It is a tale of two franchises, The Acolyte and Agatha All Along, two streaming shows that are both on Disney+, with similiarities in characters and plot, but the differences are all in the writing! The Acolyte is part of Star Wars that started with The Mandalorian in 2019, followed by four more live action series, the latest was Ahsoka in 2023. This led to The Acolyte which premiered on June 4th of this year. It was original in exploring the 100 years before The Phantom Menace (1999) and set towards the end of the High Republic era. The Acolyte was created by Leslye Headland who co-created Russian Doll. Similar to Agatha All Along, it has a female lead who has lost her identity, loosely tied to the franchise, mysteries, witches, a song spun out of the series, and a flashback episode revealing the past of a character.
Amandla Stenberg had the dual role of Osha and Mae. The show also feature Lee Jung-jae as Master Sol, Dafne Keen (Jecki Lon), Charlie Barnett (Yord Fandar), and Manny Jacinto as The Stranger. Carrie-Anne Moss was Jedi Master Indara. Rebecca Henderson starred as Vernestra Rwoh. Jodie Turner-Smith played Mother Aniseya and Margarita Levieva was Mother Koril. The central mystery was centered around Osha and Mae, twins, and their tragic past on their homeworld of Brendok. They were raised by a coven of witches led by Mother Aniseya. The chant of the witches, “Power of Two”, and strangely, later not sung by Amandla Stenberg who is a great singer. It was turned into a song by Victoria Monét. In terms of ratings, Nielsen has The Acolyte with its eight episodes ranked tenth of all shows with 335 minutes viewed in millions. The cost of the show was $230.1 million. Agatha All Along is of course part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which began with WandaVision in 2021, with eight other live action shows. The last was Echo that began on Disney+ on January 9th.
Agatha All Along began streaming on September 18th. It is created by Jac Schaeffer. Similar to Headland, Schaeffer wrote and directed the premiere, and they also directed the second episode of their respective shows. The lead in this case is Agatha Harkness with Kathryn Hahn reprising the part from WandaVision. She had been under the Scarlet Witch’s spell so didn’t know her true identity until the end of the premiere. This is similar to The Acolyte. Also like Mae, we see Agatha as a villain, but also take her perspective as protagonist. Agatha finds herself teamed with The Teen (Joe Locke) whose past is mysterious until the flashback episode. We don’t know what happened with Master Sol until The Acolyte flashback. Agatha finds a rivalry with Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza). Osha struggled with her sister, Mae. Then, she assembles her coven; Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone), Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata), Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn), and Sharon Davis (Debra Jo Rupp). Note that Osha was an advisor with the team assembled by Master Sol.
The journey is clear in Agatha All Along, which is in the song, “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road”, sung by most of the cast. Each part is an episode title and important for the characters. The witches of Brendok were part of Mae and Osha’s past, and the witches of course are the main characters in Agatha All Along. The flashback episode, “Familiar by Thy Side”, is towards the conclusion of Agatha All Along with the sixth episode. The Acolyte flashback was in two parts, episode three and six, with eight total episodes. We of course found out that The Teen was Billy Maximoff, the son of Wanda Maximoff, which tied to the Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022). There were cameos in The Acolyte, but not strong tie-ins with the films. Agatha All Along, according to Nielsen 426 million views with two episodes. 91 million more than all of The Acolyte episodes. Plus, it is said to be the least expensive MCU series "less than $40 million." There are still three episodes left with Agatha All Along. It has hints of a confrontation, maybe with an unknown villain, The Acolyte had a mysterious villain in the form of Darth Plagueis, but that was a teaser. AThe Acolyte and Agatha All Along has some similarities, but it is the writing and humor that makes the latter stand out.
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