Marvel Said No to Hulkling in Agatha All Along, and a Rio Ending Was Reportedly Cut

A few things were reportedly almost different in Agatha All Along, including the very final scene and the introduction of another Young Avenger. Originally there were conversations that Billy's boyfriend Eddie was going to be named Teddy, as in Teddy Altman, Hulkling in the comics, until Marvel Studios said no, and according to an insider, the last scene was originally going to show Rio, also known as Death, following Agatha and Billy.

On top of that, Jac Schaeffer, the creator of WandaVision and Agatha All Along, spoke up about who the father of Agatha's son Nicholas Scratch could actually be, and in a more recent interview she kind of hinted that it could be Rio herself. I'll get to the ending later in this piece, because I think it would have made a lot of sense.

Marvel stopped Agatha All Along from introducing a Young Avenger

Apparently Jac Schaeffer had it planned, and they were working on it, but Marvel Studios came in and said you can't introduce this character. At the time, I thought that was most likely because Marvel Studios clearly had plans of its own for the Young Avengers.

That team was set up at the end of The Marvels, where we saw Kamala Khan go to Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop, and she also mentioned Ant-Man's daughter Cassie Lang.

Jac Schaeffer hinted Rio could be the other parent of Nicholas Scratch

In an interview with Variety, Schaeffer hinted that she knew who Nicholas Scratch's father was, but she didn't say. She stated, pretty much, that even if she did know, it wasn't really a part of the story they were going to tell. She really seemed like she knew who it was but couldn't say, and I thought that was because Marvel probably had plans for that.

In a more recent interview, though, she kind of hinted that it could be Rio. Schaeffer was expressing how surprised she was at how passionate fans were about the relationship between Agatha and Rio, and about who the father of Agatha's son could be. She said that when they were casting, they sometimes asked whether the kid looked like Aubrey Plaza. She also said, "I didn't anticipate that shippers would be so fervent," and "the amount of people that care is staggering to me." She added, "it's my hope that in the MCU there's more unpacking of the Agatha and Rio backstory."

Here she kind of hints that Rio could be the other parent of Nicholas Scratch, and perhaps she and Agatha created him from magic. If that's the case, it's a definite twist, especially considering that Rio had to take him in her role as the cosmic entity of Death. That's pretty hard and pretty intense. She definitely hinted that this is kind of what happened, but I expected they'd probably explore the story more in the future, and who knows what they'd say then.

Eddie was originally Teddy, set up to be Hulkling, until Marvel said no

The Young Avenger who almost debuted was also revealed by Schaeffer herself, in an interview with EW. I did see some theories out there that the show might have introduced this character, and we're talking about Billy's boyfriend Eddie. A lot of people thought Eddie was setting up the Young Avenger Hulkling, and those people were partially correct.

Originally there were conversations that Eddie was going to be named Teddy, as in Teddy Altman, Hulkling in the comics. It wasn't just going to be an homage; they were actually going to set him up for the future to be Hulkling. Schaeffer told EW there were early conversations about Hulkling, and that Eddie was originally called Teddy because they were looking at the artwork and thinking about that. She said, "that was a Marvel decision to not have him be Hulkling for the purpose of our show."

She explained that they pivoted to Eddie because he's named after a person who is important to the writers' room. In her words, "it wasn't sort of teasing the fans it was one of those lovely tributes to somebody who matters to us."

What this told me, based on what she said and everything we knew, is that Marvel said no because they probably had some pretty big plans for the Young Avengers. That could be a Disney Plus show, a movie, or simply having them assemble in another film like Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars. Considering what Schaeffer said and what was set up at the end of The Marvels with Kamala Khan, Marvel clearly had plans for the Young Avengers, and Hulkling being introduced in Agatha All Along clearly wasn't part of them, despite what Schaeffer was writing in the beginning.

The original ending reportedly had Rio following Agatha and Billy

According to the insider MyTimeToShineHello, there was supposed to be a kind of different ending. In the final scene, Billy and Agatha, now in ghost form, are about to go through what seems to be a portal that Billy made appear. He says when one door closes another opens, and he tilts his head up a little bit to open the door, which has a light coming through it.

According to the report, what they were originally going to do was have them walk through, with Rio following behind them. I honestly would have really loved to see that. It would have told us that the story of Death wasn't done. Obviously the story of Agatha and Billy wasn't done either, but I think a lot of people really do want to see Rio back again.

Why Death following them would have made sense

By the end of the show, Death's whole agenda is to get Agatha for herself. She wants her to die completely, leave the earthly plane and go to wherever the next life is, where Death is, so that she can finally be with her. The whole last fight between them was Rio asking why Agatha doesn't want her, saying you love me, while trying to kill her so they could be together. It's kind of romantic, but it's also very psychotic, which is why Aubrey Plaza was a pretty perfect casting for this.

However, it didn't turn out how Death imagined. Agatha became a ghost. In a previous episode, when Agatha's mother Evanora Harkness appeared as a ghost, we learned that Rio hates ghosts, and we learned from Lilia that emotion connects ghosts to the earthly plane, meaning they haven't gone on to the next realm, which we could probably just call the death realm. Agatha is a ghost on Earth, and that probably really angers Rio because she doesn't have her yet.

Billy angers Death as well. We learned in episode 8 that she can't just kill Billy, because then he'll reincarnate again. She needed him to turn himself in, so that his soul would willingly go with her to the next realm. She thinks his reincarnation is an abomination, and he also reincarnated Tommy, which probably angered her even more. On top of that, Billy is the emotion that ties Agatha to the plane, because he reminds her of her lost son Nicholas Scratch, so she probably resents him on multiple accounts.

So Rio following them makes a ton of sense, because Death did not get what she wanted at all. She wants Billy, she wants Agatha, they're teaming up again, and they're going to find Tommy. Of course Death would want to follow them and finish the job, and she probably wants all of them dead: Agatha fully dead rather than partially dead as a ghost, Billy dead, and Tommy too, because he was reincarnated.

Where I wanted Death's story to go next

At the time, I was sure that if we did get an Agatha season 2, it would explore this story a lot more, and that if we got a Death series, it might dive into it a little bit. Personally, though, I wanted to see how Death had interacted with other Marvel heroes introduced over the MCU. I would love to see her greet Tony Stark after he died in Avengers: Endgame and take him to the next life, and the same with Natasha Romanoff. And definitely Thanos, since fans who know the comics know the relationship between Thanos and Death.

Which of these changes would you rather have seen in Agatha All Along: Eddie as Hulkling, or Rio following Agatha and Billy through the door?