This weekend, some of the Agatha All Along cast reunited at PaleyFest to answer fan questions, share behind-the-scenes stories, and reminisce on the fan-favorite Marvel show that aired this past fall.
Here are 12 facts, BTS stories, secrets, and details about the show we learned straight from the cast themselves:
1.
Jac Schaeffer was invited to work on another Marvel project after the success of WandaVision, but didn’t immediately know that it was going to focus on Agatha. When playing around with characters and plots, Kevin Feige noted that Agatha always wormed her way in somehow, so he suggested that she do an Agatha spin-off. And so, Agatha All Along was born.
2.
In the show, it’s revealed that Agatha’s signature necklace is actually a locket that holds a clipping of her late son Nicky’s hair. Coincidentally, Kathryn also wore a locket with locks of hair from her two kids, Leonard and Mae, which her family gifted to her. She wore it right under Agatha’s necklace. “It felt like I had double amulets on,” she said.
3.
Jac revealed that her favorite Easter egg in the show is this tiny detail in Episode 1, where we get a sneak peek of Nicky’s bedroom. For a split second, you can see a first-place choir trophy he’s won for best vocals. This is, of course, a nod to him and Agatha being the ones behind the ages-old “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road.”
4.
Debra Jo Rupp joked that when she joined the project, she thought she was going to play a witch, too. As we all saw, not only is Debra’s character Mrs. Hart not a witch, but she also dies fairly early on into the show. “The phone call I got was ‘We’d love you to join this project, you’re gonna be a witch!’ … I get there, and no one is looking me in the eye.”
5.
Early on, it was decided that the show would use only practical effects where possible. The bloated faces they donned during the poison trial wasn’t CGI at all — they were prosthetics. The Witches’ Road itself was also an actual set and only used minimal CGI. Because of all this, it has the lowest production budget of any Marvel movie or show thus far, rounding out at approximately $40 million.
6.
Kathryn revealed that her biggest challenge while filming the show was crawling out of that swamp in Episode 6.
7.
Since the beginning, Jac intended for the show to be some kind of spell in and of itself. Between that idea and the need for a catchy song like “Agatha All Along” in WandaVision, they came up with the idea to make the Ballad a spell.
8.
Kathryn and Joe Locke immediately hit it off when they first met. They were two peas in a pod…and were even wearing the same shoes. According to Kathryn, she felt very maternal toward him.
9.
In a don’t-think-about-it-too-hard-or-you’ll-cry turn of events, while working on Agatha All Along, the writers really understood that Agatha is a natural teacher and mentor, and “got kind of a perverse thrill out of the idea that Agatha kind of ended up being more of a guide to Billy than Wanda has [ever] been.”
10.
Here’s a fun li’l fact: In the ’80s throwback trial, the retainer Jennifer Kale wears is actually Sasheer’s own.
11.
If you’ve ever shared an Agatha theory on the internet, there’s a good chance Sasheer or Kathryn have actually read it. Sasheer revealed that she’s a huge Marvel fan and Kathryn thought the fan theories were awesome.
12.
And finally, speaking of fan theories…drum roll, please! Jac confirmed a hotly debated fan theory, which speculated that Rio (aka Death) is Nicky’s father.
Speaking on the theory, Jac joked, “When we were developing it, we — executive producer Mary Livanos and I — got a lot of questions. ‘Who is the dad, who is the dad?’ And we were like, ‘Why you wanna know?'” Kathryn, who played opposite Aubrey Plaza’s Rio in the show, chimed in, “They don’t need dads!” Jac continued, “That was just something that…we didn’t wanna answer the hows and whys of it, because it’s witches, but it was just something that was important to the writers and to me and just felt like something special. So it was really lovely to have something that the fans said that we can confirm.”
Well…here’s to crossing our fingers (and maybe casting a spell or two) for more of the coven in the future of the MCU!