TV -fence make a revival, from ‘Agatha’ to ‘Waverly Place’

From Samantha Stephens on “Bewitched” to Sabrina Spellman on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”, the concept of a TV program about witches is an old (pointed) hat. And it is not a trend that will disappear quickly, if there is an indication of Buzzy shows such as the upcoming “Harry Potter” TV series on HBO and the second season of Netflix’s “Wednesday”.

But our historical images of witches and interpretations of the pagan beliefs are both steeped in art and culture. And this means that they come with good, bad and even contradictory tropics. When developing a TV program, it is often up to the makers and their creative teams to decide which way on something that Wiccan is coming for their projects.

Agatha always

The Agatha Harkness of Kathryn Hahn acts as if she does not need a coven in the Disney+ series, just because she wants to be desperately part of one. Similarly, series and showrunner Jac Schaeffer says that she loves ‘the allegory’ that is accompanied by stories about the supernatural, but they can also be ‘so reduction’. This sets the tone for a show where characters can have forces and fly on brooms, but only in an ironic way.

The writers had conversations about the actual Wicca and ensured that they do not record real spells. But they also had another important entity to fight with: how all this fit in with the complicated but precise canon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I had the pleasure and privilege to create witches, witch rules and witch identity in an already existing universe,” says Schaeffer. “That is why I felt that we could be a mishmash of all things.”

Mayfair -Heksen

Esta Spalding, co-maker and showrunner of the AMC drama, says that her series is influenced by much of the source material of author Anne Rice-EN not only the books in the “Lives of the Mayfair Witches” series. Rice was “building a whole universe of magical characters,” says Spalding, and “any number of those forces … can be considered witchy.”

She continues: “We also felt free to explore witchcraft all over the world and to look for various aspects of witchcraft. We have a character called Arjuna [played by Suleka Mathew] And she draws from witchcraft from South Asia. ‘

The wheel of time

In most other shows, witches are women who are ‘powerless in their society’ who turn to ‘earthly or natural forces in isolated areas, says Creator and Showrunner Rafe Judkins. In the Amazon show, based on the Robert Jordan book series, some women have skills to manifest magical powers. But also, says Judkins, women as a whole ‘being’ in power in society ‘.

He says that because women “the queens and generals of the armies and people are in power”, things like magic “have a centered place in society.”

Wizards Beyond Waverly Place

“The original show crossed with vampires and monster tropping … So the idea is how we can trade for some of those tropics for fun,” says Jed Elinoff says about his spider -off of “Wizards of Waverly Place” for Disney+. “That is our universe; we make a family item that happens to be about wizards.”

These wizards use magic racks and can pronounce spells, but also: ‘Pagan things [like the] History of Halloween and drawing of some of these older traditions is a bit in this mythology, “adds Co-Showrunner Scott Thomas.

He says that when we see the alternative wizard universe, it is “a little darker” and “a little more creepier”. In the meantime, Janice Leann Brown’s Billie, a young wizard who joins the mortal world, is being assumed to be a sort of troublemaker … so these are leather jackets and they are dark colors, “says Thomas. Handy for Billie, these tend to go better at human high schools than pointed hats and black cats.