This release slate looks pretty stacked so far, although Disney’s promise to pivot to an ethos of quality over quantity in the MCU may jeopardize a handful. Trepidation surrounds some of the most obscure among these, such as Ironheart and Wonder Man, as they spotlight characters that aren’t exactly in demand. Shows like Daredevil: Born Again, meanwhile, focus on Marvel’s more prominent characters and boast a more noticeable level of hype. Still, the relative obscurity of its stars didn’t preclude Agatha All Along from boasting some impressive viewing figures.
According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Agatha All Along enjoyed its highest-ever viewership with its double-episode finale. Nielsen streaming ratings reveal that episodes 8 and 9 racked up 744 million minutes of viewing, ranking it the tenth-most streamed show between October 28 and November 3. This nearly doubles the viewing figures of its premiere episode, which raked in 426 million minutes. The many reasons for its growing success are worth exploring as they signify some significant things for the future of Marvel TV shows.
MCU Mysteries Remain A Consistent Draw For The Franchise
The Mystery Genre Keeps Generating Hit After Hit For Marvel
Agatha All Along is a sequel series to WandaVision and the second in a trilogy that will conclude with Vision’s solo series. It struck a similar tone to its predecessor by leaning into the mystery genre, exemplified from the get-go by Agatha’s personal hex manifesting as a crime drama with Wanda’s death being the focal point. The truth behind Wanda’s ostensible death in the MCU was just one of many mysteries that permeated the show, with the true identities of Joe Locke’s Teen and Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal being even more pertinent.
The theory that Teen was truly Billy Maximoff was a popular one before Agatha All Along debuted, but the theory that he might be Nicholas Scratch picked up steam after episode 1.
These mysteries were expertly navigated and crucial in keeping audiences invested. The same can be said for WandaVision and the questions swirling around Wanda’s Westview anomaly. The critical and commercial success of these franchises – Jac Schaeffer’s clear expertise notwithstanding – proves a consistent appetite for such a genre that Marvel could stand to lean into down the line. It’s also worth noting how conducive Marvel’s mystical elements are to telling such stories.
While WandaVision and Agatha All Along aren’t exactly as ambitious as the likes of Werewolf By Night and its exploration of gothic horror, they still prove that Marvel’s forays into new genres are appreciated by audiences accustomed to the standard action/sci-fi of its mainline movies. While the likes of Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye show that there is still room for more conventional MCU shows, Agatha All Along proves that atypical structures are just as compelling to its core audience. Overcoming the general obscurity of its core characters helps to emphasize this fact.
There Is Still Definitely A Place For Spinoff Stories In The MCU
MCU Spinoffs Are Still Going Strong
Part of Disney’s new ethos purportedly entails zoning in on the more focal characters of the franchise and steering away from less consequential stories like Echo. It’s no surprise, then, that trepidation mired Agatha All Along before its release as it ostensibly spotlighted some of Marvel’s most obscure characters, with fans struggling to justify how it would satisfyingly contribute to the mainline MCU narrative. Those concerns were thankfully assuaged by the time the finale hit.
Agatha All Along introduced a core member of the Young Avengers in Wiccan and the personification of Death, both of whom are now among the MCU’s most powerful characters. By doing this, Agatha All Along straddled the fence between telling a compelling self-contained story starring a once-minor character and delivering some consequential developments to the MCU that will no doubt pay off in a big way down the line. Despite concerns in the lead-up to its release, Agatha All Along proved that it was a valuable addition to the MCU and that spin-off series are still eminently viable.
MCU Shows Need To Build Their Best Numbers Over Time
MCU Shows Pick Up Steam As The Series Progresses
Common sense would suggest that shows starring core MCU characters like WandaVision would rake in the most substantial viewing figures from the jump. Yet, according to Variety, WandaVision‘s premiere earned less than 10 million more minutes than Agatha All Along with 434 million total. Seven weeks later, however, the WandaVision finale would boast 924 million minutes according to THR. In both cases, it seems apparent that Marvel’s TV show success builds over time – which points to one integral factor.
It’s worth noting that WandaVision helped to launch Disney+, with its lower streaming minutes likely stemming from the fact that fewer households were subscribed to the platform.
The dangers of Agatha All Along‘s relative obscurity were decisively tempered by its quality upon release. Early reviews for Agatha All Along were positive, pointing towards its stellar cast and excellent writing as highlights. It was still difficult, however, to look past the glaring suspicion that it would struggle to slot into the wider MCU. Thankfully, these concerns were substantially assuaged with the admittedly long-suspected reveal that the series was as much an origin story for Wiccan as it was a vehicle for Agatha and her coven.
The takeaway is intuitive enough: develop a quality show and the numbers will follow.
Still, this largely positive initial reaction flourished into growing viewing figures as word spread of the show’s quality. The takeaway is intuitive enough: develop a quality show and the numbers will follow. At the same time, this illustrates that the popularity of Marvel shows tends to grow steadily rather than hit the ground running with immediately dazzling figures. This stands to reason, given that streamed shows don’t come with a time limit like movies in theaters.
There Is No One Set Way To Pull Off A Well-Received MCU Show
Some Hits Came Out Of Nowhere And Some Shows Are Surprisingly Disappointing
Ultimately, Agatha All Along was perfectly unpredictable. By comparison, Secret Invasion is Marvel Studios’ lowest-rated show but should have been a huge success by every metric. Nick Fury finally receiving the limelight, the highly anticipated adaptation of the Secret Invasion run of comics, and the promise of a Winter Soldier-eque spy thriller tone should have comprised the central building blocks for one of Marvel’s most well-received shows. Ultimately, it became quite the opposite.
Then, while Hawkeye proved that a largely original story told with the typical Marvel veneer and starring one of its flagship characters can be an instant hit, Werewolf by Night proved that a decidedly off-piste adaptation of some of Marvel Comics’ most obscure characters can be just as successful. Agatha All Along, meanwhile, arguably borrowed elements from each to show that both work at once.
This demonstrates that all MCU shows, no matter how obscure or central to the mainline MCU, are never surefire wins or losses. Agatha All Along should help to inspire confidence in upcoming shows like Ironheart insofar as it starred an obscure lead that didn’t initially cause a massive stir, but gained popularity based on its many merits. Hopefully, this is exactly what Marvel has planned, learning lessons from previous misfires to ensure the quality justifies the quantity of its shows.
