This week’s episode of Agatha All Along gave Marvel theoryheads their biggest gasp yet with a very pointed reference to a character folks have been waiting to hit the MCU for a long time at this point.
We are, of course, referring to the quiet conversation Teen (Joe Locke) and Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata) have during the early stages of the first trial on the Witches’ Road. Needling Teen over if he really knows who he’s dealing with when it comes to Agatha Harkness, Kale makes a pointed reference to the young child Agatha once gave up for access to the Darkhold… a child she believes now could be an agent of Mephisto himself. Following the shout out, Entertainment Weekly asked showrunner Jac Schaeffer about everyone’s favorite marriage-ruining demon.
In response to whether we can expect to see the Satan of the MCU, Schaeffer answered “With these shows, so often there is something that is at once a joke and a wink and a nod, and actually has something legitimate underneath it. As we all know, Mephisto is a character who’s very wrapped into Agatha’s storyline. I mean, people have to watch, but we’re always playing with the audience in that way.”
As you may recall, the character was highly speculated to have been the mastermind behind Wanda’s imprisonment in Agatha‘s prequel series, WandaVision—to no avail. During the MCU’s post-Thanos/Kang the Conqueror kerfuffle, fans suggested if Kevin Feige and company are searching for a new ultimate evil, then they could do a lot worse than Satan, himself. To finally receive a namedrop—and therefore, an official MCU Wiki page—must feel tremendously validating to the diehards who poured over every minutia of WandaVision.
If this is not a red herring, there are certainly a few candidates who may be playing the character in the series’ already—or at least have ties. Aubrey Plaza’s character, Rio Vidal, has been stated to have a “black heart,” a pretty definitive reference to Blackheart, a demon in the MCU created by Mephisto. Personally, I believe Paul Adelstein’s mysterious character, who may or may not be Teen’s father, certainly came across as suspicious when he was leering at Agatha, boasting about the fire that ran through the social sciences section of the library in her Mare of Easttown-inspired fantasy.
By the same token, a rumor has been circulating Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as the character, and is set to make his debut on Ironheart, the upcoming Disney+ series focusing on Riri Williams. While that series doesn’t feel like the most intuitive place to introduce evil incarnate, it would certainly be unexpected—and appearing where you’d least expect him is sort of the character’s thing.
Come what may, io9 reached out to Marvel for clarification about Mephisto and Sasha Baron Cohen’s role in Ironheart, but the company offered no comment. But you know what they say: speak of the devil, and he arrives…
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