- NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Agatha Harkness from the Marvel Cinematic film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Agatha Harkness (Marvel).
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| “ | Who's been messing up everything? It's been Agatha all along! Who's been pulling every evil string? It's been Agatha all along! She's insidious (Ha-ha!), so perfidious. That you haven't even noticed, and the pity is, (the pity is, pity, pity, pity, pity) It's too late to fix anything, Now that everything has gone wrong! Thanks to Agatha (Ha!), naughty Agatha. It's been Agatha all along! And I killed Sparky too. |
„ |
| ~ Agatha reveals how she manipulated everything behind the scenes to Wanda in her own theme song as well as revealing that she killed Billy and Tommy's dog, Sparky, followed with an evil laughter. |
| “ | Oh this is going to be a gas! | „ |
| ~ Agnes. |
| “ | I take power from the undeserving. It's kinda my thing. You're clearly in over your little red head. So, why don't you surrender your magic to someone who knows what to do with it? And I'll let you keep this pathetic little corner of the world all to yourself. | „ |
| ~ Agatha Harkness giving Wanda Maximoff an ultimatum. |
Agatha Harkness is the main antagonist of the 2021 Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero miniseries WandaVision and the titular main protagonist of its 2024 spin-off Agatha All Along.
She went under the alias "Agnes O'Connor" and acted as Scarlet Witch's neighbor. She was always in the background of the series popping up and checking in on Wanda. When Wanda makes her way to Agatha's basement, she discovers a lair filled with artifacts, books and glowing vines. Agatha comes out of the shadow and reveals herself as a fellow witch to Wanda. However, she fails to persuade Wanda to surrender her magic to her. Wanda then proceeded to drain her magical powers and trapped her in a false reality for approximately 3 years. Discovering that The Salem Seven, a infamous group of witches are coming to attack her, she forms a makeshift coven with a mysterious boy, “Teen” to walk “The Witches Road”, a series of tests and trials that claim to reward whoever clears them with what they need.
She is portrayed by Kathryn Hahn, who also voiced Ericka Van Helsing in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Jennifer Barkley in Parks and Recreation.
Appearance[]
Agatha has the general appearance of a roughly forty-five-year-old woman with brown hair. Her outfit would constantly change as Wanda kept moving Westview up a decade to fit her reality and her perfect life, but she always wears a brooch on the collars of her shirt. When she reveals herself, her hair is messy and down and wears a purple top. When Agatha was trapped in a false reality for 3 years, she took on the role of a police detective. During this period, she wore a blue-green flannel top along with a scarf and jeans. When Teen dissolved the fake reality, she can be seen going through several outfit changes, including her past outfits as seen in WandaVision. On the walk to The Witches Road, she can be seen wearing a Navy long dress with a white collared shirt underneath which has several gold buttons. In the first trial of the Witches' Road, she can be seen wearing a burgundy sweater with gray bell-bottom pants. The second trial of the Witches' Road has her dressed in black with a headband and a tunic tanktop with a golden embroidered collar.
Personality[]
When she first arrives, she acts as a friendly neighbor to Wanda, welcoming her to the neighborhood, bringing a plant as a housewarming gift. She helps Wanda with her anniversary night with Vision, giving constant suggestions on what she should do. She appears as a nosy neighbor in most of her episodes, more likely as a showoff. Agnes is able to get close enough to Wanda for her to start trusting her, enough to where she can use her magic in front of Agnes. Once Wanda discovers Agatha's lair, she appears more deranged and proudly so, with her own theme song calling her "evil", indicating Agatha's true nature and revealing that she had been manipulating Wanda and the fake Westview reality all along. Agatha often takes advantage of other people in cruel ways. For example, Teen often looks up to her as one of the greatest witches who has ever lived. Taking advantage of this, she has Teen do several errands such as driving them around Westview, and even shoplifting from a store causing Alice Wu-Gulliver to lose her job at Hot Topic after she had attempted to gain a fresh start on her life. To add more to her cruelty, Agatha implied that she cannibalized babies when she complimented that ''babies are delicious'' to Lilia Calderu.
It is worth noting that Agatha is not entirely heartless and has moments where she shows genuine concern for the coven, especially Teen. She displayed a defensive side of herself when Rio threatened to kill the coven and "take away all their bodies" over the PA speaker in the second trial, which could possibly be interpreted as loyalty or concern for the Coven's well being. However, this remains unclear if her actions were made in good faith or to increase the morale of the Coven as they worked towards their ultimate goal. Throughout the events of Agatha All Along, Agatha starts to develop a strong friendship/mentor bond with Teen, helping to guide each other through the dangerous trials of the Witches' Road. She is Initially harsh to Teen like the other members of the coven, but underneath she has a protective instinct for him, such as drinking the poisoned wine when Teen attempted to do so to help research the poison and brew the antidote. The most notable "redemptive" moment that she displays is when Teen was severely wounded as a result of the curse in the Second/Fire trial, asking Rio not to touch/claim his life while he was at his most vulnerable.
Relationships[]
Ally/Minion[]
Ralph Bohner[]
Ralph Bohner is a resident of Westview that is being mind-controlled by Agatha and she always mentions that he is her husband. She characterizes him as dull and uninteresting. In the end, the fake Pietro that was pretending to be Wanda's brother is revealed to be Ralph and he is the real owner of the house that Agatha lives at Westview. Currently, Ralph’s fate remains unknown as he was not present when Agatha freed herself (along with Teen’s help) from the false reality.
"Teen"[]
"Teen" is the deuteragonist of Agatha All Along, and Agatha considers him her "Pet/Familiar". They first encountered each other after in the false reality, he was caught by Agatha in her home, trying to steal a copy of the Darkhold. Agatha arrests him and interrogates him, asking him questions related to the dead body of Jane Doe that she has been investigating for a couple of days now. Just as they begin to take a look at the photos, the content in the photos suddenly changes from Jane Does body to flowers. Teen performs a reality dissolution spell, allowing Agatha to return to the real world. Teen is seen trapped with a makeshift solution of rope and duct tape, as it was likely that during Agatha’s delusions, she managed to catch him and tie him up in her closet. After an improper introduction, he re-introduces her to the concept of "The Witches Road", a magical realm that through a series of trials, a witch/wizard could obtain what they were seeking. Agatha has Teen then perform a variety of errands, including driving her around Westview/Eastview to assemble their coven. Teen is under a magical curse that whenever he speaks his name or his origin it is unbearable by whoever he is talking to, this making him mysterious in nature. Teen is highly favorable of Agatha, unlike the other people in her ”Coven”, and is willing to even shoplift for Agatha so she could recruit Alice Wu-Gulliver, promising to help her find the answer to what happened to her deceased mother. Agatha and Teen share a silent relationship with each other, with them often making impulse decisions for one another, such as Teen attempting to drink the poisoned wine in Episode 3 before Agatha stops him.
"Teen" is portrayed by Joe Locke, who is known for his role as "Charlie Spring" in Heartstopper, and "Tobias Ragg" on Sweeney Todd's Broadway show.
Enemies[]
Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch[]
Agnes warms up to Wanda, and the two start to appear to be best friends in the neighbor, walking around town, gossiping, and having a sense of trust between them. Pretending to be among the many residents of Westview that were abducted by Wanda, she pretended to have been under Wanda's control, using a TV alias, obeying Wanda's commands, asking for permission to do certain things, and appears to be in pain when she talks to Vision. Despite this, she later reveals to Wanda that she had been manipulating her and the whole false reality all along. Her motivations were to learn how Wanda created the fantasy reality and then steal her powers for herself; however she fails to persuade Wanda causing them to have a battle above Westview. Agatha fails to persuade Wanda, who transforms into “The Scarlet Witch”, draining her powers and leaving her in a hex for 3 years. After the events of Multiverse of Madness, Wanda’s body was discovered in Westview’s Forest face down. Agatha: living the life of a detective received an anonymous tip, driving herself to the crime scene. However, it should be noted that this was unclear if Wanda’s body this was an illusion or not.
Rio Vidal/Green Witch[]
Rio Vidal is a mysterious figure from Agatha's past who acts as the main antagonist of Agatha All Along. Rio despises Agatha for currently unidentified past wrongs and seeks to make her suffer and/or kill her as revenge; manipulating events to set her target free from Wanda's spell just to ragefully attack her once in her right mind and ultimately sending the Salem Seven to kill her despite also agreeing to give her a chance at regaining her powers so that taking her down would be more satisfying. Agatha is visibly fearful of Rio and appears desperate to avoid anything to do with her or their past, even going so far as to recruit Sharon Davis a non-magical person into her coven in place of Rio who according to a magical list was supposed to be their Green Witch. Rio is then summoned to join as the Green Witch of the Coven after Sharon perishes in the first Potions portion of the Witches' road. It's heavily implied that Rio and Agatha had a healthy relationship before Rio mentioned that something went horribly wrong between them that had something to do with the sacrificing of Nicolas, Agatha's late Son- which is most likely the reason the two have had bitter feelings towards each other.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Dark Magic: Agatha is very powerful and skilled in the dark arts.
- Telekinesis: As a witch, Agatha could do various acts of magic within Westview: open and close doors, change clothes, and mess with Wanda and Vision's magic show.
- Mind Manipulation: Like Wanda, she is also able to manipulate people's minds, project images inside their heads, controlling the neighbors' actions and ideas within Westview.
- Magical Chain: Agatha can create a magical chain when she did to Wanda.
- Magic Absorption: Due to being a powerful witch, Harkness can absorb another witch's magic. In addition to this, she can also absorb a witch's life force, as she did during her execution at the height of the Salem Witch Trials. She absorbed Wanda's chaos magic in Episode 9; however, she was not able to sustain Wanda's magic.
- Runes: In her powerful magic spells, this runes magic she holds can erase any powers like hex from Wanda, when Wanda tried to hit Agatha a bolts Agatha created a rune to erase Wanda's hex bolts,
- Spell Casting: Agatha can cast any spells, especially since she experienced the dark hold Spell she also tricked and control Wanda's mind with her spells.
- Reality Warping: Still not officially known if she has this power, but Agatha can affect the Westview village. When Vision came around, Agatha froze everyone from Westview in order to confuse Vision.
- Teleportation: Agatha can send herself from other places to get away from Wanda's planned attacks.
- Longevity: As revealed in WandaVision Episode 8, she is revealed to be over 300 years old.
Abilities[]
- Expert Tactician: She could outsmart and play along with her ploy and act as one of the hostages that were stuck in Westview and under Wanda's control. She played her part and stayed in line as per Wanda's wishes and acted like a normal citizen of Westview.
- Singing Mastery: She has displayed some proficiency at singing, when conjuring the witches' road. During the events of Agatha All Along Episode 4, the Coven has to work together in order to cleanse Alice of her curse. She, along with the rest of the Coven sang a modified version of the Witches' Ballad, which acted as a protection spell finally freeing Alice of the curse she and her ancestors have had for so long.
Victims[]
- Evanora Harkness (mother; drained her life force)
- Nicolas Scratch (son; sacrificed/drained his life force)
- Sharon Davis (neighbor; failed to save her from the poisoned wine)
- Salem Coven (drained their life force)
- Sparky (Maximoffs' dog; likely poisoned)
Trivia[]
- In the comics, Agatha Harkness is a witch who survived the Salem witch trials and watched the fall of Atlantis. She was a foe and mentor to Scarlet Witch.
- Agatha mentions that her supposed marriage anniversary to Ralph is on June 2nd, the first day that the Salem witch trials started in 1692.
- In the comics, Agatha Harkness wasn't always a villain as she mostly plays the role of Wanda Maximoff's mentor and an anti-hero throughout her multiple issues. According to Jac Schaeffer, it was originally planned for Agatha to serve more like a mentor towards Wanda in the show, but the crew realized that making her a proper antagonist would serve the show's structure as they were breaking the episodes.
- There was an extremely popular theory that Agatha's frequently mentioned husband, Ralph, was actually the iconic Marvel villain Mephisto, which was further hinted by the birth of Wanda's children, who are both fragments of Mephisto who dissipated when he did. When asked, Paul Bettany said that answering whether Mephisto would be in the series could get him fired. Despite this, in the end, Ralph is revealed to be none other than Ralph Bohner, the fake Pietro Maximoff.
- Another theory surrounding Agatha is her pet rabbit, Señor Scratchy, who could possibly be Nicholas Scratch — Agatha's son in the comics. Additionally, her rabbit's name means Mr. Scratch, a common old English nickname for the Devil. "Nick Scratch" and "Jack Scratch" were both pseudonyms of Mephisto.
- Mephisto was mentioned by Jen in Episode 3 of Agatha All Along when she tells Teen about how Agatha sacrificed her son for the Darkhold.
- Another theory surrounding Agatha is her pet rabbit, Señor Scratchy, who could possibly be Nicholas Scratch — Agatha's son in the comics. Additionally, her rabbit's name means Mr. Scratch, a common old English nickname for the Devil. "Nick Scratch" and "Jack Scratch" were both pseudonyms of Mephisto.
- Agatha Harkness is Kathryn Hahn's first live-action role in a Marvel production, and the second Marvel role she played. Her first role was as Olivia Octavius/Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
- Agatha Harkness is the first main antagonist in the Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the first Phase Four main antagonist was going to be General Dreykov from Black Widow, the first Phase Four film, which was originally slated to be released prior to WandaVision until the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its release.
External Links[]
- Agatha Harkness on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- Agatha Harkness on the Marvel Wiki
- Agatha Harkness on the Marvel Movies Wiki
- Agatha Harkness on the Disney Wiki
- Agatha Harkness on the VS Battles Wiki
- Agatha Harkness on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki.
