Agatha All Along’s Joe Locke Continues Young Marvel Trend

Agatha All Along‘s new trailer shows how Joe Locke’s “Teen” reinforces a young Marvel hero trend that’s emerged over the last few years. Yes, the Heartstopper star frees Agatha Harkness early in the Disney+ series. But, he’s honestly a bit of a “Stan” for the infamous Salem witch. Hysterically, this puts him right in line with other Young Avengers hopefuls like Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, America Chavez, Cassie Lang and more. All of them have been basically Avengers superfans from birth and that love for the MCU’s heroes is what leads to them getting their abilities. (As a matter of fact, the “honor student” nature of the prospective Young Avengers might be their defining characteristic.)

Through the magic of the Internet, the teenager has been researching Agatha Harkness. He discovered that she was in Westview after the events of WandaVision and resolved to get her out of there. Now, he’s freed her from the spell and can’t tell us who he actually is. (For no reason at all, I’d like to point out that Wanda’s son Billy is a magic user and slots nicely into the Young Avengers lineup from the comics…) Teen might be more excited about meeting Agatha than he is about getting that wish of his heart’s desire at the end of the Witches Road. Hopefully, that comes with some powers for him. Because it’s dangerous out there without any abilities.

So, all of these factors make Locke’s Wicca-in-training a perfect candidate for the new Young Avengers. Not just because of his powers and potential. But, more because he’s a massive Avengers fanboy and that seems to be a prerequisite for this team. With Ironheart on the way next year, maybe they’ll add another person to their number? We’ll all have to wait and see.

Iman Vellani Assembles The Young Avengers

So, this Young Avengers lineup is still happening, and we saw evidence of it in The Marvels last year. After the events of that movie, ComicBook’s Phase Zero podcast sat down with Iman Vellani, Ms. Marvel herself, to talk about assembling the Marvel team composed of youth-oriented Avengers. During our conversation, she revealed that there was a scene with all of them together at the end of The Marvels. But, it ended up getting cut in favor of the recruitment of Hawkeye Kate Bishop instead. 

“Yes, I mean, it was like pretty much the same lines,” Vellani explained. “I think they were trying their best to incorporate as many as they can. But, I think its better that we see Kamala actually form the Young Avengers starting from the beginning. Because, there was a version where they already exist and I was like, ‘That doesn’t make any sense’ and they were like ‘We know, we’re not gonna film this.’”

“But, yeah, I think it was really fun and I loved working with Hailee for just that one day that I got to meet her and see her and talk to her. She’s so… it was nice just having someone to relate to about the super suits and… you know, where the future of the Young Avengers lies. So, yeah I’m very excited. Hopefully, that turns into something real…. It’s my favorite part about the first Avengers film too. When Nick Fury and Scarlett Johansson, they all gather together, and they’re like ‘we’re a team now.’”

Will the Young Avengers finally unite in Agatha All Along? Catch all of our pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!