Marvel Is About to Repeat Its Most Successful Formula
Take your fears, a door appears, the time has come to go.
Spinoffs power the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From the very first movie, every project teased the next, crafting a vast interconnected film franchise. In 2021, Marvel added television to the mix with WandaVision, a Disney+ series following Wanda Maximoff as she coped with the loss of Vision.
Now, we’re about to get the first WandaVision spinoff, Agatha All Along, which focuses on Kathryn Hahn’s suburban sorceress Agatha Harkness. But Agatha All Along takes inspiration from more than just WandaVision or the MCU in general. Instead, it’s influenced by modern mythology.
Down the Witches’ Road
Wanda and a ghostly Agatha encounter Wanda’s mother, Natalya, on the Witches’ Road in Scarlet Witch Vol. 2 #4.
Agatha All Along will focus on Agatha as she ventures down the Witches’ Road, a mystical path only magic-wielders can walk on, featured in a heartbreaking comic book storyline where Wanda learns devastating secrets about her family history. Agatha only plays a supporting role in the comic, but in this series, she’s the star of the show.
“Yeah, of course, we're in the WandaVision universe," showrunner Jac Schaeffer told Comic Book about adapting the Witches’ Road. "We're in that corner of the MCU sandbox, but this is very much, as you say, Agatha's show. She would not have it any other way. And she's my focus and our focus. And so yeah, the launch of this is all about, 'Who is this woman really?' And she is a mystery unto herself. And I love to make these puzzle box shows and to focus it on Agatha... Yeah, it's all there."
However, Marvel comic books and television are only the start of Agatha All Along’s influences.
The Power of Myth
The Triple Goddess pendant Agatha wears may be a big clue.
There’s been a recurring motif throughout the promotion of Agatha All Along. From sneak peek stills to herbal supplement tie-in press mailers, the cameo-style pendant Agatha wears kept appearing over and over again. The pendant features the Triple Goddesses, neopagan deities usually symbolized by the moon. Commonly referred to as the Maiden, Mother, and Crone, the three goddesses reflect both different phases of the moon and different stages in the female life cycle.
This, in turn, is pertinent to Agatha All Along’s story. At this year’s D23, attendees got a musical preview of the show in the form of the song “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” which contains the lyrics “Blood and tears and bones/Maiden, mother, crone.” In the comics, the three people who walk the Road are Wanda, her mother, and Agatha Harkness, who appears as an old woman. Could the show offer a similar dynamic from Agatha’s point of view? And if so, will this just be the start of its neopagan influences?
Marvel Comics has always pulled from a wide variety of cultures and mythologies, and the MCU is no different. Thor is the most prominent example, as it pulled characters and concepts from Norse mythology. More recently, Loki Season 2 blended that Norse inspiration with the multiversal lore of modern-day Marvel, and now Agatha All Along is introducing the MCU to a whole new worldview.
We may have seen sorcerers and witches in the MCU before, but not like this. Marvel is often at its strongest when it’s pulling from established, real-world ideas, whether it’s borrowing main characters like Thor or adding little world-building details, like Heimdall and his rainbow bridge. Clever touches of neopaganism could give Agatha All Along the tone it needs to stand out from a crowded streaming landscape, and tell a more compelling story as Agatha embarks on her own journey.
