Agatha All Along (miniseries)

Agatha All Along is an upcoming American television miniseries created by Jac Schaeffer for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness. A spin-off from the series WandaVision (2021), it is intended to be the 11th television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) produced by Marvel Studios, via 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, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, Paul Adelstein, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Okwui Okpokwasili, Debra Jo Rupp, Patti LuPone, and Aubrey Plaza also starring. Development began by 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 is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on September 18, 2024, with its first two episodes. The other seven episodes will be released weekly until November 6. It will be part of Phase Five of the MCU.

Premise
At the end of the miniseries WandaVision (2021), the witch Agatha Harkness was trapped in the town of Westview, New Jersey. In Agatha All Along, she escapes with the help of a goth teen who wishes to face the trials of the legendary Witches' Road. Without her magical powers, Harkness and the teen form a new coven of witches to face the trials with.

Cast and characters
A powerful witch who masqueraded as the nosy neighbor "Agnes" within the fictional WandaVision sitcom. Harkness forms a new coven of witches in the series after escaping from that reality and finding herself powerless. Executive producer Mary Livanos described Harkness as both heartfelt and dangerous. A sorceress and member of Harkness's coven. Zamata already had a fascination with witches and witchcraft before auditioning for the series, writing material about the subject for her stand-up special The First Woman. She was influenced by Kristen J. Sollee's book Witches, Sluts and Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive.
 * Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness:
 * Joe Locke as Billy Kaplan: A familiar who is a "gay teen with a dark sense of humor"
 * Sasheer Zamata as Jennifer Kale:
 * Ali Ahn as Alice Wu-Gulliver: A witch and member of Harkness's coven
 * Maria Dizzia
 * Paul Adelstein
 * Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Billy's boyfriend
 * Okwui Okpokwasili
 * Debra Jo Rupp as Sharon Davis: A Westview, New Jersey, resident who is a witch and member of Harkness's coven. She played "Mrs. Hart" in the fictional WandaVision sitcom.
 * Patti LuPone as Lilia Calderu: A 450-year-old Sicilian witch and member of Harkness's coven, whose skill is in divination
 * Aubrey Plaza as Rio Vidal: A warrior witch in Harkness's coven

Reprising their roles from WandaVision (2021) as Westview residents are Emma Caulfield Ford as Sarah Proctor / "Dottie Jones", David Payton as John Collins / "Herb", David Lengel as Sarah's husband Harold Proctor / "Phil Jones", Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon / "Norm", and Amos Glick as a pizza delivery man / "Dennis". Also reprising their WandaVision roles are Kate Forbes as Agatha's mother, Evanora Harkness; and Brian Brightman as the Eastview, New Jersey, sheriff.

Episodes
The series will consist of nine episodes. Schaeffer and Gandja Monteiro directed multiple episodes of series, with Monteiro directing the finale. Rachel Goldberg also directed.

Development
At Disney's biennial D23 Expo convention in August 2019, Kathryn Hahn was revealed to be cast in the role of Agnes, Wanda Maximoff and Vision's neighbor, in the Marvel Studios Disney+ television series WandaVision (2021). That series' seventh episode reveals that "Agnes" is actually Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch from Marvel Comics. In May 2021, WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer signed a three-year overall television deal with Marvel Studios and 20th Television to develop additional projects for the studios' Disney+ slate. In pitches for several different projects, Schaeffer suggested including Harkness. This led to her and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige pursuing a series centered on that character instead. By October 2021, a "dark comedy" spin-off from WandaVision centered on Hahn as Harkness was in early development for Disney+ from Marvel Studios, with Schaeffer returning from WandaVision as head writer and executive producer. Hahn's involvement was part of a larger deal she signed with Marvel Studios to reprise her role in series and films.

During a Disney+ Day event in November 2021, the series was officially announced. Schaeffer was revealed to be directing episodes of the series a year later, and Gandja Monteiro was revealed as another director in December 2022. They were both confirmed to be directing multiple episodes along with Rachel Goldberg in January 2023, with Schaeffer directing the first episode and Monteiro directing the last. By October 2023, Marvel Studios was changing its approach to television, hiring more traditional showrunners instead of head writers; Schaeffer was being credited as the series' showrunner by July 2024. Marvel Studios' Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, and Mary Livanos also served as executive producers. The series is being released under Marvel Studios' "Marvel Television" label. Actress Debra Jo Rupp, who returned from WandaVision, described the spin-off as being a second season of WandaVision in an anthology sense, similar to the different seasons of the television series American Horror Story (2011–present).

Title
The series was first announced with the title Agatha: House of Harkness, but was renamed to Agatha: Coven of Chaos by July 2022. The series was revealed to have been retitled once again in September 2023, this time to Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. Actress Aubrey Plaza had previously posted a photo in May 2023 of a director's chair with that title, in a font based on the one used for the Disney film The Princess Diaries (2001). Adam B. Vary at Variety reported that the multiple title changes were not caused by indecision from Marvel Studios and were instead indicating that the main character was "up to her old skulduggery", and he said it was possible that the series was simply titled Agatha; that is what the series was referred to as in a filing for the first episode with the United States Copyright Office as well as on the official Disney+ website.

In May 2024, Marvel Studios released a new logo on Twitter with the title Agatha: The Lying Witch with Great Wardrobe, but took down the post soon after. Germain Lussier at Gizmodo thought this may have been a joke or a mistake and noted that it was referencing the C. S. Lewis novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950). He felt it was "the worst title of the bunch" despite being accurate to the character, and questioned why the series had received so many publicly-announced titles during development. He felt the best choice would be Agatha All Along, referring to the song of the same name that Harkness sings in WandaVision. The next day, Disney announced at an upfront presentation that the official title was Agatha All Along, and released a video showing that the changing titles were "orchestrated by [Harkness] as a way of messing with Marvel fans".

Writing
Peter Cameron, Cameron Squires, Laura Donney, and Megan McDonnell worked on the series, all returning from WandaVision, alongside Laura Monti, Giovanna Sarquis, and Jason Rostovsky. McDonnell was a consulting producer, serving as the on-set writer. Livanos said the chance to continue Agatha Harkness's story and to get to know the character further was "immediately an imperative" for the creatives. Winderbaum compared Agatha All Along to Marvel Studios' series Loki (2021–2023), because they both feature antiheroes, are different from the studios' other series, and explore similar emotional depths for their title characters. Schaeffer said Agatha All Along would follow Harkness as she is joined by "a disparate, mixed bag of witches" who are all coven-less, explaining that the series would explore what happens when these witches, who are "defined by deception, treachery, villainy and selfishness", are forced to work together. She also noted that the series plays with witch lore and assumptions about them, in a similar way to how WandaVision played with the sitcom format. Winderbaum called Agatha All Along a "Halloween show" that features a "Marvel brand of scary" with deadly stakes, while still being fun and dramatic.

Casting
Hahn was expected to reprise her role in the series with the reveal of its development in October 2021, which was confirmed with the series' official announcement a month later. Emma Caulfield Ford revealed in October 2022 that she would reprise her role as Sarah Proctor / "Dottie Jones" from WandaVision. In November, Joe Locke, Aubrey Plaza, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, and Sasheer Zamata joined the cast. Locke plays Billy Kaplan, the male lead of the series, while Plaza plays Rio Vidal, a newly created character. Ahn plays the witch Alice Wu-Gulliver, with Dizzia also reported to be portraying a witch, and Zamata set for the recurring role of the sorceress Jennifer Kale. Patti LuPone joined the cast in December, as the witch Lilia Calderu. Miriam Margolyes turned down a role in the series after Marvel offered to pay her half of what she had asked for and because she did not want to film in Georgia.

In January 2023, several cast members were revealed to be reprising their roles from WandaVision: Debra Jo Rupp as Sharon Davis / "Mrs. Hart"; David Payton as John Collins / "Herb"; David Lengel as Harold Proctor / "Phil Jones"; Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon / "Norm"; Amos Glick as a pizza delivery man / "Dennis"; Brian Brightman as the Eastview, New Jersey, sheriff; and Kate Forbes as Agatha's mother Evanora Harkness. Miles Gutierrez-Riley was cast as Billy's boyfriend,  with Okwui Okpokwasili also cast in the series.

Design
Daniel Selon served as the costume designer, after previously working as an assistant costume designer on WandaVision, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). John Collins was the production designer. The different witches in Harkness's coven all have their own styles which were categorized by Gordon Jackson of Gizmodo as the goth, the clairvoyant, the hippie, and the "coastal grandmother".

Filming
Principal photography began on January 17, 2023, at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, with Schaeffer, Monteiro, and Goldberg directing episodes of the series. Caleb Heymann, Jon Chema, and Isiah Donté Lee served as cinematographers. The series was filmed under the working title My Pretty. Filming with Rupp also occurred in Los Angeles by February 2023, before moving to Atlanta for two months. The start of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike in May 2023 was not expected to impact production of Agatha All Along, with Marvel Studios reportedly planning to shoot what they could during principal photography and make any necessary writing adjustments during the series' already scheduled reshoots. Plaza filmed some of her scenes concurrent with the last two weeks of her commitments to the film Megalopolis (2024), also in Atlanta. Hahn stated that filming utilized as many practical elements as possible, including practical magic opposed to having it done through CGI. Filming wrapped by May 28. Hahn said in January 2024 there were a few days left of reshoots to take place, which were completed in one day in early February.

Visual effects
Kelly Port served as the visual effects supervisor for Agatha All Along, after previously working on some MCU films, with Digital Domain providing visual effects.

Music
In January 2023, Hahn hinted at the inclusion of songs in the series, much like the original songs featured in WandaVision such as "Agatha All Along". In March, Christophe Beck revealed he would be composing the score for the series, after previously doing so for WandaVision and other MCU media. The following month, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez were revealed to have written the songs for the series, returning from WandaVision. Hahn serves as the lead singer for some songs, with the other witch actors such as LuPone acting as background singers.

Marketing
A first-look at the series was included in the bonus features of WandaVision physical home media, which was released in late November 2023. Hahn, Locke, and LuPone promoted the series at Disney's May 2024 upfront presentation, where the release date and official title were announced and the first trailer was shown. The title announcement was accompanied by a video, which was released online, that shows the progression of announced titles for the series leading up to the official title, Agatha All Along. The video is set to the song of the same name from WandaVision.

A teaser trailer was released online on July 8, 2024. Michaela Zee at Variety noted how it cycled through various genres, the first of which presented Harkness as a detective in "a hardboiled murder mystery". Charles Pulliam-Moore at The Verge felt that the trailer was giving a "promising horror turn" and indicated that the series was darker and more "horror-oriented" than other Marvel projects. Jennifer Ouellette of Ars Technica wrote that the series looked like "a lot of dark, spooky fun" and was the perfect fit for releasing in the Halloween season. Writing for Kotaku, Zack Zwiezen said the teaser was "promising a creepy, fun, and wild time" for the series. He was particularly curious about Vidal's connection to Harkness and was excited for "a witchy, creepy, spooky show" for the Halloween season. Two days after the teaser's release, Hahn, who had been guest hosting the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, ended her opening monologue with a song recapping the MCU.

Release
Agatha All Along is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ with its first two episodes on September 18, 2024. The other seven episodes will be released weekly until November 6, coinciding with the Halloween season. The series was previously expected to debut as early as late 2023, but by February 2023 it was not included on a list of "sure bets" to be released that year amid Disney and Marvel Studios re-evaluating their content output. The series will be part of Phase Five of the MCU.