PaleyFest LA 2025 Night Two: ‘AGATHA ALL ALONG’

PaleyFest LA 2025 ‘AGATHA ALL ALONG’ Panel.

CinemaBums had the honor of attending PaleyFest LA 2025 Night Two at the Dolby Theatre, which showcased the Disney+ phenomenon from Marvel Studios, Agatha All Along. The event featured a screening of episode three, followed by a panel conversation with showrunner Jac Schaeffer, who appeared alongside cast members Kathryn Hahn, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Debra Jo Rupp.

The series was originally presented as a limited series before switching categories for the 2024 Golden Globes, sparking fan theories about a potential Season Two. Agatha All Along became a surprise hit for Marvel Studios and is now one of the highest-rated series in the franchise. Marvel’s decision to submit the series for PaleyFest fueled further speculation, as no previous show featured at PaleyFest has been limited to just one season.

Schaeffer didn’t make any promises but teased, “In this corner of the MCU, things are nonlinear,” hinting that Agatha All Along might not be the end of the story.

Jac Schaeffer and Kathryn Hahn delved into how the initial pitches for an Agatha Harkness series took shape. Schaeffer noted that she pitched several different shows to Marvel Studios, each involving Agatha and Westview in some way. “Well, after WandaVision, I was invited by Marvel to come back and develop something. So I had sort of an incubation period where it was like, ‘Is it this character? Is it that character?’ And every single character I set on a journey, it would be like, ‘and in episode three, Agatha Harkness shows up’ or ‘Oops, they’re in Westview, and who’s there?’ So at a certain point, Kevin Feige was like, ‘Do we just make the show about her?’”

When asked about the initial call, Kathryn Hahn responded: “I mean, it was so unexpected and unbelievable. I had so much fun as Agatha. And the fact that Jac was interested in doing a really deep dive into her was so thrilling. I trust anything this woman writes, so I knew it was going to be… what I didn’t expect is that it would be surprising in an entirely different way than WandaVision.”

When the panel was asked about their favorite fan theories, Jac Schaeffer confirmed that Rio was Nicholas’s mother. “When we were developing it, we got a lot of questions. ‘Who’s the dad?’ We were like, ‘Why do you wanna know?’” Schaeffer added, “It was something that was important to the writers, and that was important to me. It was really lovely that the fans picked up on it, and it’s something we could confirm.”

In the series, Agatha Harkness wears a locket to remember her and Rio’s son, Nicky. But Hahn revealed that before she left for filming, her family coincidentally gave her a locket of her own. “My family, not knowing anything about the show, made me a necklace with their hair!” she said. “I wore it underneath the locket for most of the show. It felt like I had double amulets on.”

When addressing the viral musical element of the show, Ali Ahn (Alice Wu-Gulliver) shared that performing in front of a Broadway icon like Patti LuPone (Lilia Calderu) was a surreal experience. “If only high school me, listening to my little Rent soundtrack, knew one day Patti LuPone would be like, ‘Doll, you can sing!’”

Debra Jo Rupp (Mrs. Hart/Sharon Davis) earned the biggest laughs of the evening when she reflected on her character’s early exit from the show. “I thought the whole thing was traumatic,” said Rupp, who recounted being let down by her lack of supernatural abilities in the series. “The phone call I got was, ‘We’d love you to join this project, you’re gonna be a witch!’” Instead, Rupp ended up playing the only member of Agatha’s coven without a lick of magical talent. “I get there, and no one is looking me in the eye.”

Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+.