Thanks to WandaVision, the Marvel Cinematic Universe now has another wonderful new villain within its canon, as Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness proved to be an excellent antagonist for Scarlet Witch on the Disney+ series. By the end of the show we learn that she is interested in both testing and taking the Avenger’s magical abilities, and the way she goes about doing it is fun and sly. If you’re like us, however, you may have found yourself wondering exactly how and when Agatha first discovered the hex that Wanda creates – but you need not wonder any longer, as the answer has now been provided by director Matt Shakman.
Given that the so-called “Westview Anomaly” is really only up for about a week from when Scarlet Witch first opens it and then closes it, I recently found myself curious about the logistics of Agatha Harkness’ arrival, so I decided to ask the series’ director about it when I had the opportunity to speak with him this week. As suggested by the fact that she has a role in the first episode of WandaVision, Agatha shows up on the scene extremely early on, and the reason for is that is because she is able to essentially detect Wanda’s magic with her own. Said Shakman,
She came very early, as you can see in “Agatha All Along” – we see her land in her witchy outfit, create that plant, and boom, she knocks on the door and there's Agnes; she's ready to go. So she's there very early on, and she is drawn to it by the magic signature basically. She understands that something incredibly powerful, like an atom bomb going off in the world of magic has happened here in Westview, New Jersey.
That’s definitely an interesting detail to fit into the timeline. Evidently there was a part of Agatha Harkness that was just waiting for an explosive new magic to make itself apparent in the world, and as soon as it did she arrived on the scene to try and exploit it. She obviously wasn’t sure at first exactly what to make of all of it, but by the end she figures it all out, and recognizes Wanda Maximoff as the user of chaos magic that she is, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch.
This revelation admittedly does in part make you wonder why Doctor Strange didn’t have the same kind of reaction to Wanda’s explosive demonstration of power, but it’s also not terribly hard to come up with a No-Prize explanation. After all, everything that happens in WandaVision takes place only about a month after the events of Avengers: Endgame, and one can imagine that the former brain surgeon was a touch busy during that period – especially given the fact that he was one of the characters who was “blipped” and missed the last five years on Earth. While Wanda is exercising his grief, it’s possible that he’s busy trying to fix all kinds of issues the cropped up in the magic world while half of life in existence was missing (maybe we’ll even get a taste of what he was up to in the upcoming Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness).
As those who finished WandaVision know, Agatha Harkness has now been neutralized in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, enchanted by Wanda to live as the nosy neighbor Agnes forever – but that doesn’t mean you should totally count her out from future stories. There is no telling what kind of craziness may unfold in the franchise in the coming years, and whatever happens perhaps could free Agatha to continue her magic-hoarding work. We’ll just have to wait and see.
For now, Marvel fans can witness all of the fantastic antics of Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness on WandaVision, which is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+, and to see what else is ahead in the canon, be sure to check out CinemaBlend’s Upcoming Marvel Movies and Upcoming Marvel TV Shows guides.
