Despite Agatha All Along being a spin-off, showrunner Jac Schaeffer wanted to ensure that it had enough differences to set it apart from WandaVision.
Originally announced at Disney+ Day in 2021, the title of the WandaVision spin-off constantly changed over the last three years before finally landing on Agatha All Along in May. Not much was known about the series then except for that Jac Schaeffer would return as showrunner and executive producer.
The last time audiences saw Kathryn Hahn's Agatha, Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff had trapped the renegade witch in her own mind. Then, the first trailer for Agatha All Along finally showed her being set free by Aubrey Plaza's Rio and how she'd embark on the Witch's Road.
Agatha All Along Showrunner Talks Differences with WandaVision Spin-Off
The Direct got our hands on the Fall 2024 issue of D23 magazine, in which Agatha All Along showrunner and executive producer Jac Schaeffer discussed what distinguishes this spin-off from WandaVision.
The magazine described how Agatha All Along is meant to "subvert fans' expectations of what a show about Agatha is," with Schaeffer more explicitly stating that "We're not doing the prescriptive, regimented pastiche of TV history" done in WandaVision.
However, she clarified that Agatha All Along would still "definitely play with genre:"
"We're greedy. We want all of the things all the time— all the genres, all the tones. This is squarely a spinoff of 'WandaVision.' We're not doing the prescriptive, regimented pastiche of TV history the way we did in WandaVision, but we definitely play with genre. It's a little bit more expansive. We sort of move into features and other worlds."
What Schaeffer "really latched onto during WandaVision" was that Agatha wanted "a sense of community, of sisterhood" with Wanda due to both of them having "a curiosity about magic and an appetite for [it]:"
"One of the aspects about the character that I really latched onto during 'WandaVision' was that so much of what Agatha really wanted out of Wanda was a sense of community, of sisterhood; she wasn't in Westview just for villainy. She was looking for other people like her, who had enormous magic but also a curiosity about magic and an appetite for magic."
The showrunner found that aspect of the character "so human" and loved how Agatha "can't help but be interested in other magical people around her." Schaeffer went on to praise Kathryn Hahn's acting and how she "can be so ferocious" while also showing "so much warmth" and "teeth:"
I find that so human. She's kind of categorized as a villain, but she can't help but be interested in other magical people around her. That push and pull was the thing I was most excited about. Kathryn can be so ferocious. She has so much warmth, but she can have so much teeth, too. For me, that sort of back and forth is really fun to watch."
Schaeffer aimed "to write to the strengths" of Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany when writing WandaVision, which she did for Hahn, too, when writing Agatha All Along:
"When I was writing 'WandaVision,' I was trying to write to the strengths of Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, based on my knowledge of them as performers and what they told me they were interested in, given their deep history with the characters. It was a similar thing with Kathryn: How do we apply our passion and narrative rigor for Agatha?
What Genres of Horror Could Agatha All Along Explore?
Schaeffer confirmed that Agatha All Along wouldn't explore the history of television like WandaVision did but would still "play with genre," which could mean exploring the horror genre. After all, the trailer for the spin-off showed a fiery demon, a possession paying obvious homage to The Exorcist, and more.
In the official trailer, Witch's Road is stated to "test [them] and [their] knowledge of the craft" and pin them against "[their] worst nightmares." It's possible that each of the nine episodes of Agatha All Along could focus on a different horror genre the witches will have to confront.
Looking closer at the trailer, it appears that each new house on the Witch's Road forces the witches into different outfits, such as costumes from The Wizard of Oz or 1970s Disco, further reinforcing the idea of each of their tests exploring a different genre, horror or otherwise.
Agatha All Along will be released on Disney+ on September 18, 2024.
Read more about Agatha All Along here:
Elizabeth Olsen's 2024 MCU Return Might've Just Been Spoiled by Marvel Actor
Marvel Confirms 6 Main Actors In WandaVision's Agatha Spin-off Show
Is That Wanda's Dead Body In Agatha All Along Trailer? Could That Be Wanda From Earth-838?
