No matter how many projects Marvel Studios decides to put out in a given year, the creatives always will be working toward building out their Cinematic Universe. There are street-level projects like Echo or the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again. There are cosmic storylines powered by Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) or the Guardians of the Galaxy. And when it comes to the soon-to-be-released spinoff Agatha All Along, available with a Disney+ subscription, Marble is building out its magical corner of the game board, where characters like Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) reign supreme.
Or, reigned supreme. At the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Scarlet Witch sacrificed herself in an effort to destroy the Darkhold, a book of evil sorcery. Few of us believe Wanda actually is dead, but that will get answered somewhere down the line, possibly in the just-announced Vision show that’s coming to the streaming service. For now, Agatha All Along follows the titular witch (Kathryn Hahn) and her newly formed coven on a trip down The Witches’ Road, in an effort to regain her power. But during a recent press day, I asked the creatives behind Agatha All Along if Wanda herself had ever walked down the Witches’ Road, and their answers were as evasive as you might imagine.
Let’s start with writer/director Jac Schaeffer, who also worked intimately on WandaVision, and danced around the question of Wanda on the Witches’ Road by saying to CinemaBlend:
Let me see how gracefully I can sidestep this . Yeah, I flat out can't answer that question . … What I love about it is, you know, it speaks to (the fact) that the Witches’ Road is an enormous part of witch lore in what is the MCU witch world. That is accurate.
OK, I love that. I think that’s interesting, and yes, we eventually are going to have to find out Wanda’s connection to the Witches’ Road, because as you will learn in Agatha All Along, it’s a vital part to the power sect of a Marvel witch. Marvel Studios Executive Producer Mary Livanos took the conversation one step further when I asked her about Wanda’s connection to the Witches’ Road, but also tied it to the existing narrative from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, claiming:
What I can tell you is, I think I saw what everyone else saw after the Multiverse of Madness. It seems like Wanda was very much taken off the table after her dealings with the Darkhold. So definitely, this show is all about Agatha and her history. So fans will be delighted to learn more about her.
They will. But Wanda will always remain a fascinating character in the MCU. She’s arguably the most powerful hero/villain in the universe. And when the MCU gets around to fully embracing mutants, Wanda should be front and center in that conversation. Which is exactly why no one believes that Wanda Maximoff “died” at the end of the Doctor Strange sequel. There’s far more story left for Wanda to tell. And as Marvel Studios Executive Producer Brad WInderbaum told CinemaBlend:
I think that, without saying too much, I think that Agatha is a crucial chapter in the Wanda mythology. Okay. It's an Agatha show. But if you're a fan of Wanda, you're going to enjoy this step down the road.
Well played, Brad. This will be our last original Marvel story landing in 2024, but there are plenty of Marvel projects arriving in 2025, starting with Anthony Mackie’s first leading role in a Captain America movie, dropping in February of 2025. It’s about to get busy in Marvel land, starting with Agatha All Along, streaming on Disney+ beginning on September 18.
