While we still don’t know if a second season of Agatha All Along will be part of the upcoming Marvel TV slate, the bewitching Disney+ hit certainly left enough breadcrumbs and plot strands to justify another trip back to Westview, even if it’s just to immediately vacate the city on a hunt for Tommy Maximoff. For instance, fans still want to know if Agatha’s son Nicholas Scratch will take on his comic counterpart’s more demonic narrative, while also wondering who his father is.
I should probably specify it by saying “father,” now that AAA showrunner Jac Schaeffer has essentially confirmed that the creative team did indeed have a certain character in mind for that parental role, and it’s thankfully the one that fans started theorizing about as soon as questions about Nicky’s fate arose in the premiere: Aubrey Plaza’s Rio, or Death if you’re on the friendliest of terms.
To be absolutely sure, this reveal is not confirmed MCU canon at the moment, but it’s certainly as close as we’re going to get for the foreseeable future. Speaking with Backstory Magazine, Schaeffer was asked if there was credence to the fan-embraced theory that Nicholas Scratch was the love child of Agatha and Rio. And here’s her downright splendid response:
Yes, I mean we talked about a lot of different versions of who was the father of Nicky. We ultimately decided, for Agatha’s story, it wasn’t relevant to the story we were trying to tell. And we didn’t want to get into the weeds of if it was magical. Again, it’s sort of more rules. We certainly considered the idea that Rio is the father. I wonder…I should ask the writers if they still sort of hold that in their hearts.
I honestly didn't expect such a candid and plainly worded explanation for how Agatha All Along's creative team approached Nicholas Scratch's biological heritage. Just after giving birth, Kathryn Hahn's character spoke to the idea that she didn't need to use spells or incantations to conceive the kid, which implied either an immaculate conception or another mysterious circumstance.
Though it does seem as if one form of magic or supernatural shenanigans would be required in order for the O.G. Green Witch herself, Death, to impregnate someone. I guess I have near-zero idea of how that would work even with magic involved, and I can't imagine Marvel would get hyper-specific about the process. But this info, even if not official, does help me accept NIcholas Scratch's backstory without as many issues.
Jac Schaeffer continued, pointing out that nothing is MCU-canonical yet:
It’s something that I certainly thought about a lot, and liked to sort of contemplate. I enjoy that it is left to fan interpretation. I also feel I know how the MCU works, and I don’t think it serves anybody for me as the creator to emphatically tell you something that isn’t on screen.
Ultimately, it's up to viewers, and parentage is in the eye of the beholder. But the showrunner expressed her optimism for this double-mother scenario one day becoming gospel within Agatha's story. She finished with:
It’s my hope that these stories continue, so perhaps there is a later chapter that will address this. But I will say that when we were casting, sometimes we were like, ‘Does that kid look like Rio? Does that kid look like Aubrey Plaza?’ So yes, fans and viewers, they’re picking up on our brainwaves for sure.
Following the Agatha All Along finale, fans took to social media and reddit with posts comparing Nicky actor Abel Lysenko to Aubrey Plaza, pointing out similarities between their eyes and smiles among other facial expressions. So if the showrunner had purported any other answer for this mystery, I imagine riots would have filled the streets; or at least tree-covered forest paths.
Death being NIcholas Scratch's other parent would certainly justify some of the reactions and lines that Plaza's character showcased throughout the season. From softened sympathy for Agatha to the way she appeared to Nicholas as a Green Witch instead of her freaky Reaper look, she was invested in that kid, and I choose to believe her motherly instinct is the reason why.
Agatha All Along is available to stream in full with a Disney+ subscription, not to mention all the other new Disney+ releases, and we'll hopefully get word soon on whether or not the series will get a second season.
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