Kathryn Hahn Bewitching in Marvel Studio’s Highly Anticipated Wandavision Spinoff Agatha All Along and the Wayans’ Multigenerational New Comedy Show Poppa’s House Spotlighted in Summer Issues of Emmy Magazine

Sneak peeks at two highly anticipated new series, Agatha All Along and Poppa's House, grace the covers of emmy magazine's summer issues. Exclusive interviews with Kathryn Hahn on turning her Agatha Harkness character into a lead role in Marvel Studios' WandaVision spinoff and Damon Wayans Sr. with son Damon Wayans Jr. revealing their hilarious family business are featured cover stories. The two issues of the award-winning official publication of the Television Academy are on sale Aug. 12 and 13, respectively.

In the Issue 9 cover story "Charm Offensive," three-time Emmy-nominee Hahn reveals how she consulted with a bona fide witch for her lead role in Agatha All Along, the latest Disney+ series from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. To reprise and further develop Agatha Harkness, the character she introduced in WandaVision, the actress spoke to a real-life witch every week during pre-production. "She was incredibly informative," Hahn says. "Women who are witches are very centered to the Earth and the environment. I wanted to get rid of that cartoon image we've all seen because they're way more connected and deeper. That's the world we were trying to connect in Agatha."

After garnering widespread acclaim, including an Emmy nomination and a devoted fan base for her performance in WandaVision, Hahn was excited to deepen the mischievous and enigmatic witch. Agatha All Along promises to delve deeper into Agatha's mysterious past, her intricate connections to the dark arts and her future in the Marvel Universe. "I knew there would be something very profound for me at the age I'm in to be able to play this incredible crone," Hahn says. "To be able to just fall into it felt very dangerous and powerful."

Agatha All Along picks up the story after Wanda Maximoff, the furious Scarlet Witch in WandaVision, stripped Agatha of her sorcery. The new limited series finds the eponymous character still ensconced in the suburbs of Westview, New Jersey, now forced to embark on a journey to reclaim her mojo. Along the way, she encounters other witches played by Aubrey Plaza (The White Lotus), Patti LuPone (American Horror Story) and Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics).

"She had this solitary bravado, but she's been knocked off of her status," Hahn explains. "So now that there's just a little bit of this exposed vulnerability, she must admit that she needs other witches. This show is an unveiling of her true nature at her core under all those performative qualities."

Additional highlights from Issue 9 include:

• In "Look Sea," acclaimed actor Joshua Jackson reveals details about his starring role as a luxury cruise ship physician in ABC's Doctor Odyssey, the highly anticipated new series from Ryan Murphy. Jackson describes the high-octane procedural as "over the top," in a setting where the staff works hard and plays even harder. Jackson's co-stars include Don Johnson (Miami Vice), Sean Teale (The Gifted) and Hamilton star Phillipa Soo.
• PBS celebrates 50 years of NOVA, the series that changed how television
  explores the world's many mysteries — from biology, physics, medicine, anthropology, cosmology and beyond — with exceptionally powerful storytelling. In "Science Fare," emmy talks to NOVA's production team about how, commemorating its 50th anniversary, the show will ping-pong from telling the unusual story of how a Danish scientist in the Arctic discovered the oldest-ever DNA to examining how artificial intelligence is affecting our lives to plumbing cosmology's deepest mysteries with a new five-part series on the solar system, premiering Oct. 2.

In the Issue 10 cover story "Family Business," four-time Emmy-nominee Damon Wayans Sr. and son Damon Wayans Jr. discuss continuing their family's enduring legacy with Poppa's House, a multigenerational CBS comedy that finds them doing what they do best — delivering laughs. "I think every father's dream is to work with their son," Wayans Sr. says.

Poppa's House, which stars Wayans Sr. as Poppa, a crotchety, old-school radio DJ still parenting his adult son, Damon — played by his spitting-image firstborn, Wayans Jr. — was 10 years in the making. Poppa, a disc jockey on a New York FM station, resists changing with the times — he favors "real" music like Bill Withers over modern-day rap, but his worldview is challenged when the station's bosses pair him with a scholarly female co-host, Dr. Ivy Reed (Essence Atkins). Poppa reluctantly relents, setting up a will-they-won't-they dynamic. True to the title, Wayans Jr. is, in fact, often at Poppa's house seeking his dad's counsel on issues with his wife, Nina, (Tetona Jackson) and kids as well as guidance when his dream of becoming a director conflicts with his responsibilities as a father.

As the 13-episode season progresses, Dr. Reed and Poppa work more closely, which brings her into the house, too, creating a modern family full of clashing values. Yet underneath the comedy, much of which comes from the father and son's infectious goofiness together, there's a slightly uncomfortable existential message that hints at what the elder Wayans is feeling at this stage of professional and personal life: Dealing with change can be tricky, perhaps even more so when the face of said change looks exactly like you, only younger.

Poppa's House offers something comforting and familiar: Family drama and generational conflict from a trusted face and his equally funny progeny.

Few showbiz families can claim to be true dynasties, but the Wayans family is just that — Poppa's House is the Wayans' world. "I was thinking about how much fun we're going to have together," Wayans Jr. says. "Hopefully we'll just grow old together on camera. I think that's really cool."

Additional highlights from Issue 10 include:

• In "On the Bright Side," Rashida Jones talks to emmy about the Apple TV+ dark comedy/mystery thriller Sunny and the heavy role of Suzie Skamoto, an American living in a near-future Kyoto who has mysteriously lost her Japanese husband and 8-year-old son in a commercial airline crash. Refusing to grieve publicly, Suzie finds herself the unwilling recipient of a domestic robot named Sunny that's programmed to address her every need. This, she's told, is supposed to make her feel less lonely.
• In the third season of the HBO high-finance drama Industry, Kit Harington joins the cast as Sir Henry Muck, a British aristocrat whose green-tech energy company is moving toward an IPO. In "Rising Interest," Harington tells emmy "It's stylish, it's cool and it knows what it is. This is a very smart show."

About emmy
Emmy, the official publication of the Television Academy, goes behind the scenes of the industry for a unique insider's view. With wide-ranging, inclusive subjects representative of the Television Academy membership and the medium as a whole, emmy showcases the scope of television and profiles the people who make it happen, from the stars of top shows and artisans behind the cameras, to programming trends and technological advances. Honored with dozens of awards for editorial excellence, emmy is published 12 times per year and is available on selected newsstands and at TelevisionAcademy.com for single print and digital copies as well as subscriptions.

Download the press release here.

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Stephanie Goodell
stephanie@breakwhitelight.com
818.462.1150

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