AGATHA ALL ALONG Showrunner Talks Biggest Twists, Speed, Mephisto, And Why There's No Post-Credits Scene

AGATHA ALL ALONG Showrunner Talks Biggest Twists, Speed, Mephisto, And Why There's No Post-Credits Scene

Agatha All Along showrunner Jac Schaeffer has answered several burning questions about this past Wednesday's finale, including Agatha's relationship with Death, whether there were Mephisto plans, and more.

By JoshWilding - Nov 01, 2024 01:11 PM EST
Filed Under: Agatha: Coven of Chaos
Source: Variety

Agatha All Along's two-episode finale delivered heaps of exciting twists and turns, not to mention a hefty number of revelations that set the stage for future stories. 

Variety recently caught up with showrunner, writer, and director Jac Schaeffer to break down "Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End" and "Maiden Mother Crone." The trade learned more about both the decisions made and whether we were ever going to see characters like Tommy Maximoff and Mephisto.

Schaeffer confirms that they decided Billy created the Witches' Road "about a month into the writers' room" and explains, "We had already been circling this idea that Agatha had walked the Witches’ Road with her son, that he was perhaps buried on the road. But then Giovanna Sarquis’ had this idea of Agatha singing the 'Ballad' on the road with Nicky, and it all started to slot into place."

"Billy made the road, Agatha did in fact walk a road, but it was a real road in nature with her son, and he’s the one who came up with the 'Ballad.' She took the 'Ballad' and turned it into a con."

That con saw Agatha deliver body after body to Death, all while she became more powerful and avoided being reunited with her son in the afterlife. The romance between her and "Rio Vidal" is hinted at throughout the series and culminates with a kiss, but there were once plans to show us more of their past.

"We had these really pretty visuals of Agatha killing people and then seeing Rio across the bodies, like that line, 'They met over corpses.' I mean, I saw it in my mind. It was really beautiful and also quite funny. And then the room took it in a direction that then they lived together in a cottage, and we talked at length about it, to the point of, 'Is Rio Nicky’s father?' We went down those paths, and they were very gratifying to explore."

As for how is Nicholas Scratch's father, Schaeffer refused to confirm anything. "That’s a story for another day, but ultimately for me, it’s irrelevant in this story. The truth is that even if I did have an answer, I don’t cover it in this property. So it is fodder for a story for another day, that I maybe don’t have control over."

It's that final run-in with Death that seals Agatha's fate and, for the writer and director, the villain becoming a ghost was always the plan in this series.

"We knew she would be a ghost from the very, very beginning of developing the show. It was always that we were going to end her as a ghost. She’s not in the comics really very much at all, and when she is in the comics, she’s often a ghost. So it was like, 'This is where we’re going.' I think when she is her best, she is a mentor. That’s what she’s meant to be."

Agatha All Along ends with Agatha and Billy setting off to find Tommy Maximoff after Wiccan finds his spirit a new body. While Schaeffer confirms that they considered casting an actor to play Speed, they ultimately decided against it while Marvel Studios figures out the speedster's future. 

As for the body Billy sends his twin to, the showrunner says, "We wanted to hint at, 'This is kind of a rush job, that he finds the closest best body in this moment, and it’s not a good place.' That sequence was written by Peter Cameron. There’s a lot of story economy in setting up the promise of Tommy, who we will hopefully see in a later property. We had to keep it simple."

"We know that he needs to be about Billy’s age, and it needs to be a death of a young person that is tragic, and we want it to be visual. We thought the drowning in the water would be cinematic, but also afford us the opportunity to obscure him."

Mephisto, meanwhile, may have been namedropped during the course of this story but Schaeffer never considered giving him a role in Agatha All Along

"I hope this doesn’t upset anyone, but Mephisto has never interested me. But we have an early, early document that included him in a potential antagonist, but I don’t remember ever really taking that seriously. And also, within the MCU, logistically, it wasn’t right for our show. I will say, it was not my intention to toy with anyone with the Mephisto stuff."

Finally, asked about why Agatha All Along doesn't have a post-credits scene, she confirmed, "That’s a Marvel decision. I know nothing more than that...I wrote a number of tags, because you always do on every Marvel everything. I love writing tags. I was told that we weren’t going to do a tag on this show. That doesn’t affect my work, or my vision for the show."

All episodes of Agatha All Along are now streaming on Disney+.

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Malatrova15
Malatrova15 - 11/1/2024, 1:27 PM
The bigest twist was the ack!
Crtdacct2say
Crtdacct2say - 11/1/2024, 1:34 PM
@Malatrova15 - the what?
Malatrova15
Malatrova15 - 11/1/2024, 1:38 PM
@Crtdacct2say - Wiccan has 41% of chance of being Living Tribunal tier but he can only do it once.
Crtdacct2say
Crtdacct2say - 11/1/2024, 2:15 PM
@Malatrova15 - what is 'ack'?
Tidaltree
Tidaltree - 11/1/2024, 2:27 PM
@Crtdacct2say - Usually short for "acknowledgement"
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/1/2024, 1:40 PM

This will soon be forgotten, and people will be talking about it as much as they do Secret Invasion now.

WakandanQueen
WakandanQueen - 11/1/2024, 2:54 PM
@DocSpock - Think you'll be shocked with how much you'll relate to Agatha Harkness, she too is a hater.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/1/2024, 3:49 PM
@WakandanQueen -

Regressed brain people and gen Z idiots are the only ones who still call people "hater". Surely you can insult better than that.

DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/1/2024, 3:54 PM
@CreateNowSlpL8r -

LOL! Great research dude!

CreateNowSlpL8r
CreateNowSlpL8r - 11/1/2024, 3:58 PM
@DocSpock - I tried to tell them when they published this: https://comicbookmovie.com/tv/marvel/agatha-coven-of-chaos/agatha-all-alongs-latest-episode-passes-4-million-views-official-look-at-aubrey-plaza-as-spoiler-released-a214164

Look at the comments. The true believers all told me I didnt know what I was talking about. All they had to do is read the Nielsen ratings. Even if the writers wanted to take a position, thats fine but at least present the actual counter data when we know Disney lies and all the "journalists" just copy and paste the same article.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 11/1/2024, 7:33 PM
@DocSpock -
Agreed. It'll have to be forgotten as it's impossible to follow-up in a main film. You can't have Multiverse of Madness have Scarlet Witch's kids be fake/dead and not exist in this universe only to undo it all through the use of the Agatha series and have them return along with Agatha being a ghost when the majority of the audience won't have watched Agatha.

Secret Wars/Avengers Forever will be the end for all these characters, they are just throwing whatever they can at the wall to see what sticks so they get a rough idea of what the audience wants after the reboot.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/1/2024, 7:37 PM
@Scarilian - It's sad to look at an Avengers movie and look forward to it ending all this crap we are getting now.

But I feel that way too.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 11/1/2024, 7:56 PM
@DocSpock -
Yeah, I've long past the point of Avengers Doomsday, Avengers Secret Wars/Avengers Forever being anything other than visuals of seeing the characters together. From a story perspective they have destroyed anything they can possibly do to tie all this together neatly.

It's going to be a mess. We're dealing with well over 100+ characters who'd all need to return and a majority of them don't have any development at all as they were set-up at the end of shows or films to tease sequels that never happened.

Heck, we still have the cliffhanger from Eternals, are half of them going to show back up for one of these Avengers films or are they going to just forget that they'd promised to defend the Earth. Is Blade not going to appear despite being set-up in the credits of that film? How can they have stakes when they have G'iah running around with all the powers of every single MCU character? The Fantastic Four won't have had any interaction with any of the main characters at all and yet they'll have to establish that? What about the Kang plotline and the Council of Kangs they still need to do something to end that plotline?

It's a complete fricking mess.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/1/2024, 9:35 PM
@Scarilian -

Yep. It's Avengers induced heavy drinking time. Start things over with the X-Men, Spider-Man, and Daredevil.

I'm worn out by the rest.



heisei24
heisei24 - 11/1/2024, 10:17 PM
@DocSpock - Eh I have my doubts before, but I don't think it'll be forgotten, especially by the "Wandavision" audience, regardless of how small they are.
WakandanQueen
WakandanQueen - 11/2/2024, 6:07 AM
@DocSpock - Actually looks like it worked just fine! And to think I didn't even mean it as an insult... now I know.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/2/2024, 4:58 PM
@WakandanQueen -

You don't think calling someone a "hater" is an insult. That certainly explains your ignorance.
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 11/3/2024, 5:14 PM
@CreateNowSlpL8r - Something tells me you're not actually a "creator" as you'd like your name to imply.
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 11/3/2024, 5:23 PM
@DocSpock - A show performs well and you still find a way to complain...

Folks tried saying this show was a bad decision to make and were proven quite wrong. This type of negativity is not only ignorant, it's just straight up sad.

Stop whining so much, dude.
CreateNowSlpL8r
CreateNowSlpL8r - 11/3/2024, 5:28 PM
@Tonic24k - I don't know what they is supposed to mean. On the contrary, I draw and write. This is why I post mostly counter arguments to the story elements of modern media shows. I am pretty versed on proper use of story telling and quietly working on a number of novels. If you are replying to the comment about about true believers, the point was when the viewership numbers were posted, I tried to tell the writer and the true believer that this data was being put in a positive light when the numbers were bad. As opposed to citing some source and lifting a shifting it, I did my own research based on what Nielsen posted. I'm not sure what the objection is to that. I haven't taken a position on this show in any post because I didn't watch it. I did take a position on Acolyte and backed it up with an editorial on this site.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/3/2024, 5:38 PM
@Tonic24k -

Performs well?? Wrong! The viewing numbers for this show were poor.

Learn the facts before you say something so wrong.
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 11/3/2024, 5:51 PM
@CreateNowSlpL8r - It's supposed to mean you don't sound like a legit creator of anything. You're literally going out of your way to bring negativity to something that was well received by its audience. If you were a real creator, you'd appreciate when a creative project got its flowers.

But hey, let's take a look at your work. You must have a billion fans and pristine reviews...
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 11/3/2024, 6:50 PM
@DocSpock - It reviewed very well. And those viewership numbers aren't "poor". But also, the negative articles on this show are few and far between the positive articles. It's had a very positive reception. So not only is this a sad attempt to discredit something, all the "no one asked for this" fools are looking incredibly dumb.

Talk less shit, look less stupid.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/3/2024, 7:57 PM
@Tonic24k -

Okay, you idiot. I did not say it wasn't well received. It was.

I said the viewership numbers were NOT good. Look at the Nielsen ratings. They are NOT good.

You are the stupid one. If people that watched it liked it, that is one factor. If not enough people watched it, that is a bigger factor.
CreateNowSlpL8r
CreateNowSlpL8r - 11/3/2024, 8:27 PM
@Tonic24k - Do you know whats sad? When someone comes into a chat with no context and then insults that person when they don't know what they are talking about.

For context this started when the writer on this site copy and pasted a fluff article that this show was doing high numbers when it wasn't. Secondly, all I did in that thread was tell them the Nielsen conflicts with this puff piece narrative which they would have known had they checked. I don't recall insulting the work, I didn't watch it. When I was critcal of a show, The Acolyte, I at least wrote an editorial in this site to back up my position. So "the flowers" its getting is fine. I don't care who liked the show. I only disputed the objective facts about it viewership which I didn't make up. Then some other person wrote and entire article on 10/25 that basically said what I said. Third, I don't give a shit what you think of me as a creator and everything you just said is objectively wrong.

@DocSpock
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 11/1/2024, 2:04 PM
I thought the ending was solid. At least at this rate we get a Agatha that leans more towards mentor rather than antagonist, similar to the older comics.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 11/1/2024, 7:32 PM
@ModHaterSLADE -
I'm guessing she wasn't like that throughout the series? They keep setting up what you want without delivering it. We have only got the Vision series left and then Secret Wars and that'll be it... we don't have time or chance to explore these characters anymore before the reboot because they've written themselves into a corner at every turn.
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 11/1/2024, 8:12 PM
@Scarilian - They wanted a more morally grey take on the character rather than one that has mostly been portrayed as usually good like the comics. I'll admit it gives the character more depth than just outright good ghost witch. I'm hoping Agatha returns in some capacity down the line.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/1/2024, 4:04 PM

Actual research:

Credit: @CreateNowSlpL8r -

@DocSpock - I tried to tell them when they published this: https://comicbookmovie.com/tv/marvel/agatha-coven-of-chaos/agatha-all-alongs-latest-episode-passes-4-million-views-official-look-at-aubrey-plaza-as-spoiler-released-a214164

Look at the comments. The true believers all told me I didnt know what I was talking about. All they had to do is read the Nielsen ratings. Even if the writers wanted to take a position, thats fine but at least present the actual counter data when we know Disney lies and all the "journalists" just copy and paste the same article.

Agatha = flop.
knomad
knomad - 11/1/2024, 4:56 PM
I'm sure Wilding was really disappointed by the lack of Mephisto. Nearly every series, he's wondered/hoped Mephisto might factor in.

Is the man a closet Satanist?
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/1/2024, 7:17 PM
@knomad -

He's not in the closet.
ptick
ptick - 11/1/2024, 5:57 PM
Comparing the viewership numbers of this show to the Acolyte is apples to oranges. For one, the Acolyte certainly cost much more to produce. Secondly, the viewership numbers of Agatha *increased* as the series went along, unlike the Acolyte. The Acolyte had much more buzz than Agatha coming in but severely underwhelmed. Agatha's (a show few people asked for) audience, meanwhile, stuck around - and gained more viewers along the way.

The Acolyte was an unquestioned failure for Disney. Agatha was a "small story" success.

https://deadline.com/2024/10/agatha-all-along-episode-7-ratings-disney-plus-1236159012/
CreateNowSlpL8r
CreateNowSlpL8r - 11/1/2024, 7:01 PM
@ptick - Huh? Apples to Oranges? How do you know the viewership increased? Go check the Nielsen, they dropped from week 1 to week 2. How does that make it a small story success? Man, you guys can spin just about anything. You realize that Disney has essentially shit the bed with almost every series they released since 2022?

2022:
The Book of Boba Fett
Moon Knight
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Andor
Willow
National Treasure: Edge of History
She-Hulk
Ms. Marvel

2023:
Loki S2
Secret Invasion
Mando S3
Ahsoka
What If S3

2024:
Echo
The Acolyte
Agatha

You can call out budgets, hang upside down from a web as you read them, or ask Santa if Iger, Kathleen Kennedy, and Feige are just on the naughty list and it wouldn't matter. Again, its not a problem that you or any of the writers here might like the shows. Thats great. What I'm saying is, shows that somehow fall under the banner of culture war get some optimistic and dishonest representation of how they are actually performing. Facts are objective, feelings don't matter.

@DocSpock
Tonic24k
Tonic24k - 11/3/2024, 5:32 PM
@CreateNowSlpL8r - Wow... you actually look more and more sad the further you go into the comments. Are you really wasting this much time dedicating yourself to try and talk shit about something?

I would be utterly embarrassed if I made myself look this pathetic. And trying to talk about "feelings don't matter"...lol. Says the dude that whines incessantly. Maybe get out of YOUR feelings and go do something with the things you enjoy.

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