teen Charlie and his jock classmate Nick (Connor).

"Having Kit to go on this journey with has been amazing," Locke says. "There's not really many people in the world who can quite understand what it is to suddenly have people caring about what you do and what you wear and what you look like and what you say. Every single thing you do is scrutinized." Even what concerts you attend. Locke inadvertently made headlines for showing up at a pitstop for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. "I really should have thought about the overlap between Heartstopper fans and Taylor Swift fans," he admits. "I was very shocked by the amount of people who were coming to say hi."

Someone advised Locke early on to delete Twitter, which he says "was the best decision I made." The actor would feel constantly tempted to see what people were saying about him online, even the negative things some would assume about him. Locke saw Connor deal with this too. At 18, Connor tweeted how he felt forced to come out as bisexual, and then took a social media hiatus. "I'm a very private person I think," Locke now says. "If I look at the hugeness of the world that I'm entering, I will combust, which is something that I've learned the hard way post Heartstopper."

The absence of Twitter ends up helping with his Marvel gig. Comic book aficionados are convinced Locke is playing a grown version of Billy Maximoff, a.k.a. Wiccan, the son of Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch — which would mean the young star did reach his goal of playing an openly gay Marvel hero. Depending on how deep one goes online, there may even be evidence to support this theory. Of course, Locke can't say one way or the other. He does, however, talk about how WandaVision became a surprise hit among LGBTQ viewers, like himself.

"The show is about misunderstood people and people who are alienated by their society for reasons that they can't control," he says. "I think that resonates a lot with the queer community." It was also campy as hell, with Olsen's Wanda and Hahn's Agatha using witchcraft to channel different decades of classic TV sitcoms. Regarding its successor, Coven of Chaos, Locke teases, "I think there'll be some camp."

With a cast that also includes Emma Caulfield, Debra Jo Rupp, and Sasheer Zamata, Locke was equal parts "utterly terrified" and "extremely excited" to board the show. As a theater geek, he was particularly in awe of LuPone, who hugged him right away during the first rehearsal. "I've learned so much from all six of the leading ladies about how to act as a person, as a lead of a show, as an actor respecting the crew," he explains. "I learned a lot about the actor that I want to be from these women."

Locke was already discovering that about himself when he returned to the Heartstopper set to film season 2. There was a newfound confidence to him, but he also felt a new kind of pressure to live up to the quality of the previous season. "Which I think made me get in my head a little bit when we started filming," Locke says. "But then once you're like three or four weeks in, you're so tired that all you can think about is doing a good job and making sure that you are looking after yourself enough to be present on set."

The material for season 2 was heavier than season 1. Based largely on Vol. 3 of Alice Oseman's graphic novel series, this story arc for the next eight episodes still has the lightness of being a teen, with a school trip to Paris for Charlie and Nick, and a prom in the works. But there's also a darker side. In the source material, this is the time when Charlie develops an eating disorder and spirals into a depression.

"Our show's never gonna be Euphoria," Locke says, laughing. "But I think that our show's maturing with the characters. As they grow up, the show grows up. Season 2 is not just gentle, but it's still gentle."

That's something Locke now hopes to show people about himself: He's not just the Heartstopper guy. "I have a real problem with feeling like I have to prove myself to the world — to myself mostly," he explains. "So I would love to do a job that is so far the opposite of Heartstopper, or opposite of Agatha, that I could show some versatility." Specifically, "I'd love to do a dark role," he notes. "I just want to bring a lot of edge to it and show that I can do more than just sickly sweet."

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Related content:

• Nick and Charlie visit the City of Love in our first look at Heartstopper season 2
• Be still our hearts! Heartstopper to bring more queer joy as Netflix renews it for seasons 2 and 3
• Patti LuPone spills major secrets on Agatha: Coven of Chaos role as Lilia Calderu