Agatha All Along Creator Debunks A Major Marvel Connection

Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "Agatha All Along."

It's a credit to "Agatha All Along" and the strength of its writing that the best episode so far, last week's aptly-titled "Death's Hand in Mine," delivered the biggest and most game-changing twist of the season — the reveal that Aubrey Plaza's Rio Vidal was actually Lady Death all along — and it wasn't even the most noteworthy moment of the hour. That came courtesy of the great Patti LuPone, who went above and beyond the call of duty as the time-traveling fortune teller Lilia Calderu to bring a sense of poignancy to the journey of these wayward witches while they traverse the daunting Witches' Road. But even though the reveal didn't arrive until the concluding minutes, Death hung heavy over the entirety of episode 7 ... and, for fans, she continues to reverberate throughout the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As it so happens, introducing one of the franchise's most powerful characters tends to fire up those fan-theories, and it didn't take long for viewers to begin fantasizing about the idea of "Agatha All Along" drawing connections to Lady Death's most famous consort from the comics: the Mad Titan Thanos. While both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame" rewrote his backstory and motivations considerably, the traditional Marvel Comics storyline has Thanos enacting a universal genocide in the name of his lady love, Death. It's much too late to translate that potent relationship to the big screen, of course, but that hasn't stopped fans from wondering whether the finale might somehow make room for its biggest cameo of all.

Alas, "Agatha All Along" creator and showrunner Jac Schaeffer is throwing cold water on that theory and debunking any potential Thanos appearance down the line.

Marvel Studios

Look, we here at /Film were never entirely on board the #ThanosWasRight movement, but there's a good chance we might've understood his bloodthirsty campaign a little more if he'd been doing so in order to impress Aubrey Plaza. That sure makes a lot more sense than whatever that nonsense was about "balance" or whatever. Against all odds, "Agatha All Along" has provided a perfect opportunity to see Thanos' actions in a different light by finally giving Lady Death her time in the spotlight. It's easy to imagine that, in classic MCU fashion, this otherwise standalone Disney+ series could expand the overall universe by retroactively making Death a big part of Thanos' own universe-cleansing scheme. To hear Jac Schaeffer tell it, however, that couldn't be further from the truth.

In an interview with Inverse, Schaeffer debunked the biggest fan-theory around – before it could take on a life of its own, as anyone who was around during the great Mephisto era of "WandaVision" can likely sympathize with. Putting it as bluntly as she possibly could, the showrunner basically told fans not to get their hopes up. As she put it:

"Thanos is not in my show, so I can't speak to any Thanos connections. Thanos stans out there, I have no answers for you."

Well, that leaves absolutely no wiggle room. Either Schaeffer has the world's greatest poker face, or she and her writing team are serious about telling a largely self-contained story about these particular characters. But that's not to say that Death stans won't have anything to look forward to. The Mad Titan's loss is every witch enthusiast's gain, apparently.

Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

There are only two episodes left in "Agatha All Along" and all sorts of questions remain unanswered. What exactly was the nature of Rio Vidal and Agatha Harkness' (Kathryn Hahn) past relationship, and was it truly as queer as it was implied to be? And now that she's been revealed as Death, what's driving her to embark on the Witches' Road and cause all sorts of mischief for our coven? And, most intriguingly of all, will everything be wrapped up in a neat and tidy bow once it's all said and done? In the same interview with Inverse, Jac Schaeffer went on to assure fans that we haven't seen the full extent of what this season is planning to do with Rio/Death ... and that there might be a little ambiguity in the end. According to Schaeffer:

"There will be a little bit more illuminating about our version of Death, but what I will say is we generally leave some of it to interpretation in this show. But you'll get a little bit more understanding of how she operates in the last two episodes."

That bit about leaving "some of it to interpretation" leaps out to me and certainly makes it seem like Aubrey Plaza's role as Death might linger long past the conclusion of "Agatha All Along." The spin-off show was always planned to be a limited series, but that doesn't mean entire characters can't live on and return down the line in other media. Once everything wraps up this week, will we have seen the last of Agatha, Billy Maximoff (Joe Locke), Death, and the rest of this coven? Stay tuned.

"Agatha All Along" concludes with a two-episode finale on Disney+ October 30, 2024.