The cast and crew of Disney+’s “Agatha All Along” were just as eager to see Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) and Rio (Aubrey Plaza) couple up as fans were, creator/showrunner Jac Schaeffer said Saturday evening at the show’s PaleyFest panel. “People thought Rio was Nicholas’ mom,” she said, when asked about her favorite fan theories.
“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 was something the fans said that 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 to film “Agatha All Along,” 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.”
A slightly less heartfelt but no less personal trinket that also made it to set was Sasheer Zamata’s real-life retainer, which she wore as part of her slumber party costume in episode 5. “It was an ’80s sleepover vibe. I brought my actual retainer that I use, I had a onesie, it was nice,” she said.
Hahn and Zamata weren’t the only ones with personal ties to their “Agatha All Along” characters: Ali Ahn, who plays sullen rocker Alice Wu-Gulliver, said she was surprised by how much of Alice’s story resonated with her in real life: “A little intergenerational trauma. And mommy issues!”
Ahn was also struck by her and Alice’s shared love of music. “I’m scared to sing, so I tapped into my own fear of performing,” she said. “Singing is so vulnerable, and I had to think about mapping out musically how I became more confident through the song. I have my own relationship to music that I was like, ‘How did Jac know?’ I grew up playing a lot of music, but it’s something I really put away.”
She added 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, who plays Mrs. Hart/Sharon Davis, also chimed in on what scares her. “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.”
To add insult to injury, her unsuspecting housewife is killed in episode three of “Agatha All Along,” though Rupp is holding out hope that her short-lived character might re-appear down the line.
“She comes back in a field or something right? This is Marvel!” Schaeffer didn’t make any promises, but teased that “In this corner of the MCU, things are nonlinear,” hinting that “Agatha All Along” might not be the end of Sharon Davis’ Marvel story.
