The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) timeline is a mess. Sorry to be blunt up front, but due to time travel shenanigans and time jumps in Avengers: Endgame, plus the real-world shifts in schedule caused by COVID and the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, when Marvel movies and shows take place is confusing at best. So, what about Agatha All Along? Is it a prequel? A sequel? A rebootquel? Where does Agatha All Along fit in the MCU timeline? Turns out, it’s just as confusing as you might expect.
Here’s the short version. Agatha All Along is a direct sequel to WandaVision, set after the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In the real world, WandaVision was released in 2021, and Multiverse of Madness hit theaters in 2022. It’s now 2024, and the first two episodes of Agatha All Along just dropped on Disney+ last night. Chronologically speaking, that’s the order to watch these things in—First WandaVision, then Multiverse of Madness, then Agatha All Along.
So, not a prequel. Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) is escaping the spell Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) put her under in the finale of WandaVision. Then in Multiverse of Madness, Wanda died saving the multiverse from, er, herself. That freed Agatha from the spell, as seen in the first episode of Agatha All Along, titled “Seekest Thou The Road.”
That’s the short version. It gets more confusing when you start talking about where all these take place in the MCU Timeline.
When Does Agatha All Along Take Place In The MCU?
Okay, strap in there folks. Avengers: Endgame was released in 2019, but if you recall in the opening of the movie, after chopping Thanos’s (Josh Brolin) head off, the movie jumped forward five years. However, the opening took place in 2018 — when Avengers: Infinity War was released — meaning the bulk of Endgame takes place in 2023.
Three weeks after the events of Endgame, Wanda has created a hex around the town of Westview to deal with her grief over losing Vision (Paul Bettany), setting it in the Fall of 2023. We know it’s fall since they celebrate Halloween in one of the episodes. Good so far? Cool.
Cut to Multiverse of Madness, which takes place sometime after the end of WandaVision. It’s enough time that Wanda has studied the dark book of magic known as the Darkhold, and gained enough power to Dreamwalk to find her lost children somewhere in the multiverse. According to the official Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline, MoM takes place in late 2024. Which is an extremely busy time for the MCU, as the movie takes place after Spider-Man: No Way Home, which ends around Christmas, and before Hawkeye, which takes place at Christmas. Let’s say Multiverse of Madness takes place in December 2024, and call it a day.
Given that Agatha All Along opens with the spell breaking, you would think that the show also takes place in December 2024, right? Well, wrong. Maybe. Proving that spells move very slowly, it’s pretty clearly established that Agatha has been living in Westview for three years, as she asks Herb, aka John Collins (David Payton) how long she’s been living in the town, and that’s the amount of time he cites.
Is your brain hurting? Mine is.
Agatha All Along Is Either Set In 2024, Or 2026
There are two possibilities here. If Agatha All Along takes place in 2024, then for some reason Agatha was living in Westview for two years before the events of WandaVision. This seems directly contradicted by the earlier show itself, which depicted Agatha coming to the town, drawn there by Wanda’s use of chaos magic, and then embedding herself as Agnes to eventually siphon Wanda’s power.
So if Agatha All Along takes place in 2026, i.e. three years after WandaVision, as John states, then for some reason, she’s been there for two years beyond the death of the Scarlet Witch in Multiverse of Madness. Insanely, that’s the more likely possibility, as the most recent entries into the MCU are all set then: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Secret Invasion, and The Marvels are all set in 2026. Seriously. Why? I don’t know.
Given that Agatha is being released now, putting it in proper timeline order after The Marvels, the last MCU proper release (other than Deadpool & Wolverine) makes sense on paper. But setting it in 2026 is… Bizarre? What is gained here by setting these movies and shows two years in the future? And doesn’t it make things stranger for Agatha that she was just futzing around in a nightmare for two years beyond when she should have been?
There is an explanation here, though, which is that Teen (Joe Locke) was the one who freed her from the spell. Yes, we got to see “Agnes” investigating the death of Wanda, but she’s only been doing that for a few days, as John Collins explains once she breaks free of Wanda’s curse. Before that, she was Agnes the 1950s-style nosy neighbor, which Wanda had crafted her into, in the WandaVision finale. Agatha might have been stuck in that forever if Teen — and then Rio (Aubrey Plaza) — hadn’t made moves to free her. This is the first time the reality of Wanda’s death and the destruction of the Darkhold were able to puncture her reality bubble after Teen spoke the words to free her.
Regardless, to sum up here: Agatha All Along is indeed a direct sequel to WandaVision and Multiverse of Madness. But also, it takes place in 2026. Fingers crossed we get flying cars in the next episode.
Note: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly speculated that Agatha had been in the true crime show for years.
Where To Watch Agatha All Along:
Agatha All Along Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The first two episodes of Agatha All Along premiere September 18 at 6 pm PT / 9 pm ET on Disney+. It will stream weekly episodes after that, leading up to the two-episode finale on October 30. There are nine episodes, in total.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Agatha All Along Season 4, with premiere dates:
- Wednesday, September 18, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 1: “Seekest Thou The Road”
- Wednesday, September 18, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 2: “Circle Sewn With Fate Unlock They Hidden Gate”
- Wednesday, September 25, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 3
- Wednesday, October 2, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 4
- Wednesday, October 9, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 5
- Wednesday, October 16, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 6
- Wednesday, October 23, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 7
- Wednesday, October 30, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 8
- Wednesday, October 30, 2024: Agatha All Along, Episode 9