‘Heartstopper’ Stars Are Taking Over the MCU’s Next Generation of Heroes

Marvel’s mutant casting frenzy has already generated its fair share of headlines this summer, but the latest development is hitting a little differently for a very specific corner of fandom. What started as years of playful shipping and fan speculation around two beloved young actors has now quietly, remarkably, become Marvel Cinematic Universe canon.

Joe Locke first broke out playing Charlie Spring in Netflix’s ‘Heartstopper’, the coming-of-age romance that turned him and co-star Kit Connor into two of the most recognizable young actors working today. Locke’s path into the MCU began back when Variety exclusively reported he had joined the ‘WandaVision’ spinoff ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos’, later retitled ‘Agatha All Along’, working alongside Kathryn Hahn’s returning Agatha Harkness.

Both ‘Heartstopper’ leads now have confirmed roles within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Kit Connor reportedly cast as Cyclops in Marvel’s upcoming ‘X-Men‘ film and Joe Locke already established as Wiccan following his role in ‘Agatha All Along’. That confirmation places two actors best known for playing young queer love interests opposite each other into two of the studio’s most anticipated upcoming mutant and superhero projects.

Locke’s Marvel role remained a closely guarded mystery for months, with the character only officially confirmed as Billy Maximoff, also known as Wiccan, during the fifth episode of ‘Agatha All Along’. In that episode, titled “Darkest Hour, Wake Thy Power,” Locke’s character, previously referred to only as “Teen,” reveals his powers after growing increasingly sidelined by the coven, ultimately turning against Agatha and adopting a crown that closely mirrors his mother Wanda’s Scarlet Witch design.

Locke has since reprised the role of Billy Maximoff in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’, continuing the character’s arc into the studio’s next major crossover event.

Locke has spoken about the pressure of keeping the reveal under wraps during the show’s marketing rollout, describing the experience of auditioning for the role across twelve separate rounds before landing the part. Reflecting on how invested he became in the character once the mystery lifted, Locke said in an interview with Deadline that once fans learned Billy was truly a witch and not simply a “familiar” aspiring to use magic, “that changes things,” adding that the reveal meant audiences now understood he had “the ability to cause harm to them.”

The connection between Locke and Connor’s characters carries extra significance for longtime Marvel Comics readers, since Wiccan is one half of one of the franchise’s most prominent LGBTQ+ couples alongside Hulkling, a member of the Young Avengers. That pairing had already fueled speculation back when Connor was first linked to potential Marvel casting, with fans drawing direct connections between the actors’ real-life “Heartstopper” chemistry and the beloved comic book romance.

While Connor’s reported Cyclops casting places him in a different corner of the MCU entirely, separate from any confirmed Wiccan-Hulkling storyline, the symbolic overlap of two “Heartstopper” stars both landing prominent Marvel roles has understandably sent fans into a frenzy online. Locke has previously discussed his excitement working alongside other Marvel veterans, telling Variety in a joint interview with ‘Daredevil’ star Charlie Cox that he’d navigated some early anxiety about being typecast following his breakout roles, joking about not wanting to be limited to certain kinds of parts going forward.

With Locke’s Wiccan already woven into the MCU’s ongoing storylines and Connor reportedly set to join the studio’s rebooted X-Men lineup, both “Heartstopper” alums now have a genuine foothold in Marvel’s expanding universe.

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