It’s impressive whenever any entry in the MCU is able to display its own personality and identity, as most of the time a Marvel Studios production’s primary purpose is to blend in rather than stand out from the pack. As a follow-up to WandaVision, one of the Multiverse Saga’s most unique offerings, Agatha All Along certainly managed this. That said, it sounds like its disconnectedness from the wider Marvel world wasn’t entirely be choice.
Now we’ve consumed all nine episodes, we can see how Agatha ties into the bigger universe — most notably in introducing Joe Locke’s Wiccan and, potentially, in dropping Aubrey Plaza’s Death into the mythology — but there were also many obvious avenues for the show to explore that it just never went down. There was no Scarlet Witch. No Tommy aka Speed. And not even any Hulkling, aka Teddy Altman, Wiccan’s love interest from the comics.
If the show’s team had their way, though, Hulkling would’ve already smashed his way into the MCU.
“There were early conversations’: Agatha All Along almost included Hulkling, until Marvel forbade it
In Agatha All Along, Billy does indeed have a boyfriend, but it’s not Teddy… It’s Eddie. As played by Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Eddie seems to be a non-superpowered, but very supportive, love interest for the son of the Scarlet Witch, yet his name hints at some kind of connection to Hulkling. As it happens, the familiarity of his name is just a vestige of a plotline that was never allowed to be (witch)crafted.
When asked about whether Hulkling was ever on the table, EP Jac Schaeffer confirmed that she and her team did originally want Teddy in the mix, but a “Marvel decision” meant Hulkling was off-limits. As for whether Eddie could be revealed to be the character at a later date, all Schaeffer could stress is that the writers never considered them to be one and the same while making this series.
“There were early conversations [about Hulkling],” Schaeffer stated. “[Eddie] was originally called Teddy because we were looking at the artwork and thinking about that. That was a Marvel decision to not have him be Hulkling for the purposes of our show. Within our show, he is not Hulkling.”
While popular with the fandom on the whole, Agatha‘s finale did leave something of a sour taste in audience’s mouths as it felt more like an open door than a finished book — a set-up for further movies and shows to come. Going by this comment, and others she’s made elsewhere, it’s clear this fault doesn’t necessarily rest with Schaeffer and the writers. With Marvel snatching key characters and plotlines from their hands, to be saved for some nebulous future, it’s impressive that Agatha was as enjoyable and satisfying as it was.
Marvel’s in a tricky place now, as Gutirrez-Riley’s Eddie was actually a highly likeable character, and we don’t necessarily want to lose him. And yet Hulkling is far too important to Billy’s narrative and that of the Young Avengers to erase. Maybe if Marvel had given us an inkling of Hulkling in Agatha, we wouldn’t be facing this quantum quandary.
