Kathryn Hahn is set to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Agatha Harkness in the Disney Plus seriesAgatha: Coven of Chaos, but how will she get her memories back? The last MCU audience members saw Agatha was in the Disney Plus seriesWandaVisionwhere she was one of the only witches in town. That won’t be the case for her upcoming series which is set tofeature Aubrey Plazaand Joe Locke as well.
Agatha Harkness made her first comic book appearance in Marvel’sFantastic Fourin 1970. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Agatha was slowly revealed as an incredibly powerful, and incredibly old, witch. Her appearance in the comics was very different from Kathryn Hahn’s inWandaVision, but if her power levels are at all close to her comic book counterpart, there is nearly no limit to Agatha’s abilities.
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What Happened To Agatha Harkness At The End Of WandaVision?
Throughout theWandaVisionseries on Disney Plus, Agatha Harkness passed herself off as Westview resident Agnes. A friend of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), she appeared to fill the “nosy neighbor” trope of sitcoms that Wanda loved so much. In reality, Agatha was pulling strings behind Wanda’s magic, trying to figure out just how Wanda was able to pull off such a powerful hex without realizing it. Agatha kept pushing Wanda until Wanda’s illusions about her sitcom reality finally came crashing down.
Agatha Harkness and Wanda Maximoff had an all-out battle in the middle of Westview intheWandaVisionfinale. Even though Wanda didn’t entirely understand how to use her magic when the battle began, she was a fast learner who picked up all the hints Agatha gave her about just how Wanda’s chaos magic would work. As they fought, Wanda prevented Agatha from maneuvering outside of her hex and locked her into her memories as the sitcom neighbor Agnes that she had originally pretended to be.
Wanda’s move made sure that Agatha couldn’t use her magic to hurt others. It also made sure that Agatha would become Agnes, a resident of Westview, all over again. It also means that Agatha will, at some point, need to get her memories of how to use her magic back.
How Can Agatha Get Her Memories Back?
There are multiple ways that Agatha Harkness could get her memories back inAgatha: Coven of Chaos. After all, her memories haven’t been completely erased, just locked inside her Agnes persona. The most likely means of Agatha retrieving them appears to be some sort of magical intervention, not unlike Agatha magically forcing Wanda to relive her repressed childhood memories of trauma to see that she’s always had magical abilities.
Since there are going to be otherwitches and magical beings inAgatha: Coven Of Chaos, it’s entirely possible that one of them will unlock Agatha’s hidden memories with their own magical abilities, a spell, or something else. That would likely be the case if one of the new characters comes looking for Agatha in Westview and discover that she believes she’s a woman named Agnes who is very concerned with what all of her neighbors are up to. The series will return to Westview becauseEmma Caulfield Fordand Debra Jo Rupp are set to reprise their roles from WandaVision. How long the series will remain in Westview isn’t clear yet.
There is another way that Agatha could get her memories back if what Wanda did to her involved a hex of some kind. As Agatha pointed out to Wanda in the middle of their fight, only the witch who casts a hex can undo it. Wanda, however, is presumed dead after the events ofDoctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madnesswhen she destroyed theDarkholdand allowed the altar at Mount Wundagore to collapse on herself to prevent anyone else from using it. Her magic may be undone with her death. Not all the rules of magic, especially chaos magic, have been explained in the MCU. That could be one step the show takes towards confirming Wanda’s death since her body is never recovered. Fan theories have pointed out thatif Wanda Maximoff returns to the MCU, she could be from an alternate reality.
Will Agatha Be A Hero Or A Villain?
In the comics, Agatha Harkness is neither a hero nor a villain. She is often on the side of her own self-interest, or on the side of taking care of the people she cares about. In the MCU, Agatha appears most interested in gaining as much power as possible. She craves power, as is evident from the flashback inWandaVisionto her mother’s coven attempting to strip her of her power. She also, however, has been corrupted by theDarkholdin the past, as is evident by the markings from the books on her fingertips that Wanda has after using theDarkholdinMultiverse Of Madness.
InMultiverse Of Madness, Wanda is able to understand that she’s been corrupted by theDarkholdafter being confronted with her horrible actions. It’s possible that Agatha Harkness could understand that corruption as well. That might especially be the case since theDarkholdis no longer in her possession since Wanda took it from her and then destroyed it after using it herself.
Even if confronted with her own misdeeds, it seems more likely that Agatha could ride the line between hero and villain like another popular MCU character,Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. Though Loki has been a villain in the past and craved power and acceptance himself, he’s also been the hero of his own story in his Disney Plus series, trying to find a way to save the world, or really, multiple worlds and timelines, from destruction. Agatha Harkness could find herself in a similar situation inAgatha: Coven Of Chaos, not a villain or a hero, but someone willing to do the right thing when she feels like she needs to.
