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Agatha All Along is an American television miniseries created by Jac Schaeffer for the streaming service Disney+, based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Agatha Harkness. A spin-off from the series WandaVision (2021), it is the 11th television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) produced by Marvel Studios and the first to be released under its Marvel Television label, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. Schaeffer serves as showrunner and lead director.
Kathryn Hahn reprises her role as Agatha Harkness from WandaVision, with Joe Locke, Debra Jo Rupp, Aubrey Plaza, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Okwui Okpokwasili, Patti LuPone, Evan Peters, Maria Dizzia, Paul Adelstein, and Miles Gutierrez-Riley also starring. Development began in October 2021, with Schaeffer and Hahn attached, and the series was formally announced the next month. Schaeffer, Rachel Goldberg, and Gandja Monteiro were set as directors in early 2023 ahead of filming, which took place from January to May 2023 at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, and in Los Angeles. Cast and crew returned from WandaVision, including the series' musical team. Several different titles were announced for the series as part of a marketing campaign before the official title of Agatha All Along—referencing the song of the same name from WandaVision—was announced in May 2024.
Agatha All Along premiered on Disney+ on September 18, 2024, and ran for nine episodes until October 30. The series is part of Phase Five of the MCU.
Three years after being trapped under a magical spell in the town of Westview, New Jersey, at the end of the miniseries WandaVision (2021), the witch Agatha Harkness escapes with the help of a teen who wishes to face the trials of the legendary Witches' Road. Without her magical powers, Agatha and the teen form a new coven of witches to face the trials, while contending with some of Agatha's old enemies such as the Salem Seven.
Patti LuPone as Lilia Calderu
Chloe Camp portrays a young Lilia.
Maria Dizzia as Rebecca Kaplan
Paul Adelstein as Jeff Kaplan
Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Eddie
Reprising their roles from WandaVision as Westview residents who simulate playing characters within Agatha's Agnes of Westview reality are Emma Caulfield as Sarah Proctor / "Dottie Jones", David Payton as John Collins / "Herb Feltman", David Lengel as Sarah's husband Harold Proctor / "Phil Jones", Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon / "Norm Gentilucci", and Amos Glick as a pizza delivery man / "Dennis Webber", with Kate Forbes also reprising her role as Agatha's mother Evanora Harkness.
The remaining six members of the Salem Seven who appear in the series include Marina Mazepa as "Snake", Bethany Curry as "Crow", Athena Perample as "Fox", Britta Grant as "Rat", Alicia Vela-Bailey as "Owl", and Chau Naumova as "Coyote". Additional guest stars include: Elizabeth Anweis as Alice's mother Lorna Wu, Laura Boccaletti as Lilia's Maestra, Scott Butler as a doctor linked to Jen's past, Jade Quon as the demon from the Wu's curse, and Abel Lysenko as Nicholas Scratch, Agatha's son. Hannah Lowther, Tetra Lloyd White, Henriette Zoutomou, Holly Bonney, and Kim Bass appear as witches trapped by Agatha and Nicholas during the 1750s.
Episode 1: "Seekest Thou the Road"
Three years after her defeat by Wanda Maximoff in Westview, New Jersey, the witch Agatha Harkness is trapped under Wanda's spell, believing herself to be the police detective Agnes O'Connor within a crime noir television series titled Agnes of Westview, where she is fixated on a Jane Doe murder case. One night, a teenager breaks into Agnes' house, looking for "The Road". Agnes believes he is tied to the murder case and arrests him. Rio Vidal, an FBI agent, comes to Agnes and helps her remember her true identity and realize the Jane Doe she is seeing is actually Wanda's body.[b] Waking up from the spell, Agatha realizes that her powers are gone and that Rio, a fellow witch with whom Agatha has history, is there to kill her. Agatha convinces Rio to spare her until she gets her powers back, but Rio warns Agatha that the Salem Seven will soon come after her. After Rio leaves, Agatha is unsure what to do about the "Teen", whom she actually kidnapped while under the influence of Wanda's spell.
Episode 2: "Circle Sewn with Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate"
Teen reveals he freed Agatha from the spell and wishes to travel the Witches' Road, which rewards any witch who survives its trials what they desire most—in Agatha's case, the restoration of her powers. Agatha also realizes magic is preventing her from learning any personal information about Teen, including his name. Needing a coven to open a portal to the Road, the pair recruits the witches Lilia Calderu, Jennifer "Jen" Kale, and Alice Wu-Gulliver who all have reasons to walk the Road as well. Needing a "green witch" but not wanting to recruit Rio, Agatha instead turns to Westview resident Sharon Davis, a talented gardener. As the four witches and Sharon perform the ritual to open the gate to the Road, they and Teen escape through it to narrowly evade the Salem Seven. The group then removes their footwear and sets off on the Witches' Road.
Episode 3: "Through Many Miles / Of Tricks and Trials"
Agatha explains that to reach the end of the Road, the coven will face trials focused on different branches of witchcraft. They also realize that Teen's sigil prevents any witch from learning his identity. At the first trial, the coven finds a coastal house with a bottle of wine that everyone but Teen drinks. Jen privately warns Teen not to trust Agatha, who is said to have traded her child for the Darkhold. A timer starts counting down, and Jen realizes the wine was poisoned as Sharon faints. As they gather ingredients to create an antidote, the witches hallucinate: Lilia sees her younger self and her maestra from the Renaissance era, Jen hallucinates a doctor forcing her underwater, Alice sees her mother Lorna Wu about to commit suicide, and Agatha sees a crib containing the Darkhold. As they prepare the antidote, the house is brought underwater, threatening to drown the coven. With a few seconds left, they finish the antidote, drink it, and feed it to Sharon. Water pours in, but a tunnel appears in the oven and the coven escapes through it back to the Road. As they recover, Teen discovers that Sharon is dead.
Episode 4: "If I Can't Reach You / Let My Song Teach You"
After burying Sharon, the coven is forced to summon a replacement green witch. Rio emerges from Sharon's grave, much to Agatha's annoyance. The coven encounter a house with a 1970s aesthetic that prompts renewed feelings of grief for Alice as it turns out to be a recording studio tied to Lorna. Just as Rio playfully suggests to Agatha that they betray the others, which is overheard by everyone, Teen accidentally plays a record backward, summoning the demon who is the source of the curse in Alice's family. To fight it, the group plays Lorna's version of the Ballad, revealed to be a protection spell, and Alice is able to kill the demon. As the coven leaves the house, they notice Teen had been severely wounded during the trial. Back on the Road, Jen is able to heal his wound, saving his life. Later on, Lilia, Alice, and Jen bond while Rio alludes to her history with Agatha. Teen asks Agatha what happened to her son, but she does not answer. Later, as Agatha tries to kiss Rio, she tells Agatha that Teen is not her son.
Episode 5: "Darkest Hour / Wake Thy Power"
The Salem Seven arrive on the Road and chase the coven, who evades them using makeshift flying broomsticks. After being pulled back down by the Road, they enter the next trial which takes the form of a cabin with a 1980s aesthetic. The group uses an Ouija board and makes contact with Agatha's mother Evanora, who was killed by her daughter in 1693 along with her previous coven, revealed to be mothers of the Seven. Warning the coven to leave Agatha behind, Evanora possesses her and attacks the group. Alice uses her powers to expel Evanora from Agatha, who proceeds to absorb Alice's magic. Teen, noticing another spirit's presence, stops Agatha by shouting its name: Agatha's son Nicholas Scratch, but not before Alice dies. Agatha insists that it was accidental, but Teen lashes out at her as well as Lilia and Jen, who affirm that their goals are the same as Agatha's. The latter mocks Teen by stating that he is just like his mother; angered, he magically forces Lilia and Jen to toss Agatha into a mud trap, then blasts them in as well. As the witches sink, a headwear similar to the Scarlet Witch's appears on Teen's head.
Episode 6: "Familiar by Thy Side"
In flashbacks, William Kaplan, a teenager from Eastview, is celebrating his bar mitzvah where he encounters Lilia. Reading on his palm something she does not disclose, Lilia casts the sigil on William to protect him, instantly forgetting his identity. The party ends when the Hex, created nearby by Wanda, begins to collapse. While driving past Westview, William dies in a car accident, but at that moment, Billy Maximoff's soul enters William's body, resurrecting it. "William" struggles to adjust after the accident due to his newfound ability to read minds and his lack of memory of his life before. Three years later, William and his boyfriend Eddie meet with Ralph Bohner, who used to be controlled by Agatha inside the Hex.[a] He tells them about what happened there and about Wanda and Vision's twins Billy and Tommy, making William realize he is actually the former. Determined to use the Witches' Road to find Tommy, Billy goes to Agatha and breaks Wanda's spell. In the present, Agatha escapes the mud and, realizing the sigil has been destroyed, deduces Billy's goal and tells him that they must continue together since he cannot control his power.
Episode 7: "Death's Hand in Mine"
Agatha and Billy continue on the Road before coming across a castle. Upon entering, they are garbed in costumes of witch characters from popular culture, and are presented with tarot cards. If they do not place the proper cards in the correct sequence, swords hanging from the ceiling fall down. Flashbacks from Lilia's first lesson in divination reveal that she has been experiencing her life out of order, explaining her memory lapses and precognitive abilities. After falling through the mud, Lilia discovers that Rio is the personification of Death (something Agatha knew), who forebodes that her time is coming. She awakens Jen, and after evading the Salem Seven, they venture through the tunnels, reuniting with Agatha and Billy. Knowing the trial is hers, Lilia places the cards in their proper order, saving them all. Prompting everyone to flee through the exit, Lilia chooses to stay behind as the Salem Seven approach. She flips one of the cards, causing the entire room to flip and impaling the Seven and herself on the swords. In the last scene, a young Lilia gleefully attends her first lesson in divination.The episode is narrated out of sequence to portray Lilia's non-linear perception of time.
Episode 8: "Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End"
After guiding Alice's spirit to the afterlife, Rio meets Agatha and agrees to leave her alone in exchange for Billy, who has disrupted the cosmic balance by gaining a second life. Billy and Jen rejoin Agatha at the end of the Road, discovering that it is a circle. Billy puts his shoes back on, and the three are transported to a version of Agatha's basement with grow lights that slowly go out. Jen learns that Agatha is the one who bound her magic and performs an unbinding ritual, regaining her abilities and vanishing, having gotten what she needed from the Road. Agatha helps Billy locate Tommy's soul, and Billy places it in the body of a drowning boy. Billy also vanishes, and with a seed from her locket, Agatha grows a flower within a floor crack, completing the trial. She escapes into her backyard, where Rio attacks her. Billy intervenes and gives Agatha some of his power, but Rio orders them to choose who goes with her. Hesitant at first, Agatha kisses Rio and dies. Rio leaves and Billy returns home. Upon entering his bedroom, he realizes that many of the objects in it match aspects of the Road and hears Agatha laughing behind.
Episode 9: "Maiden Mother Crone"
In 1750, Agatha gives birth to Nicholas. Death appears to take the baby, but on Agatha's pleas, she relents, warning that she will eventually take him. Agatha spends the next six years raising her son while killing witches, which Nicholas grows to oppose. Together, they create a children's song that would eventually become the Ballad of the Witches' Road and take on a life of its own. Eventually, Nicholas grows sick and Death takes him, devastating Agatha. With nothing holding her back, Agatha spends centuries murdering witches and stealing their powers by conning them with the promise of the Road. In the present, Agatha, now a ghost, tells Billy that he made the previously nonexistent Road a reality with his magic. Billy blames himself for the deaths of Lilia, Alice, and Sharon, but Agatha retorts that she was already planning to kill them and that Jen is still alive. Billy returns to Westview and tries to banish Agatha. She resists, afraid of having to face Nicholas in the afterlife. Billy relents and allows Agatha to guide him. After sealing the entrance to the Road and recording the names of the fallen, Billy and Agatha set out to find Tommy.
I'll say this right off the bat - I wasn't planning on doing a review nor write-up on this spin-off miniseries in the least. The more I got to thinking and reflecting about the finale, I thought that I should say SOMETHING, unlike how I did with Secret Invasion and I still might revisit that at some point. With this, I feel like there's enough points of interest to touch upon as the "magical"/mysticism corner of Marvel Comics' lore hasn't been touched upon as thoroughly as this, not even by Doctor Strange's two films nor with the subject manner in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD's fourth season.
If you are by any means a homophobe or simply do not wish to see any representations of LGBTQ+ in your television, then this isn't going to be the show for you. Almost every character in this show identifies as such in some capacity and it is essentially comic book accurate in that regard, but you are still going to have people reaching and saying that this was "too woke" for their tastes or Disney was trying to push an agenda with more lesbian witches. Remember these are the same people who came out with pitchforks and torches online when those were introduced in The Acolyte, so I wouldn't be surprised at the same detractors online. Then again, I did a rare thing concerning one of these new Marvel Studios Disney+ releases where I didn't read any reactions online to this series at all, so I honestly don't know what people thought about it. I went into this series expecting something along the lines of The Craft, Charmed, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in terms of other witchcraft-themed media that I had seen in the past.
For me personally, my only hook for this miniseries was mostly seeing more of Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness after appearing in WandaVision and seeing what she would have to do now that the Scarlet Witch is dead. Like most people, I had already had my suspicions that Joe Locke's character teased in the trailers was Wanda Maximoff's son, Billy, who possesses magical powers in Marvel Comics as the hero named Wiccan.
After watching the two episode pilot/premiere, the most interesting character by far was Aubrey Plaza's Rio Vidal, who was "hunting" Agatha Harkness while she was still confined within Wanda's spell in Westview until Billy freed her from it. Hahn, Locke, and Plaza had a lot of great chemistry in their few scenes together that it hooked me right off the bat. Is it bad that I wouldn't have minded if this show stayed being the small town cop drama it was spoofing in the first episode? Cool to see that this show kept a little of the gimmick that brought most people to the party to begin with in WandaVision in terms of parodying popular television shows.
It felt like a cruel joke to keep Debra Jo Rupp's Sharon Davis in this again as "Mrs. Hart" when she wasn't in the WandaVision sitcom any longer. For some reason, this miniseries found more reasons to keep her around, despite the fact that she wasn't a magical user nor witch in the least.
The entire premise of the show has William (Joe Locke's character who is simply referred to as Teen until Episode 6) following Agatha around and breaking her imprisonment spell in hopes of taking him down what is known as "The Road". Agatha reluctantly agrees since she was stripped of her powers by the Scarlet Witch and this is the only means to regain them. She joins William in recruiting a "coven" of witches to pursue The Road in hopes of conquering its challenges together. Their coven consists of "Mrs. Hart", Jennifer "Jen" Kale, Lilia Calderu, and Alice Wu-Gulliver. After the unexpected death of Mrs. Hart, they are forced to recruit another Green Witch, Rio Vidal, who is revealed to be Agatha's former lover.
Photo credit/source from the X-Reads Podcast on Instagram.
After reading up on these characters following the conclusion of this series, I thought that was some clever usage of these lesser known Marvel Comics characters (both old and new) from across the mysticism corner of Marvel Comics.
These are characters that aren't overly significant to Marvel Comics lore and you could reinterpret them and/or kill them off without messing up any future possible storylines. This is a strategy that Marvel Studios has applied in the past, much with a lot of their Marvel Television and Netflix properties, even though they did drastically change a few key characters for those characters' benefit and/or detriment.
I was intrigued by Alice Wu's family "curse", which "The Road" forced her to confront. If the Witch's Road song wasn't catchy enough, we got to hear a different ballad from Alice's mother, Lorna.
My only regret is that we don't get to nearly enough time with Alice's character as we did with the others, but one key fact that I think we should keep in mind is that Alice is the only member of their coven that is shown to have met Death face-to-face after her untimely demise.
Episodes Three through Eight follows the coven undertaking several trials and challenges, ending with a member of their coven losing their lives as "payment". Mrs. Hart dies first (of course) followed by Alice Wu when Agatha "accidentally" drains away her powers and life force. The Teen doesn't believe that was a mere accident and displays his own powers for the first time, shocking Agatha with his chaos magic, just like his mother - the Scarlet Witch. So to no surprise of anyone, the Teen was Billy Maximoff all along.
To be honest, I don't mind the lack of a swerve on that reveal. Everything doesn't need to be this big reveal that they save for the final episode of these Disney+ shows. Get that out of the way early and show that this show can still have legs without stringing people along for some big payoff that they already seen coming since the first episode. Revealing that early made the latter half of this series even more interesting as you didn't know where it was going next. Episode Six reveals how Billy's mind came to possess William Kaplan's body upon his demise in a car accident just outside of Eastview at the same time of Wanda's hex spell being broken in Westview. Billy, now in William's body and life, becomes obsessed with trying to cope with what has happened to him and begins studying in magic until it leads him to Agatha Harkness, which sets up this story in the first place. Billy is looking to reunite with his brother, Tommy, hoping that The Witches Road could allow him to do so with Agatha's help.
The sigil that Lilia placed on William for his protection was a mysterious, yet intriguing choice all on its own until the explanation about Lilia's own powers of foresight caused her to live her life out of order. This caused her to inadvertently to hide Billy from all witches, even from Wanda Maximoff herself, bringing the revelation into question that this sigil might have prevented the Scarlet Witch from murdering so many people in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness in pursuit of an universe where she could live with her magically created sons.
When Lilia's turn to be tested in Episode Seven, it is revealed that Rio Vidal is really Death, something that Agatha was already well aware of. Plus it was hinted at in a previous episode where they were using Ouija board and it spelled out "DEATH" when asked who is among them and she started cackling with laughter. I'll be honest; I had absolutely no guess at who Rio Vidal was going to be revealed as. I just knew that she couldn't be the Enchantress when Sylvie in Loki was unofficially that character in this continuity. She couldn't be Morgan Le Fay either as Elizabeth Hurley portrayed that character in the final season of Marvel's Runaways. I personally didn't find the reveal about Rio's true identity to be as intriguing as the reveal that Lilia has been living her life out of order due to her powers of foresight, due to her lack of control of them. It wasn't until that episode she had a coherent sight of the proper path to take with her clairvoyance, even if it led to her untimely demise. She was the one who was able to defeat the Salem Seven (who felt like a complete afterthought in terms of villains the more that I think about them in hindsight) and I think I should note that we never saw a body, so I wouldn't rule out that character off the board quite yet. The next episode saw Death take Alice's soul to the afterlife. We didn't see her do the same for Lilia, so I think she might still have a role to play down the road if this miniseries is picked up for another season.
Jennifer Kale being the sole survivor of the Witches Road out of their coven (excluding Agatha and Billy) was an interesting choice. It gives me hope that Marvel Studios are keeping a potential Midnight Sons adaptation on the table in this continuity, despite the Blade film being cancelled. Marvel Studios already introduced Man-Thing and Werewolf by Night, so it wouldn't be a tough sell to see this character appear again alongside them in a future Marvel Special Presentation. (Laughs) I wouldn't mind seeing her share screen time with Sydney Lemmon's Ana (Satana) from the short-lived Helstrom television series if they could get her to reprise that character.
Ana Helstrom/Satana as she appears in Marvel Comics alongside her live-action counterpart played by Sydney Lemmon in the short-lived Helstrom Marvel Television series.
(Above) Jennifer Kale's comic book counterpart appearing with Man-Thing in Marvel Comics.
(Right) Witches, a limited comic book series by Marvel Comics, where Jennifer Kale, Topaz, and Satana all teamed up in a Charmed/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Charlie's Angels style narrative.
Agatha's final "test" came in the form of a deal with Death. Death wants payment for Billy cheating her out of the death of William by hijacking his body before she could come and collect it, so she offers a deal to Agatha to leave her alone if she could coerce Billy to give himself up to her willingly. Agatha agrees with the terms of this deal and throws Billy under the bus, only for him to return and restore Agatha's powers while brandishing his comic book accurate Wiccan costume. This was a cool display of powers, but I was underwhelmed at Agatha's lackluster costume here when both Wiccan and Death were sporting amazing looking costumes. Aubrey Plaza's Death facial mask was actually done with practical effects, so that was even more impressive - more than the fact that she is showing the most acting range that I have seen her portray in her entire career instead of being typecast as the uninterested emo/goth girl in almost every role she takes. To Billy's surprise, Agatha sacrifices herself to save him to satisfy Death's terms of their agreement.
At this point, I was like "What the hell is the last episode is going to be about if we've already did the final boss fight here?" Billy returns home and realizes that many things in his room resemble traits in the Road and it sets up the final, big bombshell to drop in the final episode. The biggest bombshell that this series drops that turns this entire adventure upside-down onto its head is the reveal in the final episode was that the Witches Road was a facsimile created by Billy's powers in a similar manner as Wanda's illusion in Westview. He unintentionally killed his own coven in pursuit of finding Tommy with Agatha (who returns as a ghost to taunt him) rubbing it in that he's just like his mother.
This final episode recaps Agatha giving birth to her son Nicholas Scratch and using him in her schemes to steal other witches' powers until he grew to resent these lies. Keep in mind that when he was born, Death warns Agatha that she will come for him someday and the only thing that she can give her is time - no more, no less. I should add that it's heavily implied that this child is theirs from their past relationship. I don't find that situation bizarre as the same explanation for Mystique and Destiny being Nightcrawler's biological parents due to Mystique's shapeshifting powers to impregnate Destiny in 2023's X-Men Blue: Origins. Death's appearance as a woman doesn't mean that she identifies as female in Marvel Comics; it was just the form that she commonly appears as to mortals. Death can take any form that she wishes, so it is safe to say those same rules apply in this continuity too. Plus, we would have to be blind not to notice that the kid looks like Agatha and Death. I know that casting wasn't intentional after all.
Death had been warning and taunting the coven throughout this entire miniseries about the dangers of trusting Agatha with it proving to be mostly true, given Agatha's past of lying to witches to gain their powers as her own, but it wasn't after her noble sacrifice to save Billy that she finally did something good since he reminded her of the son that she lost. Seeing this miniseries end with Agatha acting as the newfound magical mentor to Billy going forward was pretty cool to see since it echoes the relationship of her comic book counterpart to a lot of magic users in Marvel Comics.
My only complaint about Death's role and introduction into this continuity so late into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that we're so far removed from her most pivotal storyline (the Infinity Gauntlet) that it felt like why even bother in one aspect. For those who don't know or are aware, Death is who/what Thanos was trying to impress when he sought out the Infinity Gems in the "Infinity Gauntlet" storyline written by Jim Starlin in Marvel Comics to kill half of the universe's population. Death doesn't do much there outside of stand on the sidelines and serve as a spectator to Thanos' actions, so I could see why they didn't use her in that story for the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of that story in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
To Aubrey Plaza and Kathryn Hahn's credit in terms of their onscreen chemistry and performances, they made this work and they had a solid story to work with so it wasn't a wasted effort to bring Death to life in live-action in this manner. Is it bad that I wanted to see Kathryn Hahn's Agatha get a costume similar to what her comic book counterpart is wearing currently in Marvel Comics? Her final look isn't bad by any margin, but this (seen on the right) would have been cool to see nonetheless.
The ongoing joke/theme throughout this series was that several characters had assumed that Agatha sacrificed her son, Nicholas Scratch, to acquire the Darkhold when it was revealed here that was a lie all along. Even Death thought it was a cruel joke/rumor that allowed other witches to say about her when it was false. Here's my problem with that - we still don't know how did Agatha Harkness acquire the Darkhold prior to WandaVision. This would have been the perfect opportunity to show how did she get it after it was used by the Runaways to defeat Morgan Le Fay by imprisoning her into the Dark Dimension in that series. Even if Marvel Studios want to completely dismiss the events from Marvel Television and state that Marvel's Runaways exists in a separate corner of the Multiverse, there is still an explanation needed to fill people how it was acquired after Ghost Rider took it back to hell where "it belonged" in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.
The re-introduction of the Darkhold to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness brought continuity inconsistencies to both Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Runaways.
In its fourth season, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduced the Darkhold into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The mythos established by the show was later summarized in the Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Four. Executive producer Jeffrey Bell explained that incorporating the Darkhold was their way of tying into Doctor Strange, adding that he believed that the "Darkhold feels like it belongs in the library in Kathmandu." In 2019, VFX supervisor Mark Kolpack confirmed that the intent was for the Darkhold to be "part of that whole series of books that Doctor Strange and his comrades were caretakers of." However, this connection was never explicitly addressed by the show, the guidebook, nor Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season Four Declassified. Later that year, Runaways featured the Darkhold in its third season, using the same design as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to strengthen its ties to other MCU properties. In Runaways, the book was suggested to have origins linked to the Dark Dimension (a connection also explored in the ABC series) and Morgan le Fay, who claimed it as her own.
For WandaVision, co-executive producer Mary Livanos proposed the idea of incorporating the Darkhold. Head writer Jac Schaeffer revealed that they did not consider its previous appearances in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. nor Runaways when deciding to include it in WandaVision, instead considering only the story they wrote for the Disney+ series. She later added that other Marvel projects "would [probably] tell more" about the Darkhold outside of what was seen in WandaVision. Despite this, director Matt Shakman said he would imagine the Darkhold from WandaVision was the same book that appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. since both series were part of the Marvel Universe.
Although Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. established that the pages of the Darkhold were blank and adapted to whoever read them, both WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness disregarded this detail, as the iteration featured in both Marvel Studios' projects was decided only considering how it worked in the comics rather than in its previous iterations in the Marvel Television series. WandaVision prop designer Russell Bobbitt noted that the Darkhold "went through many iterations of design" and to create the final look they had help from the team working on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Coincidentally, Bobbitt also said that it was important the book looked "like a book from the Kamar-Taj Library" which was also intended by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. creative team. Furthermore, the film expanded the lore behind the Darkhold revealing the grimoire to be a copy of Chthon's dark spells that were carved in Mount Wundagore, which does not line up with the origin implied in both Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Runaways. (Fandom)
The confusion and discrepancy surrounding the Darkhold in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is something that desperately needs to be elaborated upon since viewers are supposed to assume that these are two different copies of the same book. If it can be destroyed and/or copied so easily, then who says that there's not more copies floating around after the Scarlet Witch destroyed all of the ones in the Multiverse? It wouldn't be a stretch to believe that she merely destroyed the copies of the Darkhold that were identical to the one that she stole from Agatha while the one that Ghost Rider took (along with other "copies") to Hell still exists.
In the first episode of Agatha All Along, Rio Vidal informed Agatha Harkness, "That witch is gone, and all the copies of the Darkhold with her", possibly suggesting that there were multiple copies. It is implied in the second episode that Harkness possessed the book for hundreds of years, however, when questioned at what point did Harkness obtain the Darkhold, Jac Schaeffer said "There are a lot of pieces of this show that are stories for another day [...] The Darkhold piece, I liked that as a rumor about Agatha, as an urban legend that she traded her son for the Darkhold." Schaeffer commented that as all the copies of the book were gone they did not feel they had to explain how or when Harkness got it, but did not discard the story being explored somewhere else. Given the wealth of information available to date, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki deems the version depicted in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Runaways irreconcilable with the one presented in WandaVision, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Agatha All Along. (Fandom)
The statement above presents an even bigger inconsistency with the Darkhold when this series would have been the perfect opportunity to clear up all of this confusion. It is ironic when one of the working titles for this miniseries was Agatha: Darkhold Diaries and for their sakes, it was changed as that would have been an even bigger point of contention when this story had literally nothing to do with the Darkhold outside of a few throwaway references and callbacks.
At this point, I'm convinced that writer Jac Schaeffer doesn't even care about the previous iterations of the Darkhold and merely wants to establish that the Darkhold that was introduced in WandaVision that later appeared in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and referenced in this series was the only "canonical" one in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If that's the case, it would simply handwave any further need to explain nor clean-up this inconsistency further in the laziest manner possible.
The final moments of this miniseries sees both Billy Maximoff and Agatha Harkness confess and take ownership of their crimes throughout this series while aspiring to do better going forward with Agatha serving as the ghostly mentor to the young Wiccan. Billy closes off "The Road" for good by leaving a memorial in honor of those that they lost along the way as they set out to find Tommy now that he has a body after his soul was placed in the body of a drowning boy in a similar manner of Billy's hijacking of William Keplan's body upon his demise. It is an interesting note to end on as it leaves the door open for another season if Marvel Studios wants to satisfy the demand for more or could continue this point of contention whenever Marvel Studios decides to do that Young Avengers film that they seem to be building towards.
As previously mentioned, they left the door open to do something with Jennifer Kale as well, possibly working with Man-Thing (who already debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Werewolf By Night Special Presentation), alongside Ana Helstrom (who appeared in the short-lived Helstrom TV series), or even in a possible Midnight Sons adaptation if that Blade live-action reboot film would ever get off the ground and see the light of day.
Was this another failed Disney+ exclusive series under the Marvel Studios umbrella that wasn't worth your time nor investment? Is this another step towards the inevitable and feared M-SHE-U that YouTubers and detractors have been fear and hate mongering people into believing that a female-led Marvel Cinematic Universe is what Disney's endgame for their master plan to castrate all of your favorite male heroes and replace them with "icky, yucky" girls? Witch Bitch, please.
This was a pleasant surprise from Marvel Studios on multiple fronts, both as a female-led LGBTQ+ project and for one that expands on what was great about WandaVision to begin with while providing viewers with a deeper look in the realm of magic and witchcraft in this continuity. Like stated before, this is a series that I stand firm in saying that it's not for everyone, given their lack of an open-mind or fall into the category of bigotry and break out into hives from anything female-led produced by Hollywood. At the same time, it's not the dreaded "required" material that a lot of people have grown to have a sense of dread with the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Avengers: Endgame, where they feel like every new release is "mandatory viewing"/homework to know what is going to happen next. This miniseries is its own thing off to its own devices away from the overall Multiverse Saga narrative, which was a genius narrative decision to begin with. If anything, this miniseries serves as a continuation to the events of WandaVision much more faithfully than Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
I was glad to see more of Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness after the state that Wanda Maximoff left her at the end of WandaVision, especially given she was one of the breakout stars of that Disney+ series and the fact that Agatha plays such a pivotal role in terms of a lot of magical-themed subject manner in Marvel Comics. Agatha All Along sports a stellar cast from top to bottom; with every member contributing to the success of this miniseries. I thought the themes and costume changes in every episode echoed the similar callbacks to beloved sitcoms and television favorites in WandaVision. The choice of music here was definitely another excellent choice with the Witches' Road ballad being far more catchy than I care to admit. It makes me a little sad that we won't see some of these characters again, but then again, who knows given how things works in Marvel Studios.