It almost wasn’t Agatha all along! The cast and creators behind Marvel Studios original series WandaVision react to the viral hit performed by Agatha Harkness actress Kathryn Hahn that became a top-selling track and explain how the catchy song, from Frozen duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, almost had a different name. When Agnes (Hahn) — nosy neighbor to Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and her husband Vision (Paul Bettany) — is revealed as the ages-old witch Agatha Harkness in “Breaking the Fourth Wall,” it’s to the tune of “Agatha All Along,” a villain song originally named “That’s So Agatha” by the episode’s writer Cameron Squires.
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“Matt [Shakman, series director] brought them on. Like of the millions of things that Matt did, like his strokes of genius, bringing Bobby and Kristen into the mix, I can’t imagine it being any different way,” WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer told EW‘s The Awardist. “I remember getting the ’80s one [in Episode 5], I remember being together and being like, ‘Holy wow.’”
Recalled Shakman, “Originally you had, ‘That’s So Agatha.’ [That] was sort of the idea for [the song]. I remember Kristen saying, ‘We’ve been toying around with Agatha All Along.’ And we thought, great, awesome! Then we had several chats about what, exactly, Agatha had been doing all along so that they could be more specific with it. Then I just remember that Munsters meets Oompa-Loompa song coming in and being like, ‘Oh my God, this is the best thing ever.’”
When it came time to perform the song, played when a series of flashbacks reveal an insidious Agatha manipulating the events of past episodes, Schaeffer recalled: “It was like, ‘Would Katherine sing it?’ And they were just like, ‘Oh, yes. Yes, she will. Yes, she will sing it!’”
“Oh, without a doubt! I was like, ‘If anybody else touches it, I’m going to be so angry,’” added Hahn with a laugh. “Like, ‘I have to do it. I have to do it!’ I was so excited.”
The bewitching tune quickly became the #1 song on the iTunes Soundtrack charts and peaked at #36 on Billboard‘s Digital Song Sales chart, selling more than 3,000 downloads in its first week and tallying 1.6 streams in that same span.
“And then it was the great joy to see Kathryn Hahn rise the iTunes chart above Justin Bieber and Cardi B,” Shakman told Hahn. “I think you got up to number four or something. You’re a rock star. You are a literal rock star.”
Swaying in a pretend rocking chair, Hahn quipped, “When I’m, god willing, a very, very old lady, I will be able to just be rocking in a chair on a porch remembering that I was above the Biebs for a very short amount of time.”
All episodes of WandaVision are now streaming on Disney+.
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