While WandaVision The show’s clever special effects were a big part of what made it one of Marvel’s most inventive projects, even though it featured a hodgepodge of digital visual effects. The use of old-fashioned Hollywood tricks made each episode feel like a different kind of classic sitcom, while still fleshing out the big magical twists.

Instead of WandaVisions References to sitcoms like I love Lucy And In love with a witch, The new sequel series from Disney Plus, Agatha all the timeis a tribute to supernatural horrors like Rosemary’s Baby And The craft. It tells the story of how parasitic witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) attempts to regain her powers with the help of an unlikely team of friends and enemies. After being freed from a years-long curse that convinced her to live in a gritty crime drama, Agatha realizes her only hope of getting back to the top is to form a new coven and take up the Witchway – a magical dimension accessible (through song, of course) only to covens of magicians.

The show’s premise makes it seem like the kind of Marvel production that would involve a lot more of the (sometimes very questionable) CGI that the studio’s live-action projects have become known for. But during the series’ recent press conference, showrunner Jac Schaeffer and executive producers Mary Livanos and Brad Winderbaum said that in order to Agatha all the time To make the film feel distinctive and like a deep look into the mystical underbelly of the MCU, they wanted to rely even more heavily on practical effects.

A large part WandaVisions emphasis on practical effects resulted from the show’s need to evoke the visual styles of shows from certain decades of the 20th century. But Schaeffer saw Agatha all the time as an opportunity to pay tribute to the cinematic fantasies that shaped her sense of storytelling – many of which were known for their elaborate sets and use of puppets.

“To WandaVisionit was very precise which shows we (imitated), but (Agatha all the time) has really broken open somehow. There are a lot of my personal influences. I am a Neverending story, The Dark Crystal, labyrinth kind of girl,” Schaeffer said.

Hints of witchcraft are scattered everywhere Agatha all the timebut the otherworldly whimsy Schaeffer speaks of is most evident in the show’s third episode. “Through Many Miles of Tricks and Trials” transports Agatha’s coven from a New Jersey basement to Witches’ Road, where it is perpetually dark and the ground comes to life, ready to devour people who don’t watch where they step.

Although the Witches’ Road – a realm that plays a major role in James Robinson and Vanesa Del Rey’s 2016 film – Scarlet Witch comic series – feels like the kind of glowing, metaphysical place that Disney would normally create with Volume VFX sets, Livanos said that Agatha all alonegs impacts were “almost exclusively practical.” Winderbaum added that for the road itself, where much of the Agatha all the time takes place, “there wasn’t a single green screen to be seen on that set.”

Marvel’s past use of green screens and other digital effects has led some of the studio’s stars to speak out about how difficult it can be to deliver a convincing performance in a neon-lit void. WandaVisionElizabeth Olsen recently spoke about her own frustrations working in the physical void required to bring Marvel’s major projects together in post-production, but Hahn pointed to the set of Witches’ Road as one of the main reasons why working on Agatha all the time felt like an intense acting experience where she didn’t have to “shake off” the outside world.

“You felt so transported to this magical place, and because it was mostly hands-on, you didn’t have to imagine it,” Hahn said. “It was like it was right there, which was very helpful and unexpectedly quirky.”

Because it’s a Marvel series where people cast spells and fight demons. Agatha all the time still features plenty of digital wizardry that brings some of the more action-packed scenes to life. However, as a fan of stories that emphasize characters’ physical transformations, Schaeffer took every opportunity to put her witches through a trial by fire that left them literally “dirty, scarred and scratched” by the end of the show.

“The actors did such a brave job because everything was real. There was no digital blood or digital mud added. These ladies were completely worn out for a long time. Cold, wet, muddy. Chocolate pudding all over their heads.”