Wandavision‘s inventive approach to combining different narrative genres made it one of the most engaging pieces of television Marvel has ever produced. The show became a must-watch week after week as it developed its central mystery in a way that was fun to follow. And for a while, It felt like WandavisionThe story was part of an ambitious plan to push Marvel movies in an interesting new direction.
Marvel apparently lost track of that plan somewhere between Wandavision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — a follow-up film that skipped the show’s juicy emotional moments in favor of fast-paced spectacle and more explicit horror vibes. But Agatha since alwaysDisney Plus’ new MCU series from showrunner Jac Schaeffer feels like a sign that the studio has learned some valuable lessons from its messy multiversal experiment.
Set a few years after the events of Wandavision and Multiverse of Madness, Agatha since always picks up the story of the titular sorceress (Kathryn Hahn) at a time when everything in her world seems to be falling apart once again, albeit under slightly different circumstances. While most everyone remembers what happened the last time witches showed up in Westview, New Jersey, the town is actually a fairly peaceful place where people have learned to move on with their lives.
While people like Sharon Davis (Debra Jo Rupp) have grown accustomed to running past the vacant lot where the Maximoff/Vision family used to live, their collective trauma prevents them from saying his name for fear that she might come back. But it also makes it easier for them to accept Agnes/Agatha Harkness (Hahn) as an ordinary, if eccentric, woman who is trying to handle something they have all been through. To them, Agatha’s mood swings and insistence on being called “Agnes” are just quirky coping mechanisms. But in truth, those are some of the first signs that Agatha is realizing the magical prison she was trapped in the last time we saw her.
Agatha since always It seems at first to aim for a slow burn as you drop into a… Wandavision-parodies in the style of crime dramas (rather than sitcoms) such as Easttown Mare and True detectiveBut the show quickly changes course in a way that reads as if Marvel understood the show’s need to leave behind the inspired gimmick of its predecessors. It’s not long before Agatha is brought back to her senses with the help of her ex-lover Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) and a teenager with magical abilities she calls Teen (Joe Locke). However, since Agatha no longer has any powers, she has to form a coven and hit the witch trail to regain her former glory.
While Wandavision He only really became a witch in his last episodes, Agatha since always dives right into magic while focusing on painting a more detailed picture of who Harkness is and how witchcraft works (which is distinct from the whole Doctor Strange thing). Wandavision alluded to Agatha’s treacherous past, but the new show explores how her centuries-long path to power turned her into a shunned villain in the witch community long before she ever set foot in Westview.
The comedy Agnes/Agatha was a highlight in Wandavision, where her unbridled energy helped sell the idea of the show and left viewers guessing who was really pulling everyone’s strings. But Agatha since always It gives Hahn even more room to show off and act as a vampire, as Agatha’s search for a coven leads her to other witches like wellness guru Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata), fortune teller Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone), and security guard Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn), all of whom see her as a threat. They know that Agatha has murdered members of her own coven before, and that there’s something off about the way Teen can’t tell them anything about her background. But the Witches’ Way could give each of them something they desperately want if they join Agatha on her quest.
While it’s interesting to see more of Marvel’s more “realized” magical world developed through Agatha since alwaysWith the new characters, the show has a distinct “I’m assembling a ragtag team” vibe that makes its beats feel predictable at times. Teen, a goth fanatic of Agatha’s who Locke plays charmingly and with a notably hard-to-identify accent, is meant to be one of the show’s most engaging mysteries. But he’s also an audience surrogate whose inquisitive exchanges with the other witches sometimes give the impression that the show is taking a moment to overexplain plot points that don’t really need to be explained.
Every bit of world-building history the series establishes (within a three-mile radius, there are always enough people “witchy enough” to form a coven, for example) is followed by a reiteration of why everyone follows Agatha. Occasionally, it makes the series feel unsure of whether it’s introducing too much story. But when Agatha since always leans into its weirdness and trusts that you can put the pieces together, the series becomes a much creepier, more lighthearted ride that feels like a reflection of Schaeffer once again attempting to bring a genuinely unique energy to the MCU.
You can feel and see this clearly once the gang is actually on the Witch’s Path, an otherworldly realm where they face a series of trials meant to test their knowledge of magic. Similar to the way Wandavision embodied the styles of several sitcoms, Agatha since always It feels like an ode (the music features largely) to horror classics like Rosemary’s baby and news like American Horror Story: Coven.
While some of the trials are a bit cheesy (at one point, the witches battle a generational curse), each one highlights how much… Agatha since always‘s magic is practically produced to complement the show’s intricate sets. It makes the show stand out compared to Marvel’s usual CGI-heavy projects and feels like a solid example of the studio prioritizing artistry over spectacular spectacle.
Agatha since always is still a Marvel show in its final stages, meaning there are times when your appreciation of what it’s doing will depend on how familiar you are with the most recent events of the wider cinematic universe. But for viewers who have been following along and holding out hope that the studio will get back to publishing genuinely weird and fun takes on the comics rather than hyping up the next big event, Agatha since always It should be a treat to watch, especially once it starts revealing its big secrets later this fall.
Agatha since always It also stars Paul Adelstein, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Okwui Okpokwasili, Emma Caulfield, David Payton, Kate Forbes, and Asif Ali. The first two episodes of the series will arrive on Disney Plus on September 18.