Every Witchy Reference You Missed In The Agatha All Along Credits
by Valerie Ettenhofer · /FilmSay what you will about the Marvel Cinematic Universe's foray into television on Disney+, but you can't deny that the company knows how to craft a credit sequence. AI-fueled "Secret Invasion" screw-up aside, Marvel shows on Disney+ have signed off with some of the most creative, enjoyable end credits in recent memory, many of them a mini-adventure in their own right.
"Agatha All Along" is no exception. The new series may not be big on mid-credit scenes, but it uses its end credits to tell us exactly what it's about. The first episode ends with the Donovan song "Season of the Witch," which would be too on the nose if it weren't such an excellent, effective tune. It also shows the names of the series' cast and crew over a sort of witchy mood board, one that features witches ranging from creepy to adorable. There's historical information on display, complete with (probably fake) archival imagery and documents pertaining to witch trials. But there are also snippets of movies featuring pop culture witches, and visual aesthetics and signifiers — long nails, big hats, crystals — that bring the show's idea of witches into the Instagram age.
The credits also blend together tones the same way the show does, delivering creepy or slightly grotesque images alongside sillier, more lighthearted references. The overall impression is one of feminine empowerment, persecution, and potential liberation; it may as well be Agatha's own Pinterest board (in a good way). Setting aside nods to real-life witch executions, here are all the witchy references you may not have caught in the show's end credits.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Nestled in among depictions of witch trials and aesthetic witchy imagery is a famous shot of the sinister old witch from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," a Disney classic that's now well into its 80s. It's a great callback to an animated classic that helped make Disney what it is today, but it's also a movie that helped define how generations of moviegoers conceived of witches: as elderly hags with warty noses, cackling madly as they manipulate the innocent.
Of course, the witch who gives Snow White a poisoned apple isn't actually an old woman, but the jealous, regal queen with a magic mirror who wishes to be the fairest in the land. What can we guess about "Agatha All Along" from this Brothers Grimm story? It's tough to say at this point, but it's worth noting that the show also made a direct reference to "Snow White" in its second episode, with Patti LuPone's Lilia accusing Agatha of being the type of witch that makes humans think they all poison apples and eat babies.
The Simpsons
Disney+ loves to show off its decades-long back catalogue of "The Simpsons" episodes, and as a lifelong "Treehouse of Horror" fan, I love that Lisa Simpson makes a brief appearance in the "Agatha All Along" end credits. She pops up briefly dressed in a witch outfit, which is appropriate given that several "Simpsons" episodes have seen Lisa dress as a witch or dabble with Wiccanism. In "Treehouse of Horror XII," she and Bart attend a Hogwarts parody school where she learns the art of witchcraft, while in the 2009 episode "Rednecks and Broomsticks," Lisa ends up embroiled in a sort of local Satanic Panic when her Wiccan friends are accused of cursing Springfield.
The episode that probably got Lisa added to this moodboard, though, is "Treehouse of Horror XIX," in which Lisa wears a Wiccan costume for Halloween. When Milhouse says he likes her witch costume, she corrects him with a quote that's ended up on many a Facebook meme since: "I'm not a witch, I'm a Wiccan. Why is it that whenever a woman is strong and powerful, they call her a witch?" It's a bit of wisdom that's definitely in line with what "Agatha All Along" seems to be about so far.
The Craft
While most of the titles referenced in the show's closing credits are Disney-owned, we also get to see snippets of a famous scene from 1996 cult classic "The Craft," a Columbia Pictures movie. In the sequence, Fairuza Balk's bad girl Nancy comes into her full power to punish Chris (Skeet Ulrich), a popular boy who had tried to sexually assault fellow witch Sarah (Robin Tunney) while under the power of an overly-strong love spell. In the scene, the tips of Balk's boot-clad feet drag on the floor while she levitates, and she whips her head around wildly.
"The Craft" is the only live-action movie with a clip in the "Agatha All Along" end credits, and it's a great choice. For a generation of '90s kids, it was the movie that reminded us that witchiness is often a stand-in for outsider status, and that when losers and misfits band together, they can be powerful, too. This is obviously embodied in the new Marvel series, as Agatha's new coven consists of a very old fortune teller, a Hot Topic nepo baby, a superfan with a charmed backstory, and a sweet neighbor who was just trying to tend her garden. Which of them, if any, will turn out to be the Nancy in their situation? That remains to be seen.
Bewitched
The credits sequence prides itself on showing examples of witches across history, and the idea of feminine secret power was rarely more impactful than in the 1960s. As second-wave feminism struggled for a foothold amidst a patriarchal world that kept American women in domestic roles, classic ABC sitcom "Bewitched" subverted the status quo in subtle and overt ways alike. The show might be most remembered for witch housewife Samantha's (Elizabeth Montgomery) unique way of casting a spell — she could magically clean the house or make problems disappear with just a twitch of her nose — but it was actually a surprisingly radical vehicle for conversations about gay rights and feminism, two of the biggest social movements of the time.
Instead of showing off the classic "Bewitched" image of a cartoon Samantha on a broomstick, the end credits replace her with a darker-haired witch, presumably Agatha. Still, between her big, '60s-animation-style smile, purple outfit, and the moon behind her, it's clear that this is meant as an ode to "Bewitched." Judging by how inherently queer the show's cast has already said it will be, this is likely not the only piece of "Agatha All Along" that'll pay homage to the Golden Age TV show.
The Wizard of Oz
References to "The Wizard of Oz," both L. Frank Baum's novel and the MGM musical movie of the same name, pop up at least twice in the end credits. First, an illustration that looks like something out of a children's book shows a girl styled in classic Dorothy attire coming to the aid of a clearly nervous, massive lion. Given the number of dancing cats included elsewhere in the credits montage, this at first seems like it could be an obscure reference, until you glance to the background and see a Tin Man-like figure observing the scene.
Strangely, that first image doesn't actually feature either of the film's witches, but the Wicked Witch of the West makes an appearance later on in the form of a green-faced, black-hatted figurine. Again, this isn't the first reference the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made to one of the most famous movies of all time. It delivered a huge one in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," when Scarlet Witch, who seems to be at the center of this show's mystery, quite literally got the house dropped on her.