How the ‘Agatha All Along’ Practical Sets Captured the ‘Golden Age of Fantasy and Horror’
SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points for “Agatha All Along,” currently streaming on Disney+.
In Marvel’s newest television series “Agatha All Along,” Kathryn Hahn reprises her role as Agatha Harkness from the studio’s 2021 hit sitcom satire “WandaVision.” Although we’ve seen this character before, everything about this iteration of Agatha — and subsequently, her show — holds palpable discrepancies to the canon of superhero universes. In aesthetic and tone, this is another world altogether, because it’s created by practical set pieces.
More from Variety
“We were circling a quest-type narrative that was grounded in ‘Wizard of Oz,'” says showrunner Jac Schaeffer. “It’s a fantasy show. It’s a horror show. It has all of these roots in content that came out in the ’40s…we wanted it to have that same look and feel to give the audience that same nostalgia hit that we were able to achieve in ‘WandaVision.'”
Schaeffer credits executive producer Mary Livanos for the proposal to shoot the show through the lens of practical filmmaking, adding that it boded well as a creative choice.
“‘WandaVision’ was a celebration of the golden age of television and the celebration of sitcoms,” Livanos says. “(In ‘Agatha All Along’) we’re really honoring the craft of filmmaking and the golden age of fantasy and horror.”
Livanos explains when the team approached The Witches Road in “Agatha All Along,” the show’s spiritual connection to “The Wizard of Oz” (which features the iconic Yellow Brick Road) led them to embrace the concept of practically building out their own road.
“When you stepped on set, it was all immersive, like the low-line fog, the mushrooms that sparkle. There was a lot of detail and magic embedded into every corner,” Livanos says. “It’s really great to be able to feel your environment and to capture your environment on camera so that the tone of the show is clear to everybody.”
Livanos contextualizes how every aspect of The Witches Road was filmed in-camera, with the establishing shot of the winding road captured through a painted backdrop. Other elements included the building of a practical mud pit, mushrooms on set and real fireflies for a sequence in Episode 3, to ensure each moment in the series looked and felt as real as possible.
Schaeffer says one of the challenges about the construction of The Witches Road was the need to move locations, as the initial stage reserved for the road was determined to be too small. The actors were ultimately tasked with walking down the road’s path at varying paces to cover more or less ground for specific scenes.
“Putting this company of extraordinarily talented people on a road where anywhere they looked they were in a magical forest, gave everybody the chills,” Schaeffer says. “It creates a froth of enthusiasm and commitment that I think you can’t duplicate without the real thing.”
The practical production methods employed in “Agatha All Along” are described by Livanos as galvanizing for the collective cast and crew. She details how CGI scans were originally suggested to execute Agatha’s quick-change in the series premiere, but pulling the scene off practically made the magic of filming feel seamless.
Another example of practical filmmaking comes in Episode 7, aptly titled “Death’s Hand in Mine,” a direct lyric from “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” song featured in the show. The episode takes place in a castle, which features a series of swords hanging from the ceiling. These weapons, Schaeffer explains, were, in the vein of practicality, quite sharp and made of real metal. Each sword was positioned through piano wire and had its eventual trajectory diligently mapped out.
“We had to make sure we understood the story linearly and be able to track all the sword falls,” Schaeffer says. “The camera had to cross at the exact right time in the exact right place where a sword could fall in the foreground and make the shot. So it was an incredible amount of planning and hard work.”
The intention and practicality of sets, Schaeffer explains, embody the core narrative arcs for characters throughout the series.
“The way the swords drop is actually very similar to Lilia (Patti LuPone) and her experience of being wrenched through time,” Schaeffer says. “Every time a sword drops, it gives the person who sees the sword a heart attack, like you’re jolted every time and that is what happens to Lilia. She’s jolted over and over again, and it makes her unravel emotionally.”
Livanos adds that the practical approach to filmmaking throughout the series allowed for significant latitude during the post-production process. Having every shot on camera, she explains, gave the team more tools to play with during editing.
“Huge shout to the incredible cast who endured the road,” Livanos says. “They were barefoot walking on the road. They were sliding down crazy slides and getting muddied up and dirty and crawling. We were there for months because we had this awesome, practical approach.”
Check out an exclusive look of Schaeffer and the “Agatha All Along” cast seeing The Witches Road set for the first time.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
