Aubrey Plaza is joining Kathryn Hahn in the upcoming Marvel Studios series “Agatha: Coven of Chaos” at Disney+, Variety has learned from sources.
The series is a spinoff of the Marvel show “WandaVision,” with Hahn set to reprise the role of Agatha Harkness. Exact plot details, including the character Plaza would play in the show, are being kept under wraps. Emma Caulfield Ford is also set to reprise the role of Dottie from “WandaVision” in the new series, while Variety exclusively reported that “Heartstopper” star Joe Locke will also star “Coven of Chaos.”
As has been the case in the past, Marvel does not comment on projects they have in the works. Reps for Plaza declined to comment.
The role marks a reunion of sorts for Plaza and Hahn, as both previously appeared in the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” with Plaza starring in the series as April Ludgate, while Hahn memorably played political strategist Jen Barkley in roughly a dozen episodes. Plaza currently stars in the second season of the HBO anthology series “The White Lotus” as well as the FXX animated series “Little Demon.” She is best known for her roles in shows like “Parks and Recreation” and “Legion.” In features, she has starred in projects like “Dirty Grandpa,” “Ingrid Goes West,” and “Emily the Criminal.”
Plaza is repped by CAA, MGMT Entertainment and Schreck Rose.
Variety exclusively reported “Coven of Chaos” was in the works in October 2021, with Disney officially confirming the news on November of that year. Jac Schaefer, the head writer and executive producer on “WandaVision,” returns in that role for “Coven of Chaos.”
In “WandaVision,” Hahn started out playing the role of Agnes, Wanda and Vision’s nosy neighbor, before it was revealed she was in fact Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch. In the Marvel comics and the series, Agatha is shown to have survived the Salem Witch Trials and is more than a match for Wanda, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch. When viewers last saw her in the finale of “WandaVision,” Wanda traps Agatha in Westview by using her powers to force her revert to her Agnes persona.
“WandaVision,” the first live-action MCU show on Disney+, racked up 23 Emmy nominations upon its debut, including one for Hahn for best supporting actress in a limited series. One of the show’s win came in the best original music and lyrics category for the song “Agatha All Along,” which was used as part of the reveal that Hahn’s character was not who she appeared to be.
After breaking open the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) appears to be finding out that totally warping reality has its consequences. In this new promotional video for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, the master of the mystic arts is in way over his head–but does he even remember why?
Doctor Strange hasn’t had a solo movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since his titular debut in 2016, but the character has popped up in a slew of other projects since then, hinting at the further development of his mind-bending powers. Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong), friend-turned-foe Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and former co-worker/ex-girlfriend Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) all make their returns for the sequel.
Directed by Sam Raimi, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is set to be the first feature film to seriously engage with plot points from the MCU’s Disney+ shows, after Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home kept the references to a minimum. In previously unseen footage, Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, reunites with the twin sons she conjured during the events of WandaVision, though it doesn’t seem to last long–at least for now.
While the MCU’s most famous magic users are teaming up, they’ll have to worry about the zombie versions of themselves, depicted in animated form in an episode of What If…? and seen making their live-action debut here. Another sinister variant of Strange is revealed to be sprouting a literal third eye.
Another video featuring the cast announcing ticket sales offers a better look at new character America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez, The Baby-Sitters Club), whose super-powered punches allow her to jump through different timelines. The movie’s roster of heroes is also set to include a mysterious glowing person and Patrick Stewart as Professor X, probably?
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness will be released in theaters on May 6.
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Marvel has released a new trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The previous trailers gave us some hints at the supporting cast surrounding the good (and, possibly, evil Doctor), and this release adds a new wrinkle: Wanda Maximoff’s children from WandaVision make an appearance. There’s only one small problem… they were never actually real.
The multiverse has been the focus of multiple Marvel properties over the past few years, and it’s not a stretch to say that Endgame kicked it off with its own brand of time fuckery. There was a little bit towards the end of WandaVision, a lot of it in Loki, and nonstop fanservice meta-narrative multiverse storytelling in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer
After the No Way Home final scenes revealed the full extent of the multiverse gone sideways, fans began eagerly awaiting the trailers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Now, with nearly three trailer drops since the superbowl, we can see that the multiverse depends on Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, Wong, and Ms. America. They’ll all be fighting their worst fears, and the worst versions of themselves. There’s also some hints of the multi-villains they’ll be after, and while nobody’s been confirmed, there is a hint of Captain Marvel’s classic colorscheme of yellow-highlights-with-blue-glowy-hands.
There’s a ton of hints in the sets here too—the Sanctum in rubble, the creeping darkness towards Kamar-Taj, Wanda breaking down in a vision of her suburban home of Westview, we even get a glimpse of a science lab with ultron-bots running around, as well as images of a strange, broken-up world… possibly a broken universe, or maybe just a waypoint?
Directed by Sam Raimi and written by Loki’s Michael Waldron, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stühlbarg, and Rachel McAdams. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters May 6.
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Emmys voters didn’t adore “WandaVision” as much as the rest of us did.
While the Disney Plus series from Marvel Studios took home three awards at the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend — for production, costume design and music — the action series was completely shut out of the Primetime Emmys, which were held in a tent in Los Angeles on Sunday night. Fans and critics alike loved the inventive show this past winter, in which Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) eventually faced her grief from losing Vision (Paul Bettany).
“WandaVision” winning no major awards Sunday night, after receiving 23 total nominations, proved to be the biggest snub of the show. The series was predicted to win at least two awards for acting: both Kathryn Hahn and Bettany were heavily tipped as favorites in their categories for limited series drama.
The biggest winners from Sunday’s show? “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit,” which took home a total of 11 awards each — including technical awards previously handed out. And the biggest winner of all was Netflix, which produced both shows, and received its first wins in the series categories after years of near misses.
Here are the most surprising wins from the night.
Tobias Menzies beat Michael K. Williams for best supporting actor in a drama
Netflix
One of the sure bets of the Emmys was supposed to be that Williams, who died at age 54 in early September, would finally win his first Emmy for “Lovecraft Country,” after receiving five nominations. (Though that number should have been higher for his career-defining portrait of Omar Little — the terrifying, queer stick-up man — on HBO’s “The Wire.”)
But alas, it doesn’t seem that enough voters saw the HBO sci-fi series, which was canceled after one season. Instead, the Emmys heaped another trophy on “The Crown,” giving the prize to Tobias Menzies for playing Prince Philip, even though he had a smaller role in Season 4 than he had in Season 3 of the Netflix series.
Perhaps most surprised of all was Menzies himself, who didn’t bother to stay up all night and attend “The Crown’s” satellite, remote reception for from London for British actors.
Kate Winslet for “Mare of Easttown”
For most of the Emmys season, the frontrunner in the extremely competitive actresss in a limited series category leaned toward Anya Taylor-Joy in “The Queen’s Gambit.” After all, rising star Taylor-Joy as an orphan chess prodigy — who’s also a pill addict and an alcoholic — was an acting feat. And “The Queen’s Gambit” was Netflix’s surprise hit limited series that no one had seen coming in fall 2020.
But cut to this spring, and along came Winslet as Mare in HBO’s spring limited series obsession “Mare of Easttown” — with her Delco accent and her broken life. Winslet played Mare as a dogged detective investigating a murder in her town outside of Philly, where she knows every single person — and has to navigate those closest to her being suspects. This was Winslet’s second Emmy win for an HBO project: She also won in this same category for 2011’s “Mildred Pierce.”
And speaking of “Mare” upsets, Julianne Nicholson for “Mare of Easttown”
Going into the Emmys Sunday, Hahn was the overwhelming favorite for her dual role as the Big Bad in “WandaVision” — she’d even sung, for God’s sake!
But the Academy’s surprises began early, and in the third award of the night, Nicholson won for supporting actress in a limited series or movie, for her portrayal of Lori in HBO’s “Mare of Easttown.” As Lori, Nicholson plays the best friend of Mare (Winslet), who is her rock and sounding board as Mare’s life falls apart. But after we learn that Lori’s young son Ryan is the killer Mare has been pursuing — well, you’re just going to have to re-watch the finale to see the astonishing things Nicholson does, both with Cameron Mann’s Ryan, and with Winslet.
As it turns out, it was Julianne all along.
Ewan McGregor wins for “Halston”
McGregor, who’d been previously nominated in the limited series drama category for “Fargo,” took home his first Emmy for “Halston.” He delivered a transformative performance as the 1970s fashion designer, who battled addiction at the peak of his career.
But McGregor was considered an underdog, since Ryan Murphy’s “Halston” on Netflix was met with mixed reviews when it premiered in May: Bettany was the frontrunner for “WandaVision.”
Olivia Colman was not the favorite — but she won anyway
Betting odds in lead actress in a drama predicted that either Mj Rodriguez (“Pose”) or Colman’s “Crown” co-star Emma Corrin (who played Princess Diana) was going to take this trophy. And either one of those winners would have been historic, as Rodriguez would have been the first transgender winner in a major acting category, and Corrin would have been the first openly gender non-binary winner.
But Colman, who played Queen Elizabeth on Seasons 3 and 4 of “The Crown,” was undeniable. Though even she was surprised, saying in her acceptance speech, “I would have put money on that not happening.”
.. and Josh O’Connor did, too
O’Connor picked up the Golden Globe in January for playing a young Prince Charles, so his win — amid a night of “Crown” dominance — wasn’t a total surprise. But Billy Porter was expected to repeat — after winning last year for “Pose” — for his final season as the grand New York emcee Pray Tell.
Marvel Studios has become an Emmy winner with only its first television outing, thanks to “WandaVision.”
The Disney Plus limited series that centers on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) picked up its first two Emmys at the Creative Arts ceremony on Saturday: for narrative (half-hour) production design and for fantasy/sci-fi costumes.
“WandaVision” was nominated for 23 Emmys overall this year, the most for any limited series and the second-most for any series overall. Other Creative Arts categories in which the show saw attention are limited series/TV movie casting, period and/or character (non-prosthetic) makeup, period and/or character hairstyling, main title design, main title theme music, music supervision, original music and lyrics, limited series/TV movie/special music composition, limited series/TV movie single-camera picture editing, limited series/TV movie/special sound editing, limited series/TV movie/special sound mixing and series or movie special visual effects.
Still to be revealed at the Primetime ceremony is how the show fared in the limited/anthology series category, as well as above-the-line races including limited series/TV movie actress (Elizabeth Olsen is nominated in lead, while Kathryn Hahn is nominated in supporting, limited series/TV movie actor (Paul Bettany is up in lead), limited series/TV movie directing for Matt Shakman and limited series/TV movie writing, where the show has a trio of noms.
“WandaVision” was Marvel Studios’ first series, premiering in January of this year, so it seems fitting that the show would give the company its first big accolade. Marvel Television, however, previously scored at the Emmys with “Jessica Jones” for Netflix, which picked up a main title theme music trophy in 2016.
However, “WandaVision” is not Marvel’s only success at this year’s Emmys. Its second series for Disney Plus, drama “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” nabbed five nominations this year: guest drama actor, comedy or drama (one-hour) sound editing, season or movie special visual effects, stunt coordination and stunt performance.
Marvel’s strong showing at the Emmys is especially notable considering it took a decade (and 18 properties) for the company to break into the Oscars in a major way. (“Black Panther” scored a best picture nom in 2019.)
Loki (Sophia Di Martino) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston).Photo: Disney
This week’s Loki season finale on Disney+ was full of twists and turns, and a very conspicuous apple. But the biggest surprise of all may have been saved for the very end.
Loki’s story isn’t over yet. Marvel revealed in the mid-credits scene of “For All Time. Always.” that the Disney+ series would be coming back for season two, making it the first Marvel Cinematic Universe show to be officially approved for more than one season. The news explains why the finale gave us far more questions than answers, ending on a cliffhanger that perhaps not evenDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnesscould solve. This reveal came after Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors made his MCU debut as Kang (though not quite the Conquerer version we’ll see in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania).
The MCU entered the realm of Disney+ television shows with two limited series, WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier—both of which have been nominated for several awards at this year’s Emmy Awards. It was believed that the six-episode season of Loki would follow suit, with the story of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie setting up the final puzzle pieces for Phase 4 of the MCU. This phase is set to go places, with projects like the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel, the cameo-filled Spider-Man 3: Far From Home, Disney+’s What If…?, and Quantumania taking us everywhere and everywhen in the multiverse. While that is still true (more on that in our recap later), that doesn’t mean the Time Variance Authority—or Mobius (Owen Wilson) and his lost-in-time jet ski—are going anywhere anytime soon.
Loki season two will join an ever-growing number of Disney+ shows currently in development. They include Ironheart, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel, which will introduce Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) to the MCU. That’s only the tip of the iceberg for the future of the MCU—lest we forget, the Fantasic Four is coming. Hopefully, third time’s the charm on that one.
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The first season of Loki ended on Wednesday. No planned production or release date for season two has been announced yet. We’ll bring you more as we know it.
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In 2019 Martin Scorsese described Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in a way that the “WandaVision” finale proved true. “The closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks,” the filmmaker told Empire. “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
In the end “WandaVision” proved much of Scorsese’s summation to be true – but not all of it. About 30 of the finale’s 50 minutes was one of those rides. This diversion happened to star witches hurling balls of energy at each other while floating in the sky. Nosy neighbor Agnes, revealed to be centuries-old sorceress Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), drops her glamour to take on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) while Wanda’s Vision (Paul Bettany) faces off with his tin man twin resurrected as a government weapon.
Cars fly through houses; heroes are pounded through asphalt. A newly superpowered Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) defeated a possessed mystery man masquerading as Wanda’s brother Pietro but who turns out to be some anonymous guy whose last name sounds like “boner.” And, spoiler alert, Wanda prevails by losing everything. She created a sitcom version of Westview, and her most loving version of Vision, to escape facing her grief. The only way it could end was painfully – not the kind that physically bruises or draws blood. The kind that rips your heart out.
No matter. This being an MCU creation, everything eventually comes to blows . . . and explosions, screams and flames. Amusement park thrills, just like the man said, and not an especially pulse-pounding version of such.
However, once the fighting ends, the finale bucks Scorsese’s assumptions about superhero titles and returns to the attributes that make “WandaVision” such a wonder. To save the people of Westview, she ends her perfect little world and locks Agatha in her supporting “nosy neighbor” role as Agnes. And in her final heartbreaking moments with Visoin, Wanda does her best to convey the emotional, psychological experience of her humanity to the synthetic being she loves.
“Wanda, I know we can’t stay like this,” Vision says softly as his demise creeps closer. “Before I go, I feel I must know: What am I?”
“You, Vision, are the piece of the Mind stone that lives in me. You are a body of wires and blood and bone that I created,” she tells him. “You are my sadness and my hope. But mostly, you’re my love.”
He sheds a tear, kisses her hand and observes, “I have been a voice with no body. A body, but not human. And now, a memory made real. Who knows what I might be next?. . . We have said goodbye before, so it stands to reason –”
She finishes,”– we’ll say hello again.”
This was not simplistic roller coaster dialogue. This was romantic movie magic as Scorsese defines it in a subsequent piece that published in the New York Times. If, as he says, cinema expresses “the complexity of people and their contradictory and sometimes paradoxical natures, the way they can hurt one another and love one another and suddenly come face to face with themselves,” then “WandaVision” is the first MCU title that meets Scorsese’s qualification.
And the only way it could do that was as a TV series.
“WandaVision” should not be dismissed for stepping away from the genre’s standard violence canvas to work through its feelings creatively, not to mention in a way that fleshes out who Wanda is and, not only that, who Vision is and who Monica Rambeau has always been at heart.
True, Wanda’s excursion has the miserable effect of torturing a town full of innocent bystanders, leaving us with the sense that her despair has done lasting damage to their psyches and her reputation. None of the most interesting supers are entirely upright all the time. Comic book fans get this, as do people who love daytime and primetime soaps.
This is why Marvel placed Wanda Maximoff’s tale on TV, a medium whose larger networks have historically skewed female – certainly on ABC for the better part of recent history. Presumably Disney, a brand built upon princesses and brides, has forever.
Since “WandaVision” is a bridge between Disney+ and theaters, and between TV and movies, why not build that bridge with the story of a woman who is also a witch, a wife and a mother, and whose only job is to keep the world running and happy and stable? The best TV versions of superhero stories have been about women, after all. This was true of “Wonder Woman,” and definitely of “Agent Carter.” Even “Legends of Tomorrow” became necessary viewing once the woman took over as that team’s leader.
This woman simply asks us to step away from the roller coaster of deadly lasers and fistfights, letting us better appreciate the lovely anguish in thoughts like, “What is grief, if not love persevering?”
Bettany delivered that line with all the contemplative gentleness it deserved and in a calm setting free of threats or even loud noises.
“WandaVision” launched scores of thinkpieces because there are countless ways to think about it. But its ending proves somebody at Marvel took to heart what the great filmmaker said.
The frustrating part for film buffs may be that the result was a beautiful, thought-provoking TV series as opposed to a revelatory but concise superhero feature. But all of the artistic dimensions the filmmaker cherishes boil down to a single concept, intimacy, that no franchise action flick can channel with any depth.
Television can. Hence, “WandaVision” worked best when the battles were psychological and emotional as opposed to relying upon some VFX-heavy approximation of brute conflicts. This is also why such a story could only star and be about a woman who doesn’t have superhuman strength, exceptional fighting skills or bulletproof skin, and who wasn’t entirely hero or villain. Wanda is simply a person crippled by grief.
Whether that is to the series’ benefit or its detriment depends on what you expect from a Marvel title, or one from DC or any other comic book imprint.
Common complaints among people who don’t like “WandaVision” frequently come down to its lack of fight scenes. My husband, who only watched it because he didn’t want to miss any narrative threads that carry over into future movies, wrote it off as a soap opera.
But all comic book hero stories are soap operas. What are soaps if not stories informed by loss, psychological trauma, despair, tortured love affairs and revenge? If you mourned the death of Iron Man at the end of “Avengers: Endgame” that’s probably because the MCU spent nine features building out Tony Stark’s emotional profile, including three “Iron Man” films, constructing the barest bones of a romantic relationship between Stark and Pepper Potts along the way.
His great love has been threatened, kidnapped, appeared to die and was reborn. Sorry to burst your bubble folks, but that’s premium sudser material.
And on TV, by using playful images and gutting dialogue instead of placing amped up savagery front and center, we’re given a sense of that human complexity and paradoxical nature Scorsese was talking about. In its quietude, the show provided us with backstory about these two people while bringing us face to face with some part of ourselves.
Regrettably there will be no “WandaVision” sequel, only the next chapters of the stories born there and realized within another character’s plotline – specifically “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and the next Spider-Man movie, each guaranteed to be jammed with eye-popping visual effects and digital destruction.
Equally as regrettably, at least from a filmmaker’s perspective, this means neither it nor other Marvel series to follow, the next being “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” are likely to influence their related theatrical releases to aim for the level of psychological or emotional complexity Olsen, Bettany and Parris bring to their performances here. Instead they’ll further blur the line between TV and movies, between the necessity of streaming services and the singularity of the theatrical experience.
If we’re lucky, we’ll get more shows like “WandaVision” in the bargain, stories that tousle with that emotional danger Scorsese hails instead of ginning up new ways to show impossibly muscled beings break each other’s bones. Stories from the heart and about heartbreak embed themselves in our memories more permanently than a thousand artificial fireballs and bursts of rage, and we could use a lot more of them.
TV and comic books share something else that theme parks don’t, which is the notion that that successful narratives may end, but the stories that birth them aren’t completely dead. So the finale of “WandaVision” might not be a firm goodbye to all it endeavored to achieve. Maybe it’s simply a wistful “So long, darling.”
All episodes of “WandaVision” are streaming on Disney+.
The WandaVision season finale, Episode 9, has both mid-credits and post-credits scenes – make sure you don’t switch off too early.WandaVision Episodes 7 and 8 were the only episodes of the show to include mid-credits scenes, but the finale marks the first and only time the show has included a second scene after the credits have rolled – something very familiar to Marvel Cinematic Universe fans.
As is almost always the case, those credit sequences presage the future of the MCU. If you haven’t watched yet, go no further – but if you want to know what was inside, we’ll detail that below.
Full spoilers follow for Episode 9 of WandaVision!The mid-credits scene centres on Monica Rambeau, who showed off more of her newly-gained powers in the main bulk of the show. After talking to Jimmy Woo and asking after Darcy, Monica’s told to head to the Westview theater by an unknown agent. After arriving and seeing no one else, the agent reveals herself to be a Skrull, and explains that “an old friend of [Monica’s mother]” would like to meet with Monica – asked where, she points upwards.
Have you watched Marvel’s WandaVision?
This clearly references Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, who we last saw in Spider-Ma: Far From Home’s post-credits scene (where he also used Skrull agents to keep in contact with Peter Parker), aboard what seemed to be a space station. It seems Monica will be joining Fury in some capacity, most likely as part of the Secret Invasion series, in which Fury and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) are investigating a sect of Skrulls who’ve infiltrated the highest levels of authority in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.The post-credits scene is slightly less easy to interpret. We see that Wanda has moved to a remote cabin in the mountains, seemingly living a simple life alone. However, a final reveal shows what appears to be an astral projection of Scarlet Witch researching the Darkhold (the book of magic Agnes referred to in the finale). As the scene ends, we hear Billy and Tommy begging for help.
With Billy and Tommy seemingly vanished, along with Wanda’s memory-created version of Vision, at the end of the series, this seems to point to the idea that parts of her sons remain alive somewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or should that be Multiverse? We know that Scarlet Witch will be a part of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the projection of her reading is a callback to scenes in the original Doctor Strange film, in which Stephen Strange learned magic while his body slept.
Perhaps Wanda’s interest in Strange will be in learning how pass through between realities in search of her children. This could also be a link to the widely-held theory that Mephisto will become a part of the MCU in its latest phase. While the demon lord wasn’t revealed to be WandaVision’s Big Bad, we have seen what could be a reference to him in the trailer for the Loki series. Given Mephisto has a penchant for collecting souls, perhaps Billy and Tommy have become part of his collection – which would explain why they’re begging for help, too.
But before we get to any of the above, we still have the good old-fashioned action of The Falcon and Winter Soldier to come, with the series starting on Disney+ on March 19.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Between the second season of The Mandalorian and Marvel’s WandaVision, Disney has cornered the market on weekly merchandising tied to the latest episodes of their biggest shows. After every new episode, there has been some kind of new memorabilia tied to the events of each series, and this week is no exception.
WandaVision made a couple huge revelations in the Marvel Cinematic Universe during the last two episodes, and two new Funko POPs inspired by the events of the series will allow you to commemorate them on your collectible shelf. But since we’re talking major spoilers here, keep reading only if you’re caught up on the show.
New WandaVision Funko POPs
First up, we have Kathryn Hahn as Agnes, who has actually been the dark witch Agatha Harkness all along. She revealed herself to Wanda after kidnapping her children with an incredible theme song. Then she took Wanda on a journey into her past in order to figure out exactly where the Hex came from, only to realize that Wanda Maximoff is the mythical Scarlet Witch. As a Funko POP, she’s floating and wielding her purple magical powers.
We’re not entirely sure what Agatha Harkness plans on doing now that she knows the extent and origins of Wanda’s abilities, but it’s all leading to a big face-off in the upcoming season (series?) finale.
The other major reveal from last week’s episode came in a mid-credits sequence that revealed what SWORD acting director Tyler Hayward was planning on doing with Vision (Paul Bettany). Harnessing some of the energy absorbed by a drone that entered the Hex, Hayward has rebuilt and reactivated Vision’s corpse, appearing in white instead of the traditional magenta and green. This sets the stage for a big battle between Wanda’s newly created Vision and this artificial version meant to be used as a sentient weapon.
As you can see, the Vision Funko POP also comes with a stand to let him fly, and Walmart has an exclusive version that has elements that glow in the dark.
You can pre-order both of the regular WandaVision Funko POPs at Entertainment Earth and many other retailers online.
WandaVision‘s sitcom formula spiraled into beautiful chaos Friday, as episode 8 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe show landed on Disney Plus. Turns out the witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) was responsible for pretty much all the weirdness we’ve seen so far, and she’s got Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) trapped in her ludicrously creepy basement.
Outside the house, newly superpowered SWORD agent Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) was confronted by Pietro Maximoff (Evan Peters), who’s seemingly been under Agatha’s control since arriving from the X-Men universe. Also, astrophysicist Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) filled in Wanda’s husband, Vision (Paul Bettany), on the past he’d forgotten, and he’s on his way home.
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I didn’t think this show was that complicated, but it kinda is. We’re up to the penultimate episode, and it’s called Previously On. Time for dem SPOILERS.
This whole episode is basically Agatha trying to figure out exactly what Wanda is, since her power is off the charts. After running through pivotal moments in the Avenger’s past and acting as a pretty mean therapist, Agatha realizes she’s wielding Chaos magic and is capable of “spontaneous creation,” before uttering the thing we wanted to hear.
“And that makes you the Scarlet Witch.”
Agatha isn’t even pretending to be nice now.
Marvel Studios/Screenshot by Sean Keane/CNET
This isn’t a name we’ve heard previously in the MCU, but it’s been her code name since her first appearance in X-Men No. 4 in 1964.
Given what we saw earlier in the episode, it seems like Wanda had some latent ability to tap into this magic and it was enhanced by the Mind Stone. Agatha presumably wants to control this power, but to what end?
Agatha also has Wanda’s magically created kids Billy and Tommy on creepy magic leashes, which really isn’t OK.
Vision’s body is back online, and looking pretty nefarious.
Marvel Studios/Screenshot by Sean Keane/CNET
The doppelganger
In a midcredits scene, it’s revealed that acting SWORD director Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg) had Vision’s body all along. He couldn’t reactivate the synthezoid (who was made with stupidly valuable Wakandan vibranium), but used a drone to absorb the chaos energy surrounding Westview. Since that energy was derived from the Mind Stone that originally brought Vision to life, it gets the body back online.
The Vision we’ve been seeing in Westview has actually been a magical construct, created by Wanda.
Agatha’s past
The episode’s initial flashback brings us back to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1693 (the real-life Salem witch trials happened in 1692-93), when Agatha’s coven accuses her of tapping into forbidden dark magic.
“I did not break your rules. They simply bent to my power,” she replies, awesomely.
Agatha has a pretty epic past.
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Led by Agatha’s mother, Evanora (Kate Forbes), the coven prepares to end her. She turns their power on them, reducing all the witches to desiccated husks. Agatha also takes her mom’s broach, which we’ve seen her wearing in most of the previous episodes.
Much as I’ve grown tired of characters blasting each other with energy beams and lasers in superhero movies, the blue energy Agatha turns back on her coven seems significant. Her magic manifests itself as purple energy — a combination of red and blue. Since Wanda’s Chaos magic is red, it seems likely this was the forbidden power Agatha got in trouble for using — she just couldn’t use it at the same level as Wanda.
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Fietro
Agatha says fake Pietro (Evan Peters) wasn’t “literally” her, she was just possessing him. She also notes that it wasn’t necromancy, so it wasn’t the original MCU Pietro’s body with a new face.
It’s still unclear if Fietro is actually the one from the X-Men universe. In the comics, Wanda’s status as a Nexus Being — someone whose power can affect probability and change the flow of time — means she can touch other realities. If that’s the case with MCU Wanda, she could have pulled Pietro over from the Fox X-Men reality (where he was called Peter).
Also in the comics, Nexus Beings are monitored by the Time Variance Authority, a group that’ll show up in the upcoming Loki show and perhaps in next week’s WandaVision season finale.
The Maximoffs decide what to watch, minutes before their whole world is ripped apart.
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The Maximoffs at home
We meet Wanda and Pietro’s parents, Iryna and Olek (Ilana Kohanchi and Daniyar), in their Sokovian home. And we know the kids are 10, so this happened in 1999. Their TV night — The Dick Van Dyke Show, season 2, episode 21 — looks pretty nice, but there’s a horrifying war raging outside, and the sense of inevitability is palpable.
The parents are killed in an explosion, an incident referenced in Avengers: Age of Ultron and the commercial in episode 2. The twins are trapped under the rubble, staring at a beeping, unexploded Stark Industries shell. The young Wanda mutters about it being a “bad dream” and reaches out.
Agatha reckons she used a probability hex to stop the detonation, which seems like Wanda’s first use of magic.
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Hail Hydra
We see Wanda as a volunteer test subject for Hydra, and enters a room containing Loki’s scepter (which Hydra sneakily got hold of after the first Avengers movie, a moment revisited in Avengers: Endgame) The Mind Stone — one the six Infinity Stones that Thanos will later use to wipe out half of all life — extracts itself from the scepter in her presence.
She gets a vision of her comic book costume, but it’s unclear if this has any significance in the MCU. We saw her in a similar outfit in the Halloween episode and she said it was a Sokovian fortune teller, but she could have been subconsciously recalling this moment.
Wanda has a vision of the Scarlet Witch comic book costume.
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Wild thought: What if Wanda was actually seeing her comic book counterpart? As a Nexus being, it’s possible that comics Wanda could reach out to her MCU self.
We previously thought contact with the Mind Stone gave her and Pietro their powers, but Agatha reckons it awoke or supercharged her latent abilities.
As if Wanda is some kind of mutant.
When the Hydra scientists try to play back the security recording to see what happened after Wanda touched the stone, they find that moment missing, like when the Westview broadcast was cut.
Like any good couple, Wanda and Vision fell in love while watching Malcolm in the Middle.
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The Vision effect
We jump to a moment with Vision in the Avengers compound in the period following Age of Ultron, when Wanda is mourning Pietro’s death. Vision acknowledges that he’s never felt loss like she has, but reveals the depth of his empathy.
“But what is grief, if not love persevering?” he asks.
Excuse me, I have something in my eye. This is clearly another major high on Wanda’s emotional rollercoaster, and Thanos would later bring her low by killing Vision in Avengers: Infinity War.
Hayward’s machinations
We previously thought Wanda broke into SWORD headquarters, stole Vision’s corpse and defied his wishes by resurrecting him. The flashback reveals that Hayward initially exposed Wanda to the shocking sight of his engineers dismantling Vision. He then suggested Wanda bring him back to life, but she refused and just left — no thievery or resurrection to be had.
Hayward’s sympathy routine is also pretty similar to one he used on Monica before sending her to Westview, because he’s a manipulative jerk.
Wanda recreates Vision.
Marvel Studios/Screenshot by Sean Keane/CNET
Westview gets a refresh
Wanda’s clearly feeling pretty low after visiting the SWORD facility, and she drives to Westview. It’s our first time seeing the New Jersey town before she sitcom’d it up, and it’s a sad place with closed businesses and amenities falling into disrepair — this could reveal the economic impact of the Blip.
She visits a plot of land (2800 Sherwood Drive) with the foundations of a house, and a deed reveals she and Vision planned to start a life together here — a plan ruined by Thanos.
“To grow old in,” reads the cute note, signed “V.”
Overwhelmed by grief, she remakes the town as a ’50s sitcom and Vision is reborn from her magical energy. From the midcredits scene, it seems like Wanda played right into Hayward’s hands.
The Maximoffs have a lovely box of sitcoms.
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Sitcom heaven
In the case you’re wondering what the other options for TV night were, the box of DVDs includes Who’s the Boss?, The Addams Family, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and Malcolm in the Middle.
However, Malcolm in the Middle didn’t air until Jan. 9, 2000, and the first DVD box set didn’t come out until 2002, so the Maximoffs couldn’t have had it in 1999. This suggests the timing was a little different in the MCU, or that Wanda’s memory is a little unreliable (probably the latter, since she previously misremembered when The Parent Trap and The Incredibles came out).
Later, in Wanda’s Hydra containment cell, she’s watching The Brady Bunch. It seems to be season 1, episode 7, in which Cindy Brady treats her doll like a real baby and it goes missing. Which seems to mirror what happened with Billy and Tommy.
Observations and WTF questions
The purple Marvel Studios logo is super cool.
“Only the witch who cast the runes can use her magic.” This seems like the kind of line we’ll get a callback to later. Maybe Wanda will turn the tables on Agatha?
I guess the cicada wasn’t Mephisto.
And it turns out the people in the commercials weren’t Wanda’s parents after all. So who are they?!
This was the episode without the “Please Stand By” message in the credits.
Join us for more Easter eggs and observations next Friday, when episode 9 of WandaVision hits Disney Plus. It’s the season finale, so expect Westview to get leveled by colored beams of energy or something.
CNET’s Caitlin Petrakovitz contributed to this recap.
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