We’re over halfway through Marvel’s Agatha All Along, and the Disney+ series absolutely is not pulling any punches. The series aims to flesh out the magical side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe through the lens of Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and her coven, which has included some unexpected and clever homages to Marvel Comics thus far. As the newly-released fifth episode of Agatha All Along reveals, the series’ plans have included given a major Marvel Comics group a new update. Spoilers for Episode 5 of Agatha All Along lurk below! Only look if you want to know!
The majority of Agatha All Along’s fifth episode concerns the Witches’ Road trial for Agatha herself — an ’80s-themed horror adventure that reckoned with her storied past as a witch. Prior to that, Agatha and the coven began to be attacked by a group of cloaked witches, who are quickly identified as the Salem’s Seven. As the coven reveals to Teen (Joe Locke), the Salem’s Seven are directly connected to the witches whose energy Agatha drained during the Salem Witch Trials. More specifically, the Salem Seven are the descendants of those witches, who are only alive because Agatha decided to spare their lives as children.
Who Are the Salem’s Seven in Marvel Comics?
This reveal for the Salem’s Seven differs a bit from how the group are portrayed in Marvel Comics. Created by Len Wein and George Perez in 1977’s Fantastic Four #186, the comic version of the Salem’s Seven are actually Agatha’s grandchildren, and the direct children of Nicholas Scratch. Armed with the ability to transform into magical beings resembling lions, snakes, and fish, the Salem’s Seven grow to become major antagonists of both Agatha, Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, and the Fantastic Four, the latter of whom Agatha serves as governess for. The group was rebooted in the Ultimate Universe as a team of heroes, who were later revealed to be evil.
According to the end credits of Agatha All Along, the MCU’s version of the Salem’s Seven do share a naming scheme similar to their comic counterparts, with names like Snake, Crow, Owl, and Fox. That being said, there’s no telling at this point if Agatha All Along will lean fully into the group’s shapeshifting abilities from the comics, or if they will just be mysterious and creepy witches who continue to target Agatha and the coven (or, what’s left of them, that is). Either way, this new approach to the Salem’s Seven’s origin story definitely adds some personal stakes to their connection with Agatha, without having to directly answer exactly what is going on with the show’s version of Nicholas Scratch.
What Is Agatha All Along About?
In Agatha All Along, the infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth Teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious Teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…
In addition to Kathryn Hahn, Agatha All Along stars Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, Paul Adelstein, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Okwui Okpokwasili, with Debra Jo Rupp, with Patti LuPone, and Aubrey Plaza. The executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Mary Livanos and Jac Schaeffer. The directors for the series include Jac Schaeffer, Rachel Goldberg and Gandja Montiero.
“One of the biggest was that it was Jac Schaeffer, because she created all of that,” Hahn explained to ComicBook earlier this year. “She kind of created this iteration of Agatha, because she’s all over the place comics-wise, and touches on so many worlds. And so, that creation of this Agatha was so beautifully crafted by her. But it was very important, to both of us, that it honored Westview and the world of Westview, and also started in reality of what would happen next. And so, it’s really about her gaining, not even her powers back, but them changing. She shifts.”
New episodes of Agatha All Along debut Wednesdays at 9/8c on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.
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