Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for the season finale of WandaVision.
WandaVision was a massive hit for the MCU with its incredible twists and turns. One of the biggest was the revelation that nosy next-door neighbor Agnes was really the witch Agatha Harkness.
Actress Kathryn Hahn shared stories on playing Agatha and how she doesn’t think the character’s final fate was harsh.
Agatha’s end
For the first six episodes of WandaVision, Agnes appeared to be the typical sitcom next-door neighbor, coming in with funny lines and causing trouble.
At the end of episode 7, Wanda discovers Agnes is Agatha Harkness, a centuries-old witch seeking power.
When she sensed Wanda first using the “Hex” to transform Westview into a sitcom world, Agatha showed up and secretly manipulated Wanda for her own ends.
That included making Wanda believe local actor Ralph Bohner (Evan Peters) was her resurrected brother Pietro and driving Wanda to accept her true power.
Agatha and Wanda have an epic magic battle in the finale, with Wanda embracing her true abilities to become the Scarlet Witch. She then strips Agatha of her own powers.
Wanda then gives Agatha a twisted punishment: She rewrites her memories to believe she really is Agnes to remain in Westview as an average human.
Hahn on Agatha
Speaking to the New York Times, Hahn stated that she didn’t consider Agatha’s fate an actual punishment.
“I actually don’t think, ultimately, that she minds it. She needed to rest for a hot second. She’s been very restless. I think she was very lonely, for a very, very long time. She loves having the companionship — loves the mailman, loves Ralph, loves Dottie. For the moment, I think she’s actually OK to just loosen the corset and sit and have a muffin and a latte.”
This would be ironic in Agatha being the one person in Westview who didn’t mind being transformed by Wanda. In a powerful scene, the other residents make it clear to Wanda how their lives have been a nightmare because she made them act out sitcom scenarios.
Hahn also indicated that a key aspect of the Wanda/Agatha relationship was Agatha secretly jealous that Wanda’s powers were so much greater than what Agatha had been attempting to gain for centuries.
That’s also one of the things that was a big turn-on for me, how many women were involved in it, and it wasn’t shying away from feelings. It wasn’t just action, right off the bat. Wanda’s superpowers are coming from her feelings. There’s something I loved between the relationship of Agatha and Wanda. We talked a lot about Amadeus and Salieri, in terms of their relationship — Agatha wishes that she could make the kind of music that the Scarlet Witch just had naturally. For someone that has spent centuries studying this, to meet a young person to whom it comes completely naturally, it’s maddening and you want to know why.
Agatha’s popularity
This is Hahn’s second project in Marvel as she had voiced Olivia Octavius (an alternate reality version of Doctor Octopus) in the hit Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse animated film.
Hahn spoke on how it felt working with Marvel, and she loved taking on such a complex character, even if she didn’t know much of Agatha’s comic book history.
I had never heard of Agatha Harkness in the comic books, but they gave me a bible on her and I went down a deep dive. And I was titillated by the ambition of it. I didn’t understand it. I couldn’t quite see it. But I thought that if we could pull it off, it would just be so thrilling.
Hahn also revealed that it only took half an hour to record the “Agatha All Along” song that plays over the sequence revealing how the witch has been behind the show’s events. The ditty has already become a huge hit on various platforms.
Hahn is naturally tight-lipped on if Agatha/Agnes ever returns but made it clear how much she loved the role and helped work magic in the MCU.
“Now that I have a taste of it, I’m like, ahh. I really, really love it.”
WandaVision season 1 streams on Disney+.