‘Agatha All Along’ Theme Song Explained: What TV Show Theme Song is the Inspiration? 

Agatha All Along is finally here and already delivering WandaVision nostalgia in the form of a tailored theme song and Easter egg-filled episodes. As episode one, “Seekest Thou the Road,” hit Disney+ on Wednesday, fans found themselves immediately transported back to Westview, New Jersey to catch up with Kathryn Hahn’s beloved purple witch, Agatha Harkness, who we last saw trapped in her nosy neighbor role by Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) in the final moments of WandaVision. 

Picking up three years after the events of that series, Agatha All Along finds our titular character still under the spell cast by the Scarlet Witch and now playing the role of a decorated detective with the Westview Police Department. After the discovery of a woman’s body in the woods – a woman who is all but surely Wanda Maximoff following her “death” at the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – the show’s opening credits roll for the first time, mimicking the rollout of the various WandaVision theme songs which were customized for each sitcom decade the series explored. This time, however, the gritty and earthy introduction for Agnes of Westview – a direct reference to HBO’s Kate Winslet-led drama Mare of Easttown – is set to a version of the newly crafted “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road.” 

Much to the surprise and delight of the fans who tuned in week to week for WandaVision, showrunner and creator Jac Schaeffer has again enlisted the help of songwriting duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez to create another earworm that is certain to infiltrate your Halloween playlists.

While Agnes of Westview’s name and the slovenly character Hahn plays in the pilot is certainly derived from Mare of Easttown and Winslet’s portrayal of a cop who struggles to balance the personal and the professional, the theme song in Agatha Episode 1 is actually a parody of another HBO mystery: True Detective. 

The quiet and acoustic version of “The Ballad of the Witches Road” — labeled “True Crime Version” if you watch the episode with subtitles turned on — is undoubtedly a nod to The Handsome Family’s “Far From Any Road,” the song that played during the opening credits of True Detective‘s first season. Aside from sounding incredibly similar – much like how the WandaVision theme of the 1950s was a stone’s throw from The Dick Van Dyke Show theme song – the images on screen during the sequence mirror True Detective’s aesthetics. The editors utilize nature shots, maps and shadows to evoke the same look and lay the groundwork for what is ahead, tonally, for the first episode. (If it’s been a hot minute since you last watched True Detective Season 1, refresh your memory with the video below.)

Furthermore, some fans might also find some inspiration in the theme title for Netflix’s Dark, which also has a more grounded, quiet and almost unsettling vibe. That show followed the story of four families who set out to find answers after the disappearance of a child in the woods, revealing dark secrets that had been buried for generations. You can watch the theme for Dark in the player below. 

Overall, we have an inkling that this will not be the last time we hear a version of “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” as later episodes have teased more remixes and reimaginations in store. How and when these renditions will appear, that’s still a… mystery. 

The first two episodes of Agatha All Along are now streaming on Disney+. New episodes release Wednesdays at 9pm ET/6 pm PT. All episodes of Wandavision are available on Disney+.