Posted in: Disney+, TV | Tagged: agatha all along, mephisto, WandaVision

Agatha All Along Showrunner on That Mephisto Reference (SPOILERS)

With Episode 3 currently streaming, Agatha All Along Showrunner Jac Schaeffer offers some insight into that Mephisto name-drop.

What is it about MCU fans and their obsession with Mephisto? Rumblings about the all-powerful demon appearing (with Sacha Baron Cohen's name attached at one point) began around the time that 2021's Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen-starring WandaVision first hit Disney+ screens – with expectations building with each passing episode. Except – it didn't happen. In fact, director Matt Shakman made it clear that Mephisto was never part of the plan to begin with. "There were some deep readings of the text that led to certain conclusions that were wrong," Shakman shared during an interview with Inverse. "Mephisto was never a part of our plan. So that was a head-scratcher. But hey, he's a great character." But it didn't end there, with Mephisto being mentioned as appearing in Dominique Thorne-starring Ironheart (connected to Anthony Ramos' The Hood) and Showrunner Jac Schaeffer's Kathryn Hahn-starring Agatha All Along.

With Ironheart not expected to hit screens until 2025 and Agatha All Along currently streaming its third episode, the spotlight has shifted to the "WandaVision" spinoff – and rightfully so. Hahn had teased the possibility in the past, and this week's episode, "Through Many Miles / Of Tricks and Trials" (directed by Rachel Goldberg and written by Cameron Squires) dumped a whole lot of fuel on a lot of fans' dumpster fires of random speculation. During an interview with EW, Schaeffer addressed whether the reference was done simply as a nod to the fans or if there are larger meanings that can be taken from it. From this point forward, we're throwing on the "MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!" sign and throwing down an image spoiler buffer.

During the first trial on the Witches' Road, Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata) looks to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Teen's (Joe Locke) real identity – made that much harder by Teen having a sigil cast on him that keeps him from sharing any personal intel about himself. While considering the options, Kale offers up the possibility that Teen could be "an agent of Mephisto" (yeah, the reference was far from subtle). "With these shows, so often there is something that is at once a joke and a wink and a nod, and actually has something legitimate underneath it," Schaeffer shared during the interview. "As we all know, Mephisto is a character who's very wrapped into Agatha's storyline. I mean, people have to watch, but we're always playing with the audience in that way." When you factor in the "black heart" references made regarding Aubrey Plaza's Rio Vidal (with the character Blackheart being one of Mephisto's kids), this might just be something for viewers to keep on their radar.

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