How Agatha All Along Revamps Billy Maximoff’s Backstory

This article contains spoilers for Agatha All Along episode 6.

The Maximoff family tree just added another branch in Agatha All Along episode 6, officially bringing Billy Maximoff back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While we know the series is set three years after WandaVision‘s climactic finale, fans have rightly been questioning why Billy has a new face and seemingly no memory of his life in the Westview Anomaly. All of that became clear during “Familiar by Thy Side,” as the MCU offered a revamp of Billy’s comic book backstory.

Billy and Tommy Maximoff have two of the most convoluted comic book introductions, with the pair debuting in 1986’s The Vision and the Scarlet Witch #12. Despite Wanda Maximoff  being in love with Vision, the fact he’s an android meant the pair couldn’t have children. This led to her reality-warping powers conjuring Thomas and William Maximoff, although their happy family life was short-lived. A devastating twist revealed that the boys were never “real” and were Wanda’s creation from the fragmented soul of the villainous Mephisto.

Mephisto has finally been acknowledged in the MCU, but if you remember the events of WandaVision, he seemingly had nothing to do with Billy and Tommy’s miraculous birth. Instead, Wanda herself was revealed as the accidental big bad of the series, She created the Hex, her idyllic family life, and even brought back the deceased Vision to cope with his death in Avengers: Infinity War. Things got even more complicated thanks to the involvement of Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) wanting to harness Wanda’s Scarlet Witch powers for herself.

The original Billy and Tommy from the comics were zapped away when Wanda defeated Mephisto and his servant, Master Pandemonium, whereas their live-action counterparts faded when she realized she had to release Westview from her spell. Comic book Wanda went off the rails and killed her teammates in “Avengers: Disassembled,” then robbed most mutants of their powers in the legendary “House of M” arc. Elizabeth Olsen’s MCU Wanda similarly broke bad in a quest to get her boys back during Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which took cues from comics without being a straight-up adaptation. 

Marvel Studios has always loosely adapted major comic book arcs, and Agatha All Along’s reintroduction of Billy Maximoff is no different. With Agatha being set after Multiverse of Madness, it has repeatedly (and suspiciously) told fans that Wanda is dead. White Vision (Paul Bettany) is off somewhere preparing for his upcoming Vision Quest story, while Billy Maximoff has been revealed as Joe Locke’s “Teen.” The characters of Agatha All Along didn’t know he was Wanda’s son with a new look thanks to a sigil placed on him by Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone). 

“Familiar by Thy Side” brings together the Kaplan and Maximoff eras of Billy by streamlining the confusing comics. Locke plays an Eastview resident called William Kaplan, who celebrates his bar mitzvah with his parents, Rebecca and Jeff Kaplan. (Maria Dizzia and Paul Adelstein). The family is caught in a car accident during Wanda’s shrinking Hex, but as William died at the exact moment Wanda wiped her boys from existence, something pulled Billy Maximoff’s soul into his body. Even though William Kaplan is dead, he’s a host for Billy Maximoff and has now become that character. Lilia foreshadowed that Kaplan’s life was going to split in two, and realizing he was going to become Billy Maximoff, placed the sigil on him – presumably for protection. 

Vision and Wanda’s boys are MIA from Marvel Comics until 2005’s Young Avengers, but when they return, their souls have been reincarnated as two new characters called William Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd. Kaplan’s original alias is Asgardian instead of his current status as Wiccan, but as the miniseries continues and he discovers his uncanny resemblance to Shepherd, their legacy as Wanda’s children is eventually pieced together thanks to a trip to Mount Wundagore and a little help from Mister Pandemonium. Instead of Mister Pandemonium helping Billy learn about his Maximoff heritage, Agatha All Along goes with an unexpected cameo from Ralph Bohner (Evan Peters) to fill in the gaps. 

There’s been some backlash online that Lilia inadvertently caused Multiverse of Madness and the death of Wanda because she hid Billy from her, but that’s an argument for another day. Agatha All Along’s Billy is on the Witches’ Road to look for Tommy, but with 2008’s Young Avengers Present taking the boys on a mission to reunite with their mother, a family reunion will surely take them down this route. Assuming Vision Quest brings their father back into their lives, the pieces are slotting together for Olsen’s inevitable return to the MCU. 

Even though it might feel as confusing as the comics, having William Kaplan and Billy Maximoff as two separate entities feels more unique than pulling over another Multiverse variant. The only problem is, what about Tommy? Rehashing the William Kaplan trick and having us believe that another kid dies at the same time Tommy’s soul is set free might be a stretch, but with Billy nearing the end of the Witches’ Road, some Wizard of Oz magic could bring his brother into existence. While there’s no word on who could be playing Tommy Shepherd and whether he’ll appear in Agatha All Along, another Young Avengers tease seems like the logical way to round out this sordid saga of sorcery. 

New episodes of Agatha All Along premiere Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET on Disney+, culminating with the finale on October 30.