The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down to chat with
Agatha All Along
EP Brad Winderbaum.
Starring Kathryn Hahn,
Agatha All Along
explores the dangerous Witches’ Road in this
WandaVision
spin-off series.
During their interview, Winderbaum praises Jac Schaeffer’s use of ’80s practical effects, discusses the classic ’80s films that inspired the show, and teases which Ghost Rider he’d like to introduce to the MCU.

Few contributors have left a bigger fingerprint on the Marvel Cinematic Universe than Brad Winderbaum, Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation. Before stepping into the role of producer and EP on numerous projects, including most recently for Agatha All Along, he served in other roles on just about every feature, show, and otherwise. In other words, he brings an enormous amount of experience to every set.

In this interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Winderbaum sings the praises of showrunner Jac Schaeffer, who was a driving force behind the Emmy-winning Disney+ series WandaVision, the series that launched Kathryn Hahn’s spin-off as the charmingly wicked Agatha Harkness. The department head credits the whimsical new series to Schaeffer’s imagination and reveals a couple of ’80s classics that inspired her when approaching Agatha’s journey on the Witches’ Road with her makeshift coven.

Winderbaum also discusses how Agatha All Along incorporates “techniques of the past,” employing the help of Dan Sudick, Marvel’s “special effects guru,” for epic practical effects. He also shares the secret to success when approaching a new MCU project as EP and reveals which iteration of Ghost Rider he wants to bring to the universe. You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.

These ’80s Classics Influenced ‘Agatha All Along’

PERRI NEMIROFF: I’m gonna start by creating a little past, present, and future road map. My “past” question for you is, can you tell me a storytelling lesson learned, a production technique honed, or anything at all on a past Marvel project that we could see you putting to use in Agatha All Along ?

BRAD WINDERBAUM: I love this question so much. Every project I’ve ever worked on has taught me something new. The last few years at Marvel really have most recently, and it led to X-Men ‘97 as much as it led to Agatha. And that is, in a world where you can do absolutely everything, you have every tool at your disposal, where you could conjure anything in CGI that your imagination could come up with, the art form becomes putting limiters on yourself and finding ways to tell the story that speaks directly to that story.

With a filmmaker like Jac Schaeffer, she had an idea to really try to bring that tactile drama to Agatha that she felt as a kid watching movies from the ‘80s like Poltergeist or The NeverEnding Story, that had practical effects that the character could really interact with, that gave kind of a hard-to-describe feeling of scariness because it was real. That’s something she brought to the Witches’ Road.

‘Agatha All Along’ “Embraces the Techniques of the Past”

Now I’ve hit my “present” question. Obviously, you have tons of experience making shows with Marvel. What is a “production first” you all experienced making Agatha, maybe something that’ll help you on future shows?

WINDERBAUM: We embraced the techniques of the past. We created magic on screen with techniques that hadn’t been used on screen for 30 or 40 years in some cases, where our craftsmen actually had to go back to some old-timer, original creators to understand some of these techniques. It was all led by Dan Sudick, who’s our special effects guru who’s been with us since Iron Man, to bring these practical effects to life.

Can you give us a non-spoiler example of a magic seen on screen that was created that way?

WINDERBAUM: As you go down the Witches’ Road with this coven, just know there’s not a green screen in sight on this set. There’s things that happen on the road where hopefully you’re like, “Wow, how did they do that?”

Image via Disney+

So, now it’s the “future” question. Again, lots of experience, now Agatha included. Of all of your upcoming series, which would you say is the most ambitious or maybe the most challenging to nudge across the finish line and why?

WINDERBAUM: They’re all challenging in their own way. Every single thing, we are trying to make it as good as possible for the fans, which includes us. I think about my job as a producer, honestly, as trying to stay an audience member, trying to, at every turn, think about, “How would this hit me if I was just casually watching this as a fan?” So there’s no show that’s harder than others. They all have their challenges. They all are like their own living, breathing organisms in their own right that are gonna surprise you with how they challenge you.

Does the MCU Have Space for Ghost Rider?
Image via Marvel Comics

Given your fan-first approach to this, I’m curious to hear your answer to this question. If you could snap your fingers right now and green-light the series of your choice, what would it be and why?

WINDERBAUM: I would wanna do the Danny Ketch era of Ghost Rider. I think there are a lot of people who would be here for some Ghost Rider.

I’ll squeeze in one more Agatha question. Back in March, I was reading some quotes from you talking about how, now that the release schedule is spread out a little, you’ve got time in between, but you’re not just sitting there, you’re actually using the time. How did that extra time specifically benefit Agatha All Along ?

WINDERBAUM: We took our time in post. Anytime you don’t have to rush, it’s better. Jac was in there every single day, crafting every aspect of this thing to make it as much a window into her imagination as you could possibly conjure on screen.

Don’t miss out on Schaeffer’s newest MCU miniseries when Agatha All Along premieres on Disney+ on September 18.