Superhero fatigue: whether or not it’s a thing, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has certainly slowed its breakneck pace of late, with just one movie landing this year – newly anointed members of the universe proper, Deadpool & Wolverine. But as Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth and his adamantium-skeletoned X-Man chum (Hugh Jackman) usher in a new mutant era for the big-screen MCU, along comes a witch to cast a fresh spell on viewers of the small screen – in the shape of Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness.
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"The show is our examination of what it means to be a witch," says creator Jac Schaeffer, also responsible for 2021’s Disney+ show WandaVision from which Harkness’ solo outing spins off. She’s speaking to Total Film in one of her first interviews promoting Agatha All Along and admits she’s just learning the boundaries as she negotiates spoiler territory. "[The series] is about survival. It is about community. And even though we were having fabulous costumes and crazy practical effects and all the witchiness that you can shake a stick at, we were always very mindful of the emotional and thematic truth of what we were doing."
Agatha All Along – which has had a rotation of intentionally morphing titles because, well, Agatha is just so tricksy – couldn’t come at a better time. There’s a witchy revival brewing – audiences enchanted by Hocus Pocus 2 have been charmed by news of a Practical Magic sequel in the works, while The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina arguably kicked it all off over on Netflix before that, and the latest Star Wars series The Acolyte has witches at its centre.
MCU newcomer Aubrey Plaza plays a character called Rio Vidal – not lifted from the comics but created especially for the series – who, she says, has a "very mysterious and intense history with Agatha". They’ve known each other a long time; Hahn says they share a "real deep friendship [that blows] hot and cold, hot and cold". Plaza consequently refers to the series as "elevated".
"I’m not the biggest, most knowledgeable fan of the MCU, and I do know that the mythology and characters are taken very seriously," Plaza tells Total Film over a Zoom call; she’s slightly snuffly from allergies. "But there was something kind of extra about Agatha All Along where it felt like, yes, we are dealing with a character that exists in the MCU, and we’re honoring these characters and these storylines that have been written already in the comics… but there was something more being infused into the show, which is this idea of a woman getting her power back, and a coven of women that come together to empower each other in a lot of different ways."
If you saw WandaVision, you’ll know that Agatha Harkness was introduced in that series as Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) neighbour Agnes, a citizen of the town of Westview which was taken over and controlled with a hex created by a grieving Wanda Maximoff as a place in which to live with a resurrected Vision (Paul Bettany). As the series reached its climax, Agnes was revealed to be a centuries-old witch, Agatha Harkness, who had infiltrated Wanda’s elaborate spell in order to learn the secrets of – and steal – Wanda’s power. At the end, Wanda leaves Agatha powerless, trapped as Agnes in Westview.
Magic moments
Given that WandaVision is regarded as one of the best of the Disney+ Marvel series, even standing out among the wider MCU, was Schaeffer concerned about topping it? She was initially. "And then, as it became apparent that Agatha was meant to be the centre of the spin-off of WandaVision, there were things that I did, because it’s part of the same universe, to satisfy fan cravings in different ways," she says as she explains how she was able to shift focus by leaning into Agatha’s multifaceted character and yet still acquiesce to fan service and Harkness’ WandaVision origins.
The show picks up where the 2021 series left off, with Agatha breaking free and then embarking on a quest to regain her power. Enter the Witches’ Road. "The Witches’ Road in the comics is a road… a journey… a quest that witches can go on to gain power if they reach the end," explains Heartstopper star Joe Locke, chatting from atop a bed somewhere in London. Locke plays Teen, a character who helps Agatha along the way. "The process of getting to the end is not an easy one. There are lots of quests and trials and hardships you have to go through to get to the end."
Locke got the role in part because of his work on Heartstopper ("I had been a fan before we met him for this and was so charmed and moved by his performance and by that show, generally," says Schaeffer). But he still had a rigorous audition process to hurdle – nine in total over six months, he says. "His character is very enthusiastic and he’s a fanboy above all else, and he has that sort of eager love of witchcraft, specifically," says Schaeffer. "And Joe just has that in his person. You can just tell that every day on set is like a trip to Disneyland."
Speculation is that Locke’s character could be Wanda’s imaginary son Billy (also known by his superhero persona Wiccan in the comics) who we met in WandaVision and again in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and whose loss alongside brother Tommy prompted his mother’s unhinged rampage in that film. Fans suggest that in this case, Locke’s character could be eager to travel the Witches’ Road in order to reunite with his mother. "He’s very thoughtful and kind, but he can act without thinking sometimes," says Locke of Teen. So why does he want to walk the Road so much?
"The Witches’ Road offers untold spoils and power… and then we’ll find out," says Locke, who states categorically that Teen is the character’s name. "It’s not a fake code name; it’s what everyone calls him, which is a joke that develops during the show, but just becomes what everyone calls him, and he answers to it." The character is gay, confirms Locke. "[His sexuality] is significant in that it’s a part of him, but it’s not a huge element of the plot."
Inside scoop
So, what kind of Agatha do we encounter in this series? Schaeffer previously revealed that we’ll see Harkness’ "true heart". Does that mean a softer side will emerge? "I don’t want to say softer, but I do want to say unfettered, a little bit unguarded," Hahn tells Total Film. Like Locke, she’s also lounging on a bed. "She has [developed] a lot of defense mechanisms over centuries that builds in this – caustic, funny – kind of shell; a very, very hard wall. We got to see a lot of that in WandaVision." Stripping Agatha of her powers also strips her of that wall. "You get to see what’s underneath all of that," continues Hahn. "That was the most difficult and the most fun to explore. I didn’t expect it to be so deep."
Hahn and Plaza both have an affinity for witches, with Plaza currently working on her third Christmas Witch book. Behind her, as we speak, is a wall of colour-coded sticky notes, typical of an author plotting her narrative. "I believe that all women have this deep-down intuition and power. Women create life," explains Plaza. "Women have other skills and powers that men don’t have. I feel very strongly that the gathering of women is a very powerful thing, and historically speaking, men have been trying to isolate women and not let them gather for all of time because, in my opinion, it’s scary and powerful when women get together. I went to an all-girls school. I grew up understanding the power of women on a really deep level, and witches, to me, are just symbolic in that way. There’s something, also, about a woman who is so connected to nature and this kind of Mother Earth goddess energy that makes a lot more sense to me than living in the world and feeling that there’s some kind of man with a beard in the sky running things."
Hahn dressed as a witch most Halloweens as a kid. "A witch is able to live outside of the mainstream idea of what we think of as a woman," says the actor. "She’s able to be scary and funny, she’s able to be all those emotions that we’re supposed to not reveal. She can have big feelings. She can be mean, she can be funny, she can be all the things that are not socially okay. She has a lot of freedom and I think that in between the good and bad or the wrong or right is a really exciting place to be."
If Agatha was the antagonist of WandaVision, and the main protagonist here with her ‘true heart’ on show, does this mean that in this series Marvel continues to blur the line between hero and villain? "A witch in this capacity… contains all the feelings, all the intentions, all the mess of being a human being," says Hahn. "It’s like your inside voice is on the outside. So I think that contains all your good impulses and all your nasty, big, bad, gross impulses. In terms of villain or hero and blurring the lines, I think that a witch, especially Agatha, would really teeter on that edge completely. She really is selfish, and also has unexpected feelings."
Witch hunt
Hahn spent time during pre-production with a practising witch, but comic-book fans will be wondering just how much Schaeffer and the actors relied upon the comics in shaping story and characters. "My process has always been to use the comics as a jumping-off point," says Schaeffer. "I get a tiny little bit and usually will go in a different direction. I work with a team of such talented writers and there are just so many ideas."
The series incorporates, among others, witchy support in the form of Patti LuPone’s Lilia Calderu as well as Sasheer Zamata’s Jennifer Kale, who form part of the coven in the series. Both are taken from the pages of the comics. "The characters we see that are based on the comics are our jumping-off points for where we take the characters," says Schaeffer. Audiences will love LuPone, says the showrunner, "and Sasheer is so fun to work with and so smart, and brought such specificity to her character. I think people will be really fascinated by the depth and the detail of her character."
Being thrown into the company of other witches, though, is anathema to Agatha. "She doesn’t love it," says Hahn. "I don’t think Agatha loves having other witches around. The fact that she needs anyone is, like, barf. If there’s anything she could have done to get out of this needing-other-people business, she would have tried it."
Conversations online revolving around Plaza’s Rio Vidal, meanwhile, suggest she might be based on one comic-book character or another – but could she be a Green Witch? One shot in the trailer hints as much. The actor hesitates. "I did research some stuff in the comics that was very helpful,’ says Plaza. ‘The Green Witch is about nature. The Green Witch is about life and death and all kinds of things. But am I the Green Witch? I don’t know. There’s more to those characters than meets the eye, that’s all I can say."
Well, what can she say about where it sits in the MCU? Plaza certainly feels it can stand alone. "You could have this show and not even mention that it was a Marvel show and that it has anything to do with the MCU,’ says the White Lotus star. ‘It exists in the Marvel universe. It honours all of that. But there’s something else going on here that I feel elevates it to another level; transcends it. You don’t have to be the most knowledgeable Marvel fan to appreciate the show."
Joe Locke, however, reveals they paid close attention to the wider MCU while filming. "There were a lot of times we had to have, like, day corrections and [someone would say], 'Oh, wait, no, it’s this year,'" says the actor. "My character was 15 at one point, he was 16, then he was 15, and then he was 16 again – just to make everything fit within the MCU timeline."
In a departure from MCU norm, the production relies heavily on practical effects over digital. According to Locke, they spent just half a day on blue-screen work. "The [Witches’] Road set, the scale of it was just huge," says Locke. "It was the size of a football field." It was populated with 300 handmade trees, each designed and then constructed by numerous individuals, and was also versatile. "They were able to move different pieces of the inside of the set around to make it look like we were somewhere else, even though we were on the same set."
Schaeffer’s decision to use practical effects grew out of a desire to infuse the production with her own influences, childhood favourites like The NeverEnding Story, The Dark Crystal and The Wizard of Oz. "We talked about the pleasure of [a tactile world] as a viewer and that immersive quality. It also just felt really right because we were doing witchcraft, and the way we’ve been defining witchcraft is it’s tied to the elements; that there is something very textural about it. So those conversations intersected, and we mentioned it to Kevin [Feige, Marvel boss] and he was really for it. It felt like it would enhance the show and make it feel distinct."
The show pays homage to a serious number of classic movies, with The Wizard of Oz one of the most referenced, according to Locke, who reveals that "every episode has a different classic horror/thriller film that it is basing itself off." If you’ve seen the trailer, you might have spotted a handful, and already marvelled at the practical effects. Music also play a big part. Says Schaeffer, "There was no way we were ever going to do an Agatha show without there being a song. It became such a breakout of WandaVision, and I’m a theatre nerd and did musical theatre as a kid and so anytime I can shoehorn some music into anything I’m doing, I’m gonna go for it. And this wasn’t shoehorning – it was a necessity to have music in the show."
She’s already told us to get ready for some songs, so with that there’s just one question left to ask. Will we see Agatha’s pet bunny Señor Scratchy again? Schaeffer emits the sigh of a woman afraid to reveal something she shouldn’t, and concedes, "Yeah, you will."
Agatha All Along begins on Disney+ with a two-episode premiere on September 18 in the US and September 19 in the UK. Check out our Agatha All Along release schedule so you don't miss a moment.
For more, check out our guides to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows, how to watch the Marvel movies in order, and the Marvel movies and shows to watch before Agatha All Along.
