If you’re curious whether a rewatch of WandaVision will be necessary in order to watch Agatha All Along, look no further for your answer than the title of the series. The phrase “Agatha All Along” originated from within WandaVision, and there’s a pretty big handful of other information that comes up in the new series that originated from WandaVision as well. While the WandaVision spinoff is its own series, the first couple of Agatha All Along episodes make several callbacks to the story set up by its predecessor. The story picks up from the perspective of Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) as her Westview persona, Agnes.
In WandaVision, it was revealed that Agatha Harkness had been masquerading as a sheep-minded prisoner of Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) Westview hex. Having been “messing up everything” in Wanda’s self-made house of mirrors, Agatha was behind every curveball that threw Wanda off her game. She used her dark magic to meddle with Wanda’s life, she sent in an obviously recast Pietro Maximoff, and she killed Sparky too, all in the name of manipulating Wanda to relinquish the powers she didn’t even know she possessed. Agatha knew exactly what Wanda was, and her hunger for all that power got her an extended stay in Westview, wiped clean of her magic.
‘Agatha All Along’ Is ‘WandaVision’s Dark Offspring
Just as WandaVision plowed through homages to generations of popular tv, Agatha All Along picks up with an updated iteration of mainstream television. WandaVision scoped decades of sitcom styles from the wholesome 1950s to the offbeat mockumentary era of the 2010s. Now taking the format of a modern-day crime drama, you will meet the originally chipper (but trapped) townspeople of Westview recast in gritty, post-hex roles. Most WandaVision was conceptualized via the television medium, informing the audience that Agatha is actually Agnes when we see her at the start of the show. So while you’re sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for Agatha to drop her crime-busting facade and go cackling laughs and purple cloaks, it’ll be useful to remember that she’s been confined to Westview since Wanda/Scarlet Witch stripped her of her magic and turned her into the nosy neighbor she once was.
Agatha All Along cites parts of WandaVision that could leave viewers a bit distracted if they don’t remember the significance of certain motifs and storylines. The least of these references include the use of character names for the show’s opening credits, and the initial “Hey, neighbor” interchange between Agnes and Herb (David Payton). But on a more serious note, characters in Westview will make recurring mention of their shared tragedy of being mentally imprisoned by Wanda Maximoff during WandaVision, much like how the Blip carried over into other movies and series post-Avengers: Infinity War. A sizable amount of details about Agatha’s backstory follow through from WandaVision, like her attachment to the Darkhold, and how she came to be so despised by witches everywhere when she stole the powers from her original coven.
Ultimately, viewers will want to go ahead and catch up on WandaVision before starting their Agatha All Along watch. Enough details in the show warrant a watch (or rewatch) of WandaVision. But this doesn’t mean Agatha All Along will be following in WandaVision’s footsteps completely. The series picks up three years after the final events of WandaVision, and now there’s a new story to be told with characters we haven’t met before. With theories that one of the characters could be related to Wanda and references to objects like the Darkhold and the Hex, going into Agatha All Along blind might not give you the full experience of the series. Agatha All Along will focus on Agatha Harkness’ journey to regaining her stolen powers with the help of a ragtag coven of witches.
Agatha All Along is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S. New episodes premiere every Wednesday night.
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