When the MCU ventured into TV with Disney+ originals in early 2021, a lot was riding on the first series. It had to show that these projects weren’t just Marvel movies chopped into chapters, but stories that could only be told through the medium of television. WandaVision couldn’t be more suited to the job.
The series, following Wanda Maximoff as she copes with the loss of Vision with extremely powerful delusions, adopted the aesthetics and tropes of classic TV shows, from I Love Lucy to Modern Family and everything in between. But now, the world of WandaVision is expanding, and along with it, its central conceit.
Agatha All Along will continue the story of WandaVision by focusing on Wanda’s nosy-neighbor-turned-evil-witch Agatha Harkness as she journeys on an adventure all of her own. But since WandaVision ran the gamut of TV history, the series needed to find something new to pay homage to episode by episode.
According to Joe Locke, the answer lies in a new medium. “Every episode has a different classic horror/thriller film that it is basing itself off,” he told Total Film. “There are some great Exorcist references in there. Rosemary’s Baby was one of them. There’s so many. Also, The Goonies – that was the one for me. There was one day that Jac sent Kevin a picture of something, and he replied literally saying, 'Oh my God, it’s The Goonies.'
This new approach is already evident in the trailer for the series, which contains shots of Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) as the Wicked Witch of the West, and Lilia (Patti LuPone) as Glinda the Good Witch alongside scenes where Agatha is investigating a murder as if in a modern mystery thriller. With Agatha All Along having nine episodes total, that still leaves plenty of room for other genres and inspirations.
If this new move is anything to go by, it looks like Agatha All Along will be going even bigger than WandaVision. The sitcom inspiration was interesting because it allowed WandaVision episodes to be short and simple until the end. But now, the inspiration is spreading to some of the most iconic and successful movies in history, and the series will have to rise to meet the challenge.
