Everything You Need to Remember Before Agatha All Along

IT’S BEEN THREE years—both in the real world and in the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—since WandaVision landed with a bang, setting a super high bar for the MCU on Disney+ that the franchise hasn’t been able to consistently hit in the years since. Now, creator Jac Schaeffer returns in the same role with Agatha All Along, a sequel/spinoff series that focuses explicitly on WandaVision antagonist Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and is looking to recapture some of the TV homage magic and uncanny creepiness that made WandaVision such a success.

Agatha All Along follows the titular witch as she embarks on her own adventure, with one primary goal: regaining her signature purple magic, and getting her powers back. She’s joined by a star-studded coven (including Patti Lupone, former Saturday Night Live star Sasheer Zamata, a wonderfully chaotic Aubrey Plaza, and a mysterious teenager played by Joe Locke) as the show makes her a little bit more sympathetic in order to make her the central character, but doesn’t back away from the devilishness that made her so much fun the first time around.

The show largely stands on its own, telling a serialized story that’s fragmented not in the ’10-hour movie’ format that so many series fall into these days, but rather in a traditionally episodic format; each of Agatha’s nine episodes tell their own individual story that eventually adds up for a season-long adventure. And while this really does mostly stand on its own, there are a few references to other MCU projects that will certainly enhance your appreciation and understanding of everything that’s at play here.

But look—we get it. In case you don’t have time, or straight up don’t want to rewatch (or watch in the first place!), we get it. There’s not enough time in the world. That’s where we come in. Below, we’ve got the few vital Marvel details that will enrich your Agatha All Along viewing experience.

And we promise—it’s not too much. In fact, it’s only two things.

Stream Agatha All Along Here

WandaVision (2021)

Agatha All Along essentially functions as a sequel/spin-off to WandaVision, following the story of Agatha Harkness (and some other Westview, NJ happenings) in the three years after Wanda showed up and cast the entire town under a TV-adjacent spell.

WandaVision remains one of the best things that the MCU ever produced, so we still recommend watching the whole thing. But for the purposes of Agatha All Along, you simply need to remember that Agatha Harkness was a secret witch, hidden undercover as a “nosy neighbor” named Agnes to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), making her life hell and nightmarish as a way to try to drain her extremely powerful magic.

We learn in flashbacks that Agatha was originally a witch who was put on trial by other witches (including her own mother) in Salem, Massachusetts, but managed to turn the tables on them and drain them of all their magic.

By the end of the series, though, Wanda prevails over Agatha, and casts a spell on her, trapping her in her nosy neighbor persona of Agnes, and preventing her from using any of her magic. We don’t know the exact details of Wanda’s spell, but given that Agatha All Along opens with Agatha living in her own version of a Mare of Easttown-esque detective drama (and still unable to use any magic), it’s clear that Wanda has cast a powerful, long-lasting, and constantly evolving bit of magic on Agatha.

It’s also worth noting that during WandaVision, Wanda and her conjured-up-but-not-real version of her late husband Vision (Paul Bettany) had children, twin boys named Billy and Tommy. This is notable because Billy and Tommy Maximoff, in the comics lore, eventually become the young superheroes (and Young Avengers team members) Wiccan and Speed. But in WandaVision, since everything was rooted in a spell that Wanda cast and wasn’t actually reality, they disappeared from existence.

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Agatha All Along has a slight connection to the Sam Raimi-directedDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which featured Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) as the film’s primary villain.

Essentially, the connection is this brief: Wanda, after losing her children and finding and being corrupted by the Darkhold—a spell book that contains tons of dark magic spells, but corrupts the soul and intentions of anyone who uses it—goes on a rampage through dimensions looking for one in which she can find and be with her children, Billy and Tommy.

By the end of the film, Wanda gives up her pursuit of Billy and Tommy, and destroys every copy of the Darkhold across realities, seemingly killing herself in the process. It’s assumed that because Wanda has “died” (though, come on, we’ll definitely see her again), the spell on Agatha back in Westview has now lifted.

But it remains to be seen how much more or less the Scarlet Witch will figure into the witchy festivities of Agatha All Along.

Stream Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Here