Creator Jac Schaeffer explains to THR why 'Agatha All Along' was the perfect title to settle on for the new Marvel series at the show's premiere. Plus, she opens up about what it was like to convince Patti LuPone to be a part of the series and the pressures to live up to 'WandaVision.'
00:00This show had so many different titles throughout the process.
00:03Why is Agatha all along the perfect title for the show?
00:06Because she's at the end of every mystery, every lie, every con.
00:12And so, yeah, you can always peel back the layers and like there's going to be some double dealing in there courtesy of this lady.
00:20At what point did you decide to lean into the musical aspect of the show?
00:23From the absolute very beginning, there was no way that we were going to do an Agatha show without a musical element,
00:30given that her song took off so incredibly in WandaVision and that Catherine's so musical.
00:35And then selfishly for me, I just wanted another excuse to work with the Lopez's.
00:39So I sort of like, yeah, I manipulated the whole situation in order to get more music out of the deal.
00:45What was the pitch to Patti LuPone to come on board?
00:47Oh, gosh, you know, I was really ready.
00:50I was like, she's going to be so tough.
00:51She's going to be so scary.
00:52She is like the nicest, kindest, most lovely woman ever.
00:58And I said, you know, this, I said, this is a show about witches.
01:01And she said, well, I am a witch.
01:03And I said, done and done.
01:05Let's, let's, let's get going.
01:08What sort of famous witches did you pull inspiration from while creating this?
01:12All of them.
01:13That was a lot of our research for this show.
01:16It sounds sort of silly, witch research, but we took it very seriously.
01:18And so it's all the witches from pop culture and, and then like, you know, the legitimate history of witches, especially in this country.
01:26Um, so yeah, I mean, name one and we probably discuss them in the writer's room.
01:31The trailer looks very spooky, maybe even a little scary.
01:34Would you say this is Marvel's spookiest or scariest show yet?
01:38I mean, I think that there've been, like, Marvel has like dabbled in horror before.
01:45Um, but I think this is certainly, I would say, I would say spookiest because I do feel like with the witches and the Halloween of it, um, it does feel seasonally appropriate for sure.
01:57WandaVision was so well received and just so beloved.
02:00When you started working on this show, did you feel pressure to live up to what WandaVision was for so many people?
02:06I, I did.
02:06I mean, in truth, I would love to say, no, no, no, it's no big deal.
02:09But yeah, I mean, I, I just, you know, fans seemed so satisfied and like they had had so much fun with WandaVision.
02:17And I wanted to provide that again, because that's how I feel.
02:20Like, I want to be delighted by the content that I watch.
02:22Um, and, but eventually that sort of fell away because this is a very different show and Agatha is a profoundly different character.
02:29And so it was just really about serving her and her story.
02:34How would you say this show is different than WandaVision?
02:36And how would you say that it's similar?
02:38Well, the way that it's similar is, is like WandaVision.
02:40It is, you know, more of a puzzle box show.
02:43There's a lot of twists and turns, a lot of mystery, a lot of reveals.
02:45Um, there's a lot of, uh, genre pastiche, allusions to like familiar pop culture things.
02:53Um, and the ways that it's different is, yeah, it's really spooky.
02:56It's dark.
02:57Our, um, our lead is, um, is not always nice.
03:02Um, and, but even WandaVision, I mean, I'm, I'm always interested in like kind of throwing away the binary of the good and evil.
03:10Everybody's got a little bit inside of them.
03:11Um, but, but let's be honest, Agatha is a little more evil than she is nice.
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