It’s been a whirlwind few years for Joe Locke, who was quite literally catapulted to stardom with his first acting role in Netflix’s Heartstopper in 2022.
His next job, however, is a complete 180 from playing high schooler Charlie Spring in the teen coming-of-age drama.
The 22-year-old recently wrapped filming on Baby, a sci-fi horror movie with a very peculiar plot.
According to reports, Joe will play ‘a young male sex worker who becomes pregnant with a mysterious creature.’
While further details of the storyline are yet to be revealed, Joe teased his involvement via Instagram, sharing a Story after filming concluded.
His repost was a picture of himself with wet hair in a car, holding flowers, with the text, ‘That’s a wrap BABY,’ followed by an alien emoji.
With Sam Max at the helm in his feature film debut, as he’s previously been known for his queer short films, Baby will be produced by Luca Intili and Kindred Spirit.
It’s been described as ‘body horror,’ so it could potentially follow the lead of 2024’s The Substance, which had cinemagoers squealing and squirming thanks to some pretty grim use of prosthetics and special effects.
Director Sam has also shared behind-the-scenes glimpses on his Instagram, including a shot of an alien in a bathtub with fake blood splattered up the wall.
‘Wrapped my first feature yesterday. Hardest 28 days of my life. Departed reality entirely,’ he wrote earlier this week, adding: ‘Thank you for the dream, to everyone who touched this shoot. I hardly have the words, only that I’m in a surreal place and I won’t come back for a long time. I’ll never, ever forget you. Touched/moved… I’ll make you proud and can’t wait to share it with you’.
And while post-production is only just beginning, Baby has already raised eyebrows, with a post from @_filmcrave going viral on X and sparking plenty of reactions, particularly among the queer community, given that ‘mpreg’ (male pregnancy) is a long-running fan fiction trope.
‘I’m sorry run that by me again’, wrote a stunned @fujoconnor upon learning the plot synopsis.
‘one thing i love about about stanning joe locke is that you can never predict what he’s doing next’, tweeted @reiislocked, while @sprjngbags said: ‘congratulations to joe locke for being the first to bring mpreg to our screens’.
‘Well it’s an original concept’, quipped @TwinkTheory.
‘damn wasnt expecting this in the heartstopper epilogue’, joked @legalize_lizrds.
Joe himself also poked fun at the story, commenting ‘lol’ underneath a Gay Times Insta post with the headline, ‘Joe Locke to play pregnant sex worker in wild new horror film’.
The Manx actor has clocked up some impressive credits since Heartstopper shot him to stardom overnight while he was still sitting his exams.
Most notably, he starred as Billy Maximoff/William Kaplan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe miniseries Agatha All Along and as Tobias Ragg in a Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
His co-stars have reached stellar heights of fame, too, with fellow Children’s and Family Emmy winner Kit Connor, also 22, landing voice roles in the His Dark Materials series and, again, on the stage, playing Romeo in a Broadway adaptation of Romeo & Juliet opposite Rachel Zegler.
Meanwhile, Heartstopper fans are in for a severe case of whiplash, as the sweet and wholesome rom-com is back for a final instalment this summer – don’t worry, there aren’t any aliens in this.
Following three hugely successful series, the last outing will be a film, with fellow lead Kit (who plays Nick Nelson) also back, plus popular co-stars Yasmin Finney as Elle Argent, Will Gao as Tao Xu, Corinna Brown as Tara Jones, and Kizzy Edgell as Darcy Olsson.
Alas, someone who won’t be returning is Olivia Colman, who portrayed Nick’s mum in series 1 but has since been recast as Anna Maxwell for the film due to scheduling clashes.
Titled Heartstopper Forever, the TV movie is an adaptation of Alice Oseman’s sixth volume of the graphic novel series and will wrap up Nick and Charlie’s journey, whose romance faces its biggest challenges yet due to long distance and the daunting future.
The film will land on Netflix on July 17.
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