Who’s been pulling every evil string? It’s actually been the Lopezes all along.
In the seventh episode of Marvel Studios’ WandaVision, “Breaking the Fourth Wall,” the nosy neighbor Agnes revealed her true identity through the catchy, vampy musical number “Agatha All Along“—a viral sensation that would later win songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. The ditty proved so popular, in fact, that in 2024, it would become the namesake of Marvel Television’s spinoff centered on Kathryn Hahn as the wonderfully wicked Agatha Harkness.
“We didn’t even know what the show’s title was at first, because they kept changing it,” Lopez says of Agatha All Along, which had previously—and playfully—been titled Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Agatha of Westview, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, and Agatha: The Lying Witch with Great Wardrobe. “They told us they were going to keep changing it, but they didn’t say what it was going to be. I could almost tear up thinking about it. And the fact that they named each episode using lyrics from ‘The Ballad of the Witches’ Road’ song is an honor.”
Down, Down, Down the Road
“The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” is more than just a “stupid song,” as protection witch Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn) tells Agatha and Teen (Joe Locke) in the second episode, “Circle Sewn With Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate.” It’s an instruction manual for navigating the Witches’ Road, which puts Agatha’s coven through a series of treacherous trials. Make it all the way to the end, and they will receive the one thing they desire most.
“The song ‘Agatha All Along’ added a lot of color and texture to WandaVision, whereas in the show Agatha All Along, ‘The Ballad of the Witches’ Road’ is more central to the story,” says creator, showrunner, director, and executive producer Jac Schaeffer. “I see the ballad as the spine of the show. And any excuse to work with the Lopezes, I’m going to jump all over.”
Schaeffer and the writers outlined specific plot points for the Lopezes, who then worked their magic to conjure multiple iterations of the ballad in order to fit an episode’s narrative.
“Jac and the writers gave us so many wonderful pieces that needed to be incorporated,” Anderson-Lopez recalls. “We knew we had to start with the version that contained the most components, which is the ’70s ballad [as seen in the fourth episode, ‘If I Can’t Reach You, Let My Song Teach You‘]. The whole song is about peeling back layers. The ’70s ballad had to contain a protection spell that had been added by Lorna Wu, Alice’s mother; it had to be a hit love song from the ’70s, with sort of a ‘Silver Springs’ quality; and it had to contain all of the witch elements, all of the plot points, and all of the rules to the road. That was the trickiest puzzle to write. Then, with each subsequent genre, we’d peel back another layer.”
Marching Ever Forward
Unlike past projects — including Frozen, Frozen 2, and Coco — the Lopezes were excited to write music for something that wasn’t a musical. “We were lucky enough to not have to think about the plot,” Lopez explains. “That was a nice break, because that’s the hard part.”
“At the time, we were working on another TV show for Hulu called Up Here, and we didn’t have a lot of spare time,” Anderson-Lopez recalls. “Bobby would read all the Agatha scripts to me while I was driving back and forth to the studio — and it was already, like, my favorite TV show! It had the camp, the joy, and the fun, and it was incredibly smart. I loved the sisterhood. We got the feeling and the tone for it right away. When Bobby made this one vamp, I was like, ‘That sounds like a ’70s hit song to me.’ We listened to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac, and I found a playlist on Spotify called ‘Witchy Vibes’ or something. We were downloading as much of that feeling as we could.”
Then, as the music was taking shape, divine inspiration struck Anderson-Lopez.
“When we had to peel back some layers from the ’70s version to write the sacred version, I happened to be on a college tour with our daughter,” Anderson-Lopez says. “We were visiting a campus that had traditionally been all women. I went and sat on this balcony in the science center that overlooks this haunted, sunken forest. It was in October 2022: leaves were falling down around me, the wind was blowing, the sun was starting to set. I was consulting old Wiccan texts and scripts — putting it all together, feeling very witchy.”
To Glory at the End
Lopez’s favorite version of “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” is the sacred chant. “This person commented online saying, ‘Well, I am a witch, and this is a very authentic chant — and I will be using it in my practices,'” he says, laughing. “I just thought that was amazing.”
But there’s another reason Lopez says that version holds a special place in his heart. “I don’t think either of us knew how powerful it was going to feel when we wrote it,” he confesses. “Once we had the ladies standing in a circle, looking each other in the eye, feeling the tension of whether this magic is going to work, it was the most chills I’ve ever felt on a set. It was almost as if a green flash was going to occur and magic was going to really happen.”
Anderson-Lopez shared her partner’s sentiment, saying, “Magic was really happening that day, because for many of them, it was the first time they had been in costume with each other. I think they even drew tarot cards before singing, too. It was like watching a coven form, because they were going to walk down this scary road of doing a series together — out of town, far from their families — for the next three months. There was a meta quality.”
“At the risk of sounding silly, I do believe that music is magic — and this is an example of it,” Lopez adds. “Music has the power to change the way you feel, to change your heart — especially when it’s in a powerful story. This was a successful application of that principle.”
With a new episode of Agatha All Along streaming every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Disney+, fans have been poring over the Lopezes’ lyrics in search of clues and Easter eggs. “One thing that I so appreciate about Marvel fans is how they scrutinize every bit of every song,” Lopez says. “They’re hungry for information, so they pay very close attention to the work we put into it. And I love when that happens, because when we put that much work into everything we do, it’s nice when fans put just as much effort into listening to it.”