'Heartstopper' Star Joe Locke Opens Up About 'Sweeney Todd,' Keeps Mum About Marvel Movie

"Heartstopper" star Joe Locke is headed to Broadway, where he will join the cast of "Sweeney Todd" in the role of Tobias Ragg on Jan. 31. The show will mark Locke's debut on Broadway.

Locke opened up about his role in the Stephen Sondheim musical, telling The New York Times that Tobias embodies paradoxical traits, being both "a bit simple – he's not a full egg, as the Irish would say," but also "a very street-smart character who's survived in a world where people like him shouldn't survive."

In Sondheim's 1979 musical, Tobias is the sidekick to a con artist who tries to blackmail Sweeney Todd and becomes an early victim of the so-called "Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Todd's accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, gets rid of the bodies of Todd's victims by baking them into her meat pies. Mrs. Lovett's business grows in tandem with Todd's barber shop, and Tobias ends up working for Mrs. Lovett before going on to play a crucial role in how things eventually work out.

Locke explained how he came to join the cast of a Broadway musical after starring in two seasons of Netflix's global smash, with the eight-episode third season having started production last October.

Locke, the Times reported, "was so moved when he saw 'Next to Normal' at the Donmar Warehouse in London last fall that he called his agent with a request" – namely, Locke recounted, "I was like, 'I want to do a musical so bad.'"

It wasn't long before Locke's agent reported back, the Times detailed, with news that he had "gotten an email from the casting team of Broadway's 'Sweeney Todd,'" with word of the role becoming available.

In "Hearstopper," Locke plays openly gay high school student Charlie Spring, who is bullied by homophobic classmates. Charlie meets the popular and athletic Nick (Kit Connor), who is bisexual, and the two fall in love.

The show proved such a hit that Netflix was quick to renew it for two additional seasons. It's unclear whether the upcoming third season will be the show's last.

Noting that Locke is already a stage veteran, having acted in London theater, the Times said that the 20-year-old actor is "slated to appear alongside Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza and Patti LuPone in the new Marvel series 'Agatha: Darkhold Diaries,' based on the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness, on Disney+."

Locke admitted that he wasn't able to talk about that project – at least, not yet.

"I can say absolutely nothing," Locke told the Times. "But I think it's going to be an amazing show. It shows a different side of Marvel. It pushes the boundary of what a superhero show is."

Locke did let slip another tidbit about the "WandaVision" spinoff, though: As previously reported, the actor revealed last year that "Agatha" will be meaningful to LGBTQ+ viewers.

"The show is about misunderstood people and people who are alienated by their society for reasons that they can't control," Locke told Entertainment Weekly in an interview last spring. "I think that resonates a lot with the queer community."