It’s Been Agatha All Along

I love my beloved witch and her show that just keeps changing its name. Agatha was announced originally as House of Harkness, then changed to Coven of Chaos before landing on Darkhold Diaries. And now, surprise surprise, it has changed again.

Yesterday, Marvel unveiled the title The Lying Witch with the Great Wardrobe, and quickly took it down. And I wondered: Is this a real name? Are they messing with us? I got the feeling that we were just experiencing a series of jokes meant for us to keep talking about Agatha Harkness—and I was right.

All those title changes were part of a meta-joke. It was Agatha working her dark magic all along. (At least that’s what Marvel wants us to believe, and hey, why not.) So the series is officially titled Agatha All Along.

The series was set to release this fall and is now moved to a fall of 2024 release, kicking off the Halloween season. While I want to see my witchy queen sooner rather than later, I’d rather have her at Halloween than rushed to me. It is, after all, the best time of year. Agatha made her first appearance in the Disney+ series WandaVision as “Agnes” before the reveal that she was Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) long time comic connection, Agatha Harkness. Played beautifully by Kathryn Hahn, Agatha came in with a bang and was then trapped in Westview by the end of the series, leaving fans hopeful that she’d return and maybe appear alongside Wanda at some point.

We don’t know whether or not her show is a precursor to what transpired in Westview or if she breaks free from Wanda’s prison and is back to her witchy ways, but with an all-star cast (that does include Hahn’s Parks and Recreation co-star Aubrey Plaza), fans are waiting patiently for Agatha. Well, as patiently as we can wait, because we all keep screaming about this show that isn’t even out yet. But it has Patti LuPone, so how can we not scream? For now, the series has a name change and a release date push but is, otherwise, finished (as they wrapped up the series prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike). What does this new title for the series mean, though? Especially with a spooky release date?

What does Agatha hold for us?

The Darkhold was introduced in WandaVision, when Wanda goes into Agatha’s runes and ends up with the book in her possession. We know that it corrupted her in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and that’s about the extent of its time in the MCU. (Yes, it was in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D as well.) So getting to spend more time with the book will, hopefully, clear things up for people who missed what Strange said in Multiverse of Madness (and maybe they’ll stop saying Wanda was a villain!) but more than that, I’m just excited to see how the Darkhold will interact with each of the characters in the series.

We’ve seen Agatha with it but there is seemingly new witches around and how they’ll interact with the book might greatly differ from what happened with Agatha and then Wanda. Personally, I liked Coven of Chaos just for … well, the chaos of it all. Plus my phone does say “Chaos Magic” every time I plug it in to charge, but that’s just me. This new title though is ripe with possibilities and it will be interesting to see if this title sticks as the final move for Agatha Harkness.