Earlier this year, when WandaVision kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four, it was a breath of fresh air for fans who’d become disillusioned with the familiar cookie-cutter formula of Marvel’s big-screen output. From the offset, WandaVision brazenly subverted all the traditions of MCU stories. For the first few episodes, there was no superhero action at all. The series focused squarely on Wanda and Vision’s relationship, played beautifully by Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, and effectively turned one of the MCU’s dullest couples into one of its most endearing.
But as popular as Wanda and Vision were, the show’s true breakout star was Agatha Harkness, played by the brilliant Kathryn Hahn. Agatha was introduced as the kooky neighbor “Agnes,” who acted as a comic foil in Wanda’s black-and-white sitcom adventures, but she eventually emerged as the big bad of the show and has been praised as one of the MCU’s greatest villains.
The MCU has frequently been accused of having a “villain problem,” which means a few things. While heroes like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers are fleshed-out characters with long-running arcs and tangible development, villains like Malekith and Aldrich Killian are completely forgettable. The MCU’s villains are usually characterized very broadly: they’re evil for the sake of being evil, or power-hungry for the sake of being power-hungry. Their motivation is skin-deep and the audience never really becomes invested in them.
Also, with rare exceptions like Loki and Thanos, Marvel tends to kill off its villains in the same movie that introduces them, which seriously hinders their capacity for character development beyond the typical villain arc seen in all the other Marvel movies. WandaVision’s episodic format made it possible for Jac Schaeffer and her team of writers to take their time with Agatha’s characterization, slowly rounding out her personality before the big rug-pull that reveals her to be the villain pulling the puppet-strings (and she killed Sparky, too).
Just like all the best MCU baddies, Hahn nailed the mustache-twirling villainy of Agatha – especially since she uses it as a flex after revealing her true nature to Wanda. After keeping her inner bad guy bottled up for the first few episodes, Hahn really let loose with Agatha’s unabashed evil in the back end of the series’ run. Too many Marvel villain actors take the roles too seriously. If the actor is having fun, like Cate Blanchett in Thor: Ragnarok or Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 or indeed Hahn in WandaVision, then the audience will have fun, too.
For all those reasons, Hahn needs to return to the role of Agatha. WandaVision left her alive, as Wanda imprisoned her in the tranquil suburban existence of Westview, so it seems like Kevin Feige agrees that Agatha is a great asset for the MCU and wants to bring her back in the future. However, since WandaVision probably isn’t getting a second season and Wanda herself is going off on interdimensional adventures with Doctor Strange, Marvel will have to get creative in incorporating Agatha back into the fold.
On the page, Agatha has tangled with Annihilus, the Frightful Four, Kang the Conqueror, and even Mephisto, so there are any number of ways to get Agatha back into the MCU without the need for a second season of WandaVision or a Scarlet Witch movie. But, surprisingly, the best way to reintegrate Agatha into the franchise might be in the upcoming Fantastic Four series.
Following Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Marvel Studios now has the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and they’ll all be joining the MCU in due time. Since there are dozens of X-Men and only four members of the Fantastic Four, Feige is starting by tackling Marvel’s first family. The MCU’s Fantastic Four reboot will be directed by Jon Watts, who helmed the Spider-Man solo movies and will hopefully bring the same lighthearted tone and sense of humor he brought to that franchise into this new franchise.
In the comics, Reed Richards and Sue Storm hire Agatha Harkness as a nanny without realizing she’s an evil witch. Now that WandaVision has established Agatha as one of the MCU’s most lovable villains – instantly recognizable to fans of the series – it would be great to bring her back as a secondary villain in a Fantastic Four movie. The audience’s familiarity with Agatha’s villainy would work perfectly with the conflict of Reed and Sue obliviously hiring her to look after their baby.
This wouldn’t be in the first Fantastic Four movie, and maybe not even in the second, because it’s contingent on Reed and Sue being parents and that might not happen until a few movies into their MCU arcs, if ever. But the comedic potential in Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman unwittingly handing their childcare duties over to a supervillain – especially a supervillain as hilarious as Hahn’s Agatha – is too rich for the MCU not to use it at some point.