‘Agatha All Alongside’ Boss Jac Schaeffer Explains Forgoing Wanda in Finale

[This story contains major spoilers from Agatha All Along’s two-episode finale.]

Simply as she did in 2021 with WandaVision, Jac Schaeffer and her newest Marvel sequence, Agatha All Alongside, have left followers wanting extra of her storytelling spell. 

Within the Gandja Monteiro-directed two-episode finale, Agatha (Kathryn Hahn), Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata) and Billy Maximoff (Joe Locke) accomplished their journey throughout the Witches’ Highway, however the mystical realm turned out to be nothing greater than a byproduct of Billy’s unconscious and his pop cultural pursuits. Most of all, his spell-created dimension was impressed by “The Ballad of the Witches’ Highway,” which Agatha’s 6-year-old son, Nicky Scratch, originated in 1756. That’s additionally the identical yr that Agatha’s former lover, Loss of life (Aubrey Plaza), took Nicky’s life, and regardless of her willingness to fulfill Loss of life’s newest demand of Billy, Agatha swerved on the final minute, sacrificing herself as a substitute to avoid wasting Billy. 

This motion opened the door for Ghost Agatha, a vacation spot that Schaeffer and her writers’ room had in thoughts from the beginning.

“Level A was getting Agatha out from beneath Wanda’s spell, and level B of the present was turning her right into a ghost/Billy’s spirit information,” Schaeffer tells The Hollywood Reporter. “These have been the poles of the present that we have been all dedicated to, and so there wasn’t pushback to [Agatha’s sacrificial] kiss of Loss of life.”

The ninth episode, “Maiden Mom Crone,” then concludes with Ghost Agatha and Billy venturing off to search out his twin brother, Tommy, whose soul has now inherited the physique of a younger drowning sufferer. Nonetheless, the showrunner can solely guess as to which Marvel property will resume this storyline.

“The intention is that Billy now has Agatha as his spirit information, and that Billy desires to search out Tommy. How? When? The place? I don’t know the solutions to these questions,” Schaeffer admits. 

Of the unique makeshift coven that launched into the Witches’ Highway, Zamata’s Jen is the one dwelling survivor out of Agatha, Lillia (Patti LuPone), Alice (Ali Ahn) and Sharon (Debra Jo Rupp). Schaeffer is aware of full nicely that the sequence doesn’t have essentially the most uplifting conclusion, however with Loss of life being a literal character on the present, the choice didn’t land when tried on for dimension.

“Persons are wired to anticipate a correct joyful ending, and we did write that, but it surely felt disingenuous. So we went for the true,” Schaeffer says.

Schaeffer additionally didn’t depend on cameos as a approach to offer that diploma of gratification. It was extensively speculated that Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda can be resurrected by the top of Agatha, particularly because the deceased physique of “Jane Doe” stood in for her within the sequence premiere, and a number of other characters overtly questioned her destiny. However, ultimately, Schaeffer didn’t need to undermine her title character or the sequence’ thematic work involving the absoluteness of demise.

“[Wanda’s resurrection] wasn’t actually a for-real dialog, and to talk plainly, it’s a bigger dialog of casting, logistics, availability, and finances,” Schaeffer says. “Additionally, to me, on a artistic degree, it didn’t really feel honest to the character of Agatha. That is her story, and the concept of bringing Wanda again felt like it will upend that in a approach.”

Beneath, throughout a latest spoiler dialog with THR, Schaeffer additionally discusses the shortage of a coda regardless of writing a number of choices, earlier than addressing her personal unsure future within the MCU.

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Now you can discuss nearly all the pieces, how did you summarize the journey of this present in your earliest pitches?

The sentence I used again and again was that this present is a spell. That’s what I wished most of all, and it was the factor that gave delivery to the concept of the ballad. The thought was that the ballad is a spell that opens the highway, however, actually, the ballad is the factor that motivated Billy’s unconscious to create the spell that creates the highway. It’s really an extended con impressed by, basically, a lullaby that just a little boy [Nicky Scratch] made. So it’s the nesting dolls of spells. 

The opposite sentence that I stated on a regular basis is, “Agatha is a liar.” In order that begs the query, “What’s her reality?” and I knew that we have been working at a closing episode that will reveal her reality. 

I now perceive why you didn’t have Agathio, or Agathario, kiss in episode 4; you have been saving it for Agatha’s sacrificial kiss of Loss of life in episode eight. How did Marvel brass initially react to Agatha’s demise? 

Properly, we knew she was going to die as a result of we knew we wished her to be a ghost. Level A was getting Agatha out from beneath Wanda’s spell, and level B of the present was turning her right into a ghost/Billy’s spirit information. These have been the poles of the present that we have been all dedicated to, and so there wasn’t pushback to the kiss of Loss of life. It’s the demise blow of the large Marvel battle, but it surely is also the end result of this romantic relationship. These two issues got here collectively in a approach that felt proper to the entire artistic people on the present, and there wasn’t a lot pushback.

I preferred that you simply made a comic book e-book story that didn’t overly cheat demise, and so many tales immediately, not simply superhero tales, partake in that apply. Has that been a pet peeve of yours? 

It’s not a pet peeve of mine. One of many issues that’s actually enjoyable and particular about comics, typically, is that these tales can go on for many years and many years. That’s due, largely, to folks dying and coming again, and so there’s a cleaning soap opera high quality to it that may be magnificent. However I actually wished to discover, within the scope of issues, this small thought of Agatha having a son who died, one thing that straightforward and that human. And if we have been going to do this, then we couldn’t play it quick and unfastened with the entire different deaths. The truth that we then introduced Loss of life on as a personality, it felt like our job was to have a extra trustworthy exploration of demise and the way folks meet their ends and the permanence of that. So it wasn’t me reacting to the panorama, however I did see it as a chance to do one thing surprising. Persons are wired to anticipate a correct joyful ending, and we did write that, but it surely felt disingenuous. So we went for the true.

That’s why I’m glad you didn’t convey Wanda again on this present, as a result of it will’ve undercut that theme concerning the finality of demise. However the present did have characters overtly query Wanda’s destiny, main the viewers to surprise if she’d seem with the intention to reply that query. So how shut have been you to resurrecting Wanda?

It wasn’t actually a for-real dialog, and to talk plainly, it’s a bigger dialog of casting, logistics, availability, and finances. Additionally, to me, on a artistic degree, it didn’t really feel honest to the character of Agatha. That is her story, and the concept of bringing Wanda again felt like it will upend that in a approach. I really like Wanda desperately, and I really feel she is part of the present in that the repercussions of her actions ripple all through this chapter. After all, we even have her son, and we positioned him to have massive emotions about Wanda and to not be lined as much as instantly embrace her. So I’m to see the place that thread goes within the MCU.

With the Witches’ Highway being Billy all alongside, it makes me really feel particularly unhappy for Alice’s household. In hindsight, her mom turned obsessive about discovering a highway that didn’t exist with the intention to free her household of a curse. Am I overlooking something right here?

Properly, it’s all the way you have a look at it. Your assertion is right. Nonetheless, you may as well say that in her singular focus to get to the highway, Lorna wrote a model of the ballad that, due to her unconscious and her immense love for her daughter, turned a safety spell for her Alice. So it’s simply concerning the lens you employ. Sure, if you happen to have a look at Agatha’s actions, they instantly brought about wreckage inside Alice’s maternal line, but it surely additionally led to Alice’s full understanding of her mom’s intentions and her mom’s love. It’s all simply the way you have a look at it.

The finale flashback actually caught me off guard in a most welcomed approach. I’ve simply turn into so accustomed to the pattern of flashbacks in penultimate episodes. Was there any debate about the place to put the 1750s story?

I felt very strongly that it ought to go the place it went. Throughout put up, I received some notes about attempting it elsewhere, and whereas I did attempt it, it was one of many few instances that I pushed again on a notice. I’m actually joyful to take notes. It nearly all the time results in discovery and to a stronger holistic piece of labor, but it surely was one thing that I felt actually passionately about. I don’t love the ultimate battles; I don’t love the climactic sequence. It’s not as a lot of curiosity to me as all the pieces else, and so I gave 108 to [writer] Peter Cameron as a result of he’s good at that. So he wrote so many variations of that battle, and there’s a model the place all these fossils, together with Sparky’s [Billy and Tommy’s dog on WandaVision] skeleton, come out of the bottom and get entangled within the battle. It then turned unattainable once we dedicated to the sensible aesthetic. 

However we known as [episode eight] the faux finale as a result of I wished to get it out of the way in which, and that’s my very own shortsightedness. Peter’s wonderful work, Gandja Monteiro’s wonderful path, Isiah Donté Lee’s terrific cinematography and Libby Cuenin’s wonderful enhancing turned that episode into one thing exceptional. But it surely was the design to get these massive items accomplished within the penultimate episode, after which get to what I take into account to be essentially the most attention-grabbing stuff within the finale. Additionally, with the intention to advocate for that method, I did speak concerning the Recreation of Thrones tendency to have the large battle within the penultimate episode.

Episode 9 finds Agatha in 1750 as she’s coming into into labor. She then sees Loss of life and instantly is aware of that she’s demanding the lifetime of Nicky. Why is Loss of life entitled to Nicky? Is it comeuppance for Agatha’s Salem murders in 1693?

Our notion of Loss of life is that Loss of life is nature, and that Loss of life is impartial in her job as Loss of life. So we didn’t need to get into the cosmic rhyme or purpose for when deaths occur and the way they occur. We preferred the concept that it’s doubtlessly fated, but it surely wasn’t about Rio reaping folks out of vengeance or vindictiveness or something owed. She can be like nature — delivery, demise, fixed circulate — when she does her job as Loss of life. However with Agatha, of their romantic relationship, that’s the place we see a extra human emotional aspect the place [Rio/Death] is vengeful and wounded and tender and catty. So Agatha was simply giving delivery to a boy that, on Loss of life’s schedule, was presupposed to die, and Rio, out of [existing] love for Agatha, gave the kid further time. 

Yeah, Loss of life returns for six-year-old Nicky, and Agatha, in flip, makes use of “The Ballad of the Witches’ Highway” that she and Nicky co-wrote to govern witches into surrendering their lives and their energy. That montage ultimately units up her shock at seeing the Witches’ Highway in her basement, however was that additionally your approach of claiming that present-day Agatha had it coming? 

One of many questions of the present that Rio/Loss of life articulates is, “Will Agatha Harkness lastly meet her finish?” We all the time knew we wished her to die and turn into a ghost on the present, however the how of it was a discovery. So the “had it coming,” that’s probably not how I might essentially articulate it. We’ve got this very intimate sequence the place we see that she cherished her son, after which he died. So she is grieving, and in that genuine grief second, she is interrupted by a chance for a con. That chance means she doesn’t must preserve grieving. She sees a chance to pivot and to cease feeling her emotions. She will use this tune to eat, and whereas she will be able to attempt to fill herself, she is going to by no means be full. However she doesn’t must cry tears for her son.

The present ends with Ghost Agatha and Billy going off to search out Tommy. Is that setup for Agatha season two, Imaginative and prescient Quest or one thing else fully?

I don’t have a solution for that. The intention is that Billy now has Agatha as his spirit information, and that Billy desires to search out Tommy. How? When? The place? I don’t know the solutions to these questions.

Was there ever a post-credit scene, or did that closing second already really feel like sufficient of a tease? Would a post-credit tease have been a hat on a hat?

Early on, I wrote a variety of tags as a result of I’m used to writing tags, and I really love writing tags. Logistically, they weren’t doable for numerous causes of casting, finances and people sorts of issues. However, finally, it was Marvel’s determination to not have a tag. So the ultimate scene, which was really the very last thing we shot, is supposed to be the completion of this season, this sequence and its finale.

Is that imaginative and prescient of the drowning boy really Tommy’s new physique? Is {that a} accomplished deal?

That’s our intention. Whenever you hand off these properties, you by no means know the way issues will likely be used or carried ahead or retconned, however for the needs of this chapter, that’s how we see it. 

One of many coolest moments of the complete sequence is when Rio tears the material of Billy’s fake actuality to get the place she must go. Did that concept emerge from having sensible units? 

Completely. Till now, we’ve by no means been ready to talk about the true artistic purpose as to why we selected a sensible method. It’s as a result of Billy Maximoff, child witch, made this hex, and he didn’t have the power to create 1000’s of miles of an actual Witches’ Highway with actual bushes. So he wanted a painted backdrop and a compelled perspective and a faux soundscape. There aren’t really animals on the highway or frogs or no matter these issues are. It’s all stagecraft. It is a child who loves films and horror and popular culture. So, basically, in our minds, he created phases, and he was in a position to manipulate them in real-time. So that they’re a miniature, after which after they stroll as much as it, it’s a home that they go inside.

And that second of Rio utilizing her knife to chop by the backdrop was pointing at that concept. I’ve seen totally different interpretations of that second on-line, and I welcome them, however that’s what we have been doing. We have been attempting to get that WandaVision feeling of a soar minimize and pointing on the falseness of the atmosphere in that second.

I all the time convey up Titanic’s unconscious affect on the scene the place Wanda tucks in her youngsters because the hex collapses, and so I appreciated how episode eight briefly returned to that auditory neighborhood of WandaVision. However I’ve additionally been that means to say that you simply really made Agatha a passenger on the real-life Titanic. 

Yeah, I did an train within the room the place I had everyone are available in with an inventory of Agatha by historical past, and I feel Agatha on the Titanic was from that train. It was so enjoyable to think about the place Agatha would have been bopping round earlier than assembly her in WandaVision. It tickles me. 

I actually preferred Agatha’s line, “Don’t steal her battle,” as she urged Billy to not assist free Jen. It then led to a master-class efficiency from Sasheer Zamata as Jen regained her energy. Was it vital that somebody have a cheerful ending, comparatively talking?

To me, it was vital that any individual survive, and we preferred that it was Jen. We felt that she had the longest arc and the longest highway to journey. In case you examine Alice, Lilia and Jen, they’re all out of contact with their energy, however Jen is definitely inflicting hurt in her life. She’s gone in such an wrong way from the place she began as a healer, midwife and root employee. So we felt she had the longest highway to journey, and that it will be essentially the most satisfying to see her unbound and actually flying off into the sundown. But it surely doesn’t really feel like a cheerful ending to me; it seems like catharsis. It seems like reduction, and it’s very stunning to me. Sasheer is known as a surprise on this present, and that second seems like a extremely stunning exhale to me.

Episode six gave us the primary one from inside Agatha’s home, however will we ever see the opposite uncensored variations of Teen’s biographical responses, primarily episode two’s automobile journey?

His monologue within the automobile was Joe [Locke] improvising, which was nice. He was so cute, and it was actually enjoyable. He talked about his notion of his life as William Kaplan. So he talked about his dad and mom, Rebecca and Jeff [Kaplan], and it was fairly candy. It will need to have been just a little little bit of Joe’s personal biographical work within the Kaplan historical past of Billy. So we would see that, however I’m unsure.  

The preliminary batch of Marvel reveals have been produced in a approach that resembled their movie processes. However then they pivoted to extra conventional TV-making, which allowed for phrases like “showrunner” (as a substitute of the earlier title of “head author”).

(Schaeffer smiles)

Did that reshuffling make a reasonably large distinction on this go-round?

Probably not. I used to be fortunate in that the making of each WandaVision and Agatha All Alongside felt like we have been huddled within the nook. They weren’t too tethered to those bigger, monumental storylines. It is advisable do sure issues that come down from Marvel, like, “We’re not going to do a tag on this one.” So there’s that type of factor, however I really feel like I had my head down whereas doing my job on this present.

The final six or seven years of your life has been all Marvel on a regular basis, and it goes past your two well-received reveals. (Schaeffer contributed to the writing of Captain Marvel and Black Widow.) So if anybody has earned a chance to zag, it’s you, however do you assume there’s extra Marvel in your future sometime? 

I don’t know. I don’t know what’s subsequent, however I’m excited for no matter is subsequent. I really like the folks concerned on this nook of the MCU very, very a lot, and I really feel invested of their tales, however I additionally need to be a viewer. I need to see what occurs [as a viewer]. So I don’t know.

After your huge flex in episode seven, I’m certain I’m not the one one who’d wish to see you direct your WandaVision and Agatha characters on the large display screen. 

(Laughs) It’s very good of you to say that. That episode was actually a labor of affection.

A long time from now, whenever you’re reminiscing in entrance of a crackling fire, what day on Agatha All Alongside will you doubtless recall first? 

The day the solid sang the ballad in episode two was actually highly effective. Directing that group of individuals, together with Patti LuPone, as they have been singing stay is what I’ll consider first. We have been all witches.

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Agatha All Alongside is now streaming on Disney+.