Joe Locke gushes over Jonathan Bailey’s hunky Heartstopper professor: ‘Perfect casting’

Joe Locke has shared his thoughts about Bridgerton heartthrob Jonathan Bailey joining the cast of Heartstopper, and it’s safe to say he approves.

Bailey, who this week earned his first Emmy Award nomination for his role in gay historical drama Fellow Travelers, will be joining the staff at Truham Grammar School in season three of the queer teen series.

His casting was officially announced in April after several weeks of intense fan speculation. He’s set to play semi-famous history academic Jack Maddox, who also happens to be the celebrity crush of Locke’s character, Charlie Spring.

Now, speaking to Rolling Stone UK, Locke has lathered the “lovely” Bailey with praise, and revealed that the star of the latest Jurassic Park film has been pining for a Heartstopper appearance since season one.

“Johnny is a wonderfully lovely guy,” Locke said. “I met him just after season one came out. The first thing he said was: ‘I want to be in the show’.

“That didn’t work out for season two but I’m really happy he has joined for season three. He’s the perfect casting for the hot history professor.”

Bailey has previously told Variety about how he ended up being cast in the hit Netflix series, based on Alice Oseman’s books.

“Like so many people, I watched the first [season] and thought it was one of the biggest, most beautiful gifts to so many people, and I wish I had that growing up,” he said. “I had a mutual friend who knows [executive producer Patrick Walters] and I said: ‘If there’s anything I could do to help and be a part of that story’…”

Luckily, the role of Jack was waiting to be filled.

Locke and Oseman have made it clear that the new season is set to be “darker”, more “mature” and “raunchier” than the previous two, but now Locke has added another adjective to that list.

“I think season three is the strongest,” he said. “We’ve all got better at acting. I think season three is the strongest writing, the strongest everything from everyone.”

While Heartstopper immediately found a global audience that propelled it to becoming the cultural phenomenon it is today, Locke also revealed that when season one was being made, not everyone was on board.

“We all saw the joy in the show we were making, even when Netflix and other people didn’t,” he told Rolling Stone UK.

“They all do now, which is great but especially in season one, we were definitely on our own.”

But before the classroom doors open once again, Locke will be seen as the witch Teen in Agatha All Along. The mini-series, based on the Marvel Comics character, is due on Disney+ on 18 September.

Season three of Heartstopper is due to drop on Netflix on 3 October.

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