This week Agatha Harkness brings spooky season to the MCU a little early with the arrival of Agatha All Alongthe follow-up to WandaVision that fills us in on just what Agatha is up to these days while Wanda Maximoff is busy being some flavor of dead and buried after Multiverse of Madness. It’s been a while since WandaVision though, so understandably, if you’re a little hazy on everything leading into the new show, we’re here to help.
What Was Agatha’s Whole Deal in the First Place?
WandaVision flashed us back to Agatha’s days as a witch in the late 17th century, when she was captured by her own mother and the rest of her coven and tried for practicing forbidden dark magics. Agatha used her enhanced powers to turn the effects of her coven’s attacks back on themselves, killing them all—her mother included—before fleeing to continue her research into more powerful and dangerous magic. At some point, she, just as Wanda would, came across the mythical Darkhold, and pored over its secret knowledge to expand her magical abilities even further.
Agatha had nothing to do with the creation of Westview, but was able to sense its existence as a nexus of great magical power when she came across it. Using her own abilities to slip in and disguise herself as one of the other brain-washed denizens of the town, as “Agnes,” Wanda and Vision’s nosy next-door neighbor, Agatha tried to investigate just how Wanda had warped reality, using magic more powerful than anything she’d seen in her long life.
What Happened to Agatha at the End of WandaVision?
While Wanda broke free of the reality she made for herself in her grief over Vision’s death by the end of WandaVisionafter Agatha attempted to drain her of her magical powers during her ascension as the Scarlet Witch, Wanda turned the tables. In the climax of their battle, with Westview’s real residents set free, Wanda enthralled a now-powerless Agatha into living her life back out as “Agnes,” unable to remember her true self. It’s at least in this manner that we meet her in Agatha All Along‘s opening episodes judging by the trailers, except Agnes has upgraded from living through kitschy rom-coms and into a life of police procedurals.
What Is She Doing Now in Agatha All Along?
At least initially, like we said, Agatha begins Agatha All Along as Agnes, now living as the star of her own detective show—until another witch, Aubrey Plaza’s mysterious Rio Vidal (more on her later)—manages to do much as Agatha did for Wanda and break her free of the realization that she’s living in a warped reality. Now back as herself, Agatha is looking to form a new coven of misfit witches to help her traverse the Witches’ Road, an alternate plane of existence only accessible by practitioners of magic.
The road was first introduced in the comics back in 2016 during the Scarlet Witch solo series, a dimensional realm used by magic users to travel great distances. In Agatha All Alongthe Witches’ Road is the dimension Agatha uses in an attempt to get her magical powers back, forming a coven of witches to complete a series of trials that will grant their wishes if they make it through alive.
Who Are the New Witches in Agatha All Along?
Agatha’s new unorthodox coven in the show is made up of a few minor characters from Marvel Comics history, with a few intriguing mysteries on top. The main members besides Agatha are Sasheer Zamata as Jennifer Kale, Ali Ahn as Alice Wu-Gulliver, and the legendary Patti LuPone as Lilia Calderu.
All three have roots in the comics: Jennifer is Johnny Blaze’s cousin, and a regular ally of Man-Thing, after he once saved her life when she accidentally summoned a dangerous demon as a teen. Alice, meanwhile, is a detective from Hong Kong and the daughter of a powerful sorceress known as the August Wu of the Coral Shore; she inherited her mother’s powers and infrequently teams up with Wanda. Lastly, Lilia has a long history with the Mordo family, descending from the first baron, Nikolai, and eventually becoming romantically entangled with Karl Mordo—only for him to betray her, using her affections to steal the Book of Cagliostro, a powerful collection of mystic knowledge he hoped to use to defeat the Ancient One.
There are two more members of Agatha’s coven, but they’re a little more complicated. Firstly, there’s the aforementioned Rio Vidal, played by Aubrey Plaza. Little is known about her because, unlike the other witches so far, she was created whole-cloth for the MCU. In trailers she’s been referred to as the “Green Witch,” in contrast to Wanda’s Scarlet Witch title and Agatha and her mother’s coven as being Blue Witches. The second mystery is the character known only as “Teen”, played by Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke. Speaking of which…
Who’s Joe Locke Meant to Be Playing in Agatha All Along?
There’s already been a lot of speculation as to just who “Teen” really is. What little we’ve seen of Agatha All Along indicates that he’s a fellow witch and avid fan of Agatha, but is physically incapable of speaking his own name when asked: magically cursed so his mouth is sealed up if he tries. Locke himself has repeatedly danced around the most regular speculation of who he’s really playing, as many believe him to be the teenaged re-incarnation of one of Wanda’s twins, William “Billy” Kaplan.
In the comics, Thomas and William were a product of Wanda’s reality-warping chaos powers, and after they vanished, their souls eventually re-incarnated into two separate young boys who grew up in different families: Thomas was reborn as Tommy Shepherd, while William was reborn as Billy Kaplan. Billy, a young queer boy, went on to manifest electrokinetic powers, but it was eventually revealed after he discovered his connection to Wanda that he has a vast array of powerful magical and reality-altering abilities. He goes on to become a member of the Young Avengers, alongside Tommy—who manifested superhuman agility powers and became Speed—as well as his first boyfriend and eventual husband, Teddy “Hulkling” Altman.
It’s not confirmed yet, but given the legacy of WandaVision that brought us to Agatha All Along in the first place, as well as Marvel’s long-simmering plans to bring the Young Avengers team into the MCU, it wouldn’t be too surprising. We’ve had multiple members appear already, including Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, and one of the Marvels post-credit scenes saw Kamala Khan trying to recruit for the team, starting with Kate, so what’s one more in the mix?
Is Mephisto in Agatha All Along?
God, I hope not. But if “Teen” really is Billy, then there’d be some reason to at least make mention of the infamous demon who everyone constantly speculated as being part of WandaVision when it was running. In the comics, Wanda inadvertently created her dream twins out of souls pulled from the possession of Mephisto, after all. Maybe we’ll encounter him, maybe we won’t, but it will not stop people from running the gag into the ground either way.
Agatha All Along begins with a two-episode premiere this Wednesday, September 18, on Disney+.
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