How Agatha All Along Sets up the MCU’s Future

Agatha All Along has taken the Marvel Cinematic Universe in new directions with its dark and spooky narrative and representative storytelling. A spin-off of the fan-favorite Disney+ series, WandaVision, the show debuted on the streaming platform on September 18 and ended its nine-episode run with a two-episode finale on October 30. It follows the mischievous witch Agatha Harkness (played incredibly by Kathryn Hahn) as she unravels the mystery of what happened to her after Westview folded in on itself. She meets a mysterious teenager, named Teen, and together, they form a coven to venture down The Witches’ Road, which gives the survivors what they seek.

The series had several plot twists, cameos, and Easter Eggs to keep fans on the edge of their seats each week and get them buzzing in excitement about what lay ahead. In a way, Agatha All Along reinvented the current superhero landscape and added a new layer of depth to the MCU with the introduction of spooky themes and a diverse cast of characters. Speaking of which, Joe Locke (Heartstopper) delivered a standout performance as Teen. He stars alongside Aubrey Plaza, Debra Jo Rupp, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Patti LuPone.

Now that Agatha All Along has set a new standard for what Marvel shows can become if they dare explore an unknown territory, it’s time to speculate just how the series sets up the future of the MCU. Clearly impacting the franchise with certain revelations, it has opened the door for more supernatural and mystical storylines for the MCU, as well as laid the foundation for beloved characters to return to the big screen and small in the future.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Agatha All Along

7 The MCU Is Clearly Not Done With Witches Yet

As a show about witches and magic, Agatha All Along introduces a fair share of new characters. Sasheer Zamata plays Jennifer Kate, a potions expert who was bound over a hundred years ago and feels powerless as a sorceress since. Ali Ahn stars as Alice Wu-Gulliver, a protection witch and an ex-police officer working odd jobs as she grieves the loss of her mother and tries to get rid of a generational curse placed upon her. The oldest member of Agatha’s cover, Lilia Calderu, is played by Patti LuPone. She is a centuries-old Silician witch who experiences time and the future in a non-linear fashion.

The series takes its time to delve into each of their abilities, their backstories, and their powers through various trials as the coven makes progress on the Witches’ Road. It also takes them away one by one, with “Darkest Hour / Wake Thy Power” taking Alice and “Death’s Hand in Mine” sacrificing Lilia. However, interestingly enough, in the finale, Jen gets her magic back after performing an unbinding ritual on Agatha, and then disappears only to crawl her way above the ground, off the Road, and fly into the air. The point is crucial because it opens a new realm of possibilities for the MCU and hints at the return of witches.

6 Death Comes for All… in the Form of Rio Vidal

Rio Vidal, introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a powerful Green Witch, a cosmic entity known as Death, and Agatha’s former love interest, not only churned excitement in fans but also brought a sense of foreboding to the series. Her overall vibe is ominous, and her intentions are mysterious until the very end, when she takes on her full form from Marvel Comics, with the crown, hood, and skull, and reveals her true purpose. She considers Billy taking William Kaplan’s body an “abomination” and needs him to surrender in order to take his life.

Rio also mentions the “Sacred Balance,” which may not hold much depth in Agatha All Along’s little world, but has a connection to the greater MCU, where Thanos wanted to restore order in the universe by eliminating half the population. Turns out, Lady Death and Thanos were romantically involved at some point, at least in the comics. She is likely to return. when

5 The Son of the Scarlet Witch Has Unimaginable Power

Agatha All Along introduces us to Teen, a mysterious character whose first encounter with Agatha is strange because it conceals his true identity with a sigil cast on him. Initially, this raises questions, but as the story unfolds, significant details about his origin are revealed. Then, it is disclosed that Teen is, in fact, Billy Maximoff, the son of Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. During the Battle of Westview, when Billy was disappearing along with the town. He saw an opportunity when the Kaplan family’s car smashed into a tree and William almost died, transferred his soul into William’s body, and was then taken to the hospital.

It isn’t until Billy is walking down the Witches’ Road with Agatha’s coven of witches that his powers begin to manifest in remarkable ways. Moreover, “Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End” sees him finding what he was looking for at the end of the Road and returning to his old life as William Kaplan. As soon as he enters his room, Billy starts to notice the many elements that look similar to what he experienced on the Road, with Agatha’s voice, “it’s better than you pictured it,” ringing in his voice.

The revelation that Billy was The Magician, the creator of The Witches’ Road, highlights his unimaginable power and sets up a future that involves the next generation of superheroes.

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4 Tommy Is Still Out There

Fans had already speculated about William’s purpose to walk the Road as wanting to find his brother, Tommy. This was further cemented in episode 6, titled “Familiar by Thy Side,” which dove into Teen’s identity. He was originally William Kaplan, a teenager from Eastview, who was celebrating his Bar Mitzvah when he had an encounter with Lilia, who foresees the future and casts a sigil on him to conceal his name. When William gets into an accident and Billy takes over his body, he suffers from amnesia and spends three years trying to understand what happened to Wanda and Tommy.

In “Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End,” Rio calls Billy an abomination and reads his intention of finding Tommy and doing the same with his soul. She strikes a deal with Agatha in exchange for sparing her, but in their last trial, Agatha helps Billy remember the last thing about Tommy, when they were ten and living in Westview. As Wanda’s world was collapsing, Agatha urged Billy to focus on the sound of Tommy’s breathing and find a place, a body, for him to go to. Billy spots a boy drowning in a pool, and is reluctant, then disappears. Additionally, “Maiden Mother Crone” ends with Agatha and Billy setting out to find Tommy.

3 One Door Closes and Another Opens

In the finale of Agatha All Along, titled “Maiden Mother Crone,” Agatha appears as a ghost in Billy’s room, cackling with laughter when Billy realizes he was the creator of The Road and was also responsible for the death of Alice and Lilia. She compliments his powers by comparing them to Wanda’s and tells him he saved Jen’s life with his magic, because otherwise, Agatha was just going to kill her coven in the basement like she has been doing for centuries now. After a series of back and forth, Billy accepts Agatha’s spirit as his guide, and she tells him they would make a good team, just like she told Nicholas.

The scene ends with Agatha saying, “One door closes,” and Billy finishing her sentence, “and another one opens.” A staircase opens and they walk into a white light. It’s fair to think of Agatha All Along as the second installment of an unofficial Disney+ trilogy that kicked off with WandaVision and will conclude with Vision Quest. Moreover, before the two-part finale premiered, Marvel dropped a slate of upcoming Disney+ content set to release in 2024 and 2025. Among the titles was Wonder Man, which would further expand the story for Wanda, Vision, and the Maximoff twins.

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2 Scarlet Witch Might Still Return to the MCU

Wanda Maximoff has had a captivating turn in the MCU, from making her debut with Avengers: Age of Ultron to living an idyllic life in Westview with Vision and their sons Billy and Tommy in WandaVision. It is later revealed that Wanda is using magic to create this reality. Magic that stems from her grief over losing Vision.

Following this, she fully embraces her role as the Scarlet Witch and uses the Darkhold to look for her sons in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which leads to absolute destruction and chaos. And Wanda’s death.

However, with Agatha All Along diving so deep as to bring back the son of the Scarlet Witch as an all-powerful young witch, the possibility of Wanda’s return has escalated. To add, Marvel has confirmed that a new show titled Vision Quest is currently in development. It follows Paul Bettany’s “white Vision,” whom S.W.O.R.D. originally built to contain Wanda but who ended up grappling with his place in the world. All these points lead us to believe that the nature of the multiverse is confusing and that it is too soon to rule out the Scarlet Witch’s return yet.

1 Young Avengers Are Just Around the Corner

It’s not news that the MCU is trying to lay the groundwork for Young Avengers, a team of young superheroes that all have some sort of connection with the original Avengers. So far, with the conclusion of 2023’s The Marvels, we saw Kamala Khan approaching Kate Bishop, protégé of Hawkeye, with a proposal to join a new team. The MCU has also already introduced Elijah Richardson as Eli Bradley, the grandson of Super Soldier Isaiah Bradley in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Loki revealed Kid Loki, played by Jack Veal and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness presented us with Xochitl Gomez as the multiverse-hopping America Chavez. In addition, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania featured Cassie Land, the size-shifting daughter of Scott Lang. With Agatha All Along bringing Joe Locke in as Billy, also known as Wiccan, it is clear that the potential for crossover events and a powerful team-up is vast.