Teen (Joe Locke) in Marvel Television’s AGATHA ALL ALONG, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2024 MARVEL.

Joe Locke, who plays a character named Teen in the upcoming Agatha All Along series on Disney+, recently stated that a misconception about Marvel is “that it’s just for, like, straight white men.”

Teen (Joe Locke) in Marvel Television’s AGATHA ALL ALONG, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Television. © 2024 MARVEL.

In an interview with Paul McGuire Grimes alongside a number of his cast members, Locke was asked, “There’s a line about Patti [LuPone] that Patti says about misconceptions and rumor mongering with witches. So what do you think are some misconceptions about Marvel?”

Locke replied, “That it’s just for like straight white men. It’s not.”

Grimes responded, “Correct. It is not.”

The answer shows Locke’s own bias given anyone who has paid attention to the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the past decade knows a significant portion of its box office comes from international markets especially China.

Looking at the highest grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Endgame, a whopping $588.4 million in revenue was generated from China. For comparison $858.3 million was generated in North America.

The fourth highest grossing market was South Korea with $105 million. Brazil was in fifth with $85 million and Mexico was sixth with $77.6 million.

Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame (2019), Marvel Studios

This is not an anomaly either. Captain America: Civil War generated $408 million in North America. The second highest grossing market was China with $180.7 million. South Korea was third with $64.2 million.

Mexico was fifth with $41.4 million and Brazil was just below it with $40.8 million.

Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man and Don Cheadle as War Machine in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Marvel Studios

As far as a demographic break down, Box Office Pro reported back in 2019 that Avengers: Endgame’s audience breakdown for its first weekend were 59.7% male with 53.4% being over the age of 25.

Again, this is not abnormal. Box Office Pro reported that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ opening weekend audience was 62% male. It also reported that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was 61% male, Eternals was 61% male, and Black Widow was 58% male.

(L-R): Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Ajak (Salma Hayek), Sersi (Gemma Chan), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) and Druig (Barry Keoghan) in Marvel Studios‘ ETERNALS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Furthermore, Marvel Studios executives and its actors have made it abundantly clear that the entire film franchise was pandering to identity politics over the last five years.

Former Marvel VP Victoria Alonso stated in 2021 during the Outfest Legacy Awards, “Diversity and inclusion is not a political game for us. It is 100 percent a responsibility because you don’t get to have the global success that we have given the Walt Disney Company without the support of people around the world of every kind of human there is.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 23: Victoria Alonso attends the Thor: Love and Thunder World Premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in [Hollywood], California on June 23, 2022. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

Marvel Studios Head Kevin Feige also informed Variety in 2021 that the whole reason Eternals was pushed to the top of the company’s production calendar was so they could gender swap, race swap, and change characters’ sexualities.

He said, “Well, the notion of switching up the genders, sexualities and ethnicities of the characters from the comics, was baked in initially — that was part of what Nate Moore was really advocating for in moving Eternals to the top of the list for us to start working on.”

Feige added, “When it came to casting, that also did affect it. here were some characters that we change from male to female, there were some characters that we knew how we were altering them from the books. But then also it came down to casting. So for Sersi, for instance — and if there was a lead in this ensemble, it is Sersi, it is Gemma Chan — we looked at and read all sorts of women for that part. And ended up really believing that Gemma was best for it. And thankfully, she’s proven that to be the case in the final movie.”

(L-R): Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Karun (Harish Patel), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Sprite (Lia McHugh), and Sersi (Gemma Chan) in Marvel Studios’ ETERNALS. Photo by Sophie Mutevelian. © 2021 Marvel Studios. All Rights Reserved.

It appears Marvel is continuing that trend with Agatha All Along. Locke previously confirmed his character, Teen, is gay.

He told Variety, “The show never shies away from his queerness, but it’s not a defining feature of his character. It’s just one layer of him as a person.”

Showrunner Jacqueline Schaeffer also informed the outlet, “This isn’t stepping into any Marvel project. Joe, young queer icon that he is, was joining a cast of queer icons.”

Jac Schaeffer via American Film Institute YouTube

Not only does it look like Marvel is continuing this trend of pushing identity politics in its shows, but Locke appears to be picking up where Brie Larson left off by denigrating Marvel fans with identity politics.

He previously addressed criticism his character received based on the first trailer, “It was like, ‘Oh, why has Marvel done this campy gay stereotype?’ It really annoyed me because I was like, ‘You can’t ask for authentic casting and then be upset if you have a camp character.’”

He added, “I’m fully aware that the Marvel fandom is far less nice than the ‘Heartstopper’ fandom. There’s going to be a lot of people that just hate everything about the character and everything about what I’ve done with it, and I just have to be OK with that.”

He then mocked Marvel fans saying, “Marvel fans are very open with their opinions. But they’re not in a Marvel show, so—. I’m doing the one thing that they really wish they could be doing. Sorry!”

(L-R): Teen (Joe Locke), The Green Witch/Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza), Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata) in Marvel Television’s AGATHA ALL ALONG, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2024 MARVEL.

What do you make of Locke’s most recent comments?