Marvel’s persistent retitling of its upcoming Agatha series has stirred many jokes among fans. However, its latest supposed retitle, Agatha: The Lying Witch With Great Wardrobe, left fans uncertain if the studio is trolling them or if the bizarre name is some kind of cry for help.
After the success of WandaVision, Marvel quickly greenlit a spinoff series centering on fan-favorite villain Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn). After initially posing as the nosy neighbor Agnes, Agatha revealed her true identity as Agatha, a seasoned witch interested in gaining Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) chaos magic. Although she was defeated by the end of WandaVision, Marvel decided to give her a solo series, which has stacked up an impressive cast, including Aubrey Plaza and Joe Locke. However, the studio seems unable to settle on a title, having now debuted four different subtitles for the series.
First, it was Agatha: House of Harkness, then Agatha: Coven of Chaos. Finally, it seemed to settle on Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. Now, Marvel has seemingly changed the title yet again, and it’s so strange it has left social media users in stitches.
Did Marvel really retitle Agatha again?
On May 13, the official Marvel Studios account on X (formerly Twitter) posted an image of what appeared to be Agatha‘s new title. Set against a black background with an official Marvel Studios logo above it, the title read Agatha: The Lying Witch With Great Wardrobe. Within minutes of posting the image, Marvel deleted it. However, it has already been screenshotted and shared far and wide on social media. The studio has not offered any statement about the title or its sudden deletion, leaving social media users trying to figure out what is happening.
The perceived retitle is obviously a play on C.S. Lewis’ Narnia book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but not a very good one. It will take some people a few reads even to realize what it’s trying to reference. While the first few titles at least sounded like legitimate titles, this one does not sound like it was conjured by a $54 billion studio—unless maybe the studio is experimenting with AI-generated titles. Hence, many social media users are asking and hoping that the post is just a joke because Marvel cannot be serious about this title, right?
Without Marvel’s official statement, it’s difficult to know what the now-deleted post means. Some believe the studio is simply trolling them, while others have more interesting theories. One user theorized that the show title has always simply been Agatha, while all of the alleged subtitles and retitles are actually episode titles. Another user suggested that all the retitles reflect a different Marvel timeline.
The most prominent theory is that the retitles are just a marketing campaign. After all, Agatha became popular along with her iconic song, “Agatha All Along.” Hence, to be cheeky, Marvel is probably going to reveal that the title was Agatha All Along after the numerous misdirections—or maybe an even more subtle reference to the song, leaving the series just Agatha, which would turn out to have been the title … all along.
Others questioned whether Marvel was getting more creative and whether the deleted post was Agatha hacking its accounts or a reference to Agatha’s tendency to use her magic to mess with people’s minds.
Additionally, most of the subtitles seem to be mimicking titles of other movies, shows, or books. The latest title was a reference to Narnia, while Darkhold Diaries seems to be a parody of The Princess Diaries and House of Harkness a parody of House of the Dragon. Given that WandaVision was filled with sitcom references, perhaps Agatha is doing something similar.
Published: May 13, 2024 03:55 pm