Who is Agatha Harkness?
When we first meet her, she is just Agnes, the chatty neighbor in the sitcom town of Westview who keeps popping by Wanda Maximoff's kitchen. Anyone who has seen a few episodes of WandaVision knows there is more to her. Agatha is a practitioner of dark magic with a long memory and a sharp sense of humor, and she has come to Westview because something there is giving off a kind of power she has never felt before.
Unlike most MCU villains, she does not want to conquer anyone. She wants knowledge and strength, ideally both, and she is happy to lie, flatter and sing her way toward them.
Agatha's shows in watch order
- WandaVision (2021, series, essential on our list)
- Agatha All Along (2024, series, optional on our list)
Both are Disney Plus series rather than films, and she has no movie appearances so far. She also turns up in the optional animated What If...? (2021), in an alternate-universe story. Release order and story order are the same.
Key moments, kept light on spoilers
WandaVision builds her slowly, with small clues in the background of each decade-themed episode. The payoff is one of the most quoted moments in the early Disney Plus era, complete with a theme song about her that became a hit with fans. By the finale she has learned exactly what Wanda is, and she pays a price for getting too close.
Agatha All Along opens with her in rough shape, cut off from her old self. To get her magic back, she gathers a coven of mismatched witches and sets off down the Witches' Road, a dangerous path of trials that is part fairy tale and part musical. The show is less about saving the world and more about whether someone like Agatha can be trusted, or can change.
Wanda and the rest of her circle
Her first story only works because of Wanda Maximoff. Agatha is the one who puts a name to Wanda's gift, and that conversation shapes Wanda's later choices in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In the spin-off, a teenage stranger who insists on joining the coven becomes her most important companion, along with rival witches played by Patti LuPone and Aubrey Plaza.
Kathryn Hahn as Agatha
Kathryn Hahn plays Agatha in both series, and she is the reason the character works. She can switch from nosy-neighbor comedy to real menace inside a single line, and she clearly enjoys the theatrical side of being a witch. The spin-off also leans on her singing.
Before Marvel, many viewers knew her from comedies such as Step Brothers and from Parks and Recreation, where she played the ruthless campaign manager Jennifer Barkley. She also turned up in the mystery Glass Onion.
Best way to watch her story
Watch WandaVision in full first. The WandaVision page explains which films to see beforehand, mainly the Avengers movies that set up Wanda and Vision. Then move on to Agatha All Along, which works as its own adventure but hits harder once you know what happened in Westview. For other characters linked to these shows, see our MCU character guide.