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This article contains spoilers for Agatha All Along, WandaVision, and Doctor Strange 2.
The first episode of Agatha All Along has brought Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) back…in a way. While still under Wanda’s spell in episode 1, the true crime obsessed Agnes a.k.a. Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) finds a body that is eerily reminiscent of Wanda’s. From the blackened fingertips to the hoodie to the scarlet hair, we’re led to believe that this is Wanda after her unfortunate fate in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, Agatha All Along leaves just enough breadcrumbs for us to still hold out some hope that Wanda could come back.
At the end of WandaVision, the fates of Agatha Harkness and Wanda Maximoff became inextricably linked. Wanda became the Scarlet Witch, taking the Darkhold from Agatha and trapping her in Westview under a spell similar to what she accidentally put the town under. Wanda then went on to succumb to the influence of the Darkhold, becoming the villain in Multiverse of Madness dead set on bringing her sons back, no matter the cost. Eventually she sees the error of her ways and sacrifices herself by collapsing Wundagore around her to destroy the Darkhold and all copies of it across the multiverse for good.
Scarlet Witch fans have long been frustrated by the stark difference in how Wanda is portrayed in WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness, the former holding more space and compassion for her grief. WandaVision never argues that what Wanda did to Westview was a good thing, but it encourages us to empathize with her rather than outright vilify her.
Even though Agatha All Along makes sure that we know that the body Agatha finds is supposed to be Wanda – the cause of death is blunt force trauma, the first letter of each word of the library book title found on the body spells ‘Darkhold’ and the author’s name is an anagram of ‘Wundagore.’ There’s no doubt that this is Wanda.
And yet, at the same time, we never see the face of the body. Agatha asks Herb (David A Payton) if she’s dead, to which he replies “She’s really most sincerely dead.” Agatha then retorts by saying “You never know” and winking. The important thing to remember is that all of this happens within the confines of Wanda’s spell on Agatha.
Wanda falling at Wundagore is likely still what triggered this, her death manifesting through her magic as so much of her power was unleashed in that moment. But the fact that it still took Rio (Aubrey Plaza) and the Teen (Joe Locke) to get Agatha to see the clues and claw her way out of the spell makes it hard to believe that Wanda is truly, fully dead for good.
The mysterious Teen is believed by many to be a version of Wanda’s son, Billy. Though a mysterious magic is currently preventing us and Agatha from knowing the Teen’s true background and identity, it makes sense that Wanda, or some version of her, would have found a way to protect him, if that is her son. There’s also the fact that the Teen is so eager to walk the Witches’ Road. The Road promises to return to witches something that they’re missing, which for Billy would likely be Wanda. What better way to bring Wanda back than through one of the children she was so desperate to make a reality?
Elizabeth Olsen seems ready to return to the character, if the story is right. During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Olsen told the host that she would “beg to leave a window open” for her return, saying that she “would like to figure out how to cleverly be undead” and that “we need to find the smartest writers” to find a way to make that happen.
WandaVision and Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer seems like the perfect candidate to make that happen. She’s already proven that she has the care and dedication required to do Wanda’s story justice, and now has the perfect vehicle to kickstart her return with Agatha All Along. This isn’t to say that Agatha’s story should be or will be entirely about bringing Wanda back, but the Witches’ Road seems to be leading us in that direction.
The first appearance of the Witches’ Road in comics was in Scarlet Witch (Vol. 2) #3 by James Robinson, Steve Dillon, and Chris Visions. It was the beginning of an arc that saw Wanda walk the Road with the spirit of Agatha to break a curse affecting magic. Wanda and Agatha’s stories have always been connected as two of the most powerful witches in Marvel canon, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility to think that we might finally find out Wanda’s fate, one way or another, by the time Agatha All Along is done.
It doesn’t seem like Jac Schaeffer or Elizabeth Olsen are done with Wanda just yet, and she has the potential to be an important part of this next phase of Marvel. But without any concrete confirmation thus far, we’ll just have to see where the Witches’ Road takes us.
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