Agatha All Along came out on Disney+ last year and was the best Marvel series I'd watched in a while. That surprised me. Marvel series have been pretty hit or miss over the years, and Agatha All Along was a spinoff of WandaVision that drilled down on breakout supporting character Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn). It felt a bit like a cash grab, but I was delighted with its fleet-footed storytelling, vivid performances and sense of whimsy. Plus that song is a banger.
Jac Schaeffer was the showrunner on both WandaVision and Agatha All Along, so clearly she knows what she's doing. According to Agatha star Patti LuPone (Lilia), Schaeffer turned down the opportunity to make second seasons of both shows. “[Schaffer] said, ‘I don’t do second seasons,’” LuPone said on the Andy Cohen Live podcast. “She said, ‘They wanted me to do a second season of WandaVision and I didn’t.’ She said, ‘There’s too much to write,’ so she does one-offs and I’m really hoping and praying that someday I get to work with her again because she’s magic.”
WandaVision and Agatha All Along are two of the best Marvel TV shows to come out so far, so I'm inclined to trust Schaeffer's instincts. That said, it's a little odd that Agatha All Along specifically won't get a second season, since the first ended by setting up the next step in Agatha's journey, as (BEWARE SPOILERS INCOMING) her ghost set off with Billy Maximoff (Joe Locke) to find Billy's brother.
Then again, just because the show isn't getting a second season doesn't mean that plot thread couldn't get tied up elsewhere. After all, WandaVision ended with Wanda's story unresolved, but her story was picked up in the movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. When you're part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, anything is possible.
Why won't there be a second season of Agatha All Along?
Part of me wonders whether the line about Jac Schaffer declining to make a second season is a cover story. After all, Agatha All Along was, according to Forbes, the second least watched Marvel series produced so far, behind only Echo. Maybe Marvel didn't want to make a second season because there wasn't much of an audience?
Well, the story is complicated, because Forbes also reports that Agatha All Along was among the cheapest Marvel shows yet produced, costing some $40 million for nine episodes. Reportedly, it's considered a hit internally at Disney.
Once again, I put this down to Jac Schaeffer's ability as a producer. At a time when budgets for high-profile genre shows are ballooning, Agatha All Along' proves that you can make a good fantasy show on a reasonable budget. Even if it doesn't get record-breaking viewership, a new genre show can make money for the company and make fans happy. Compare that to a Marvel show like Secret Invasion, which cost over $200 million, had only six episodes, and felt like a tiresome drag with muddy special effects. Disney would do well to think smarter, not richer.
So even if Agatha All Along doesn't get a second season, I'd be down for another Jac Schaeffer Marvel series if she's up for it.
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h/t The Wrap