Did ‘WandaVision’s Darkhold Reveal Just Piss on ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Grave?

It’s a little weird to think, given the amount of online animosity between fans of DC and Marvel Comics properties, that there would also be intra-company fighting. Yet that’s exactly what’s happened after the advent of Marvel Studios’ first TV series, WandaVision, which has had fans of the previous Marvel TV series (created by a different division of the company) increasingly worried that their stories won’t “matter.” And with the official introduction of magical tome the Darkhold in the series finale of WandaVision, it seems like maybe those worst fears have been realized.

Or maybe not! It’s possible the revelation of the Darkhold, which is currently in the possession of The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), is not the slight to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that it seems to be on the surface… But either way, this probably requires a fair degree of elaboration and explanation, so let’s get to it.

In Marvel Comics, the Darkhold, a.k.a. The Book of Sins, a.k.a. The Book of the Damned essentially boils down to “evil magic book.” Created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Mike Ploog in 1972, the Darkhold has popped up innumerable times in the decades since. Its origin is a little complicated, but the short version is it was created by a dark god named Chthon who used it as a repository for dark spells.

On TV, the Darkhold first showed up in Season 4 of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., used by a scientist to create some ghosts and tied into the introduction of a new version of Ghost Rider (Gabriel Luna). This version of the Darkhold had the name “DARKHOLD” written in large, English letters on the front — and later fell into the possession of Morgan la Fay (Elizabeth Hurley) on the third and final season of Hulu’s Runaways. The book was eventually used to banish Morgan la Fay from Earth, and it wasn’t talked about again until this season of WandaVision.

But here’s the catch: the version of the Darkhold seen on WandaVision looks nothing like the version seen on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Runaways. So how are there two Darkholds? And aren’t all these shows supposed to be in the same continuity?

Without getting too in the weeds here: yes… And no. Marvel TV launched soon after the introduction of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which brought Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) back to life after the events of Marvel’s The Avengers, gave him a new team, and weaved them (sorta) through the events happening on screen. Despite an appearance by a few actors here and there, though, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continued to follow its own path, and it quickly became clear the movies were doing the same.

Enter multiple other Marvel series for Netflix (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher) which also skirted plot points from while never influencing the events of the movies, as well as on Hulu (Runaways), Freeform (the highly underrated Cloak & Dagger) and more. The divide became even more explicit with the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6 premiere, which took place approximately one year after the events of Avengers: Infinity War.

While Season 5 spent a good amount of time seemingly ramping up to Infinity War while never including any of the important characters (lots of mentions of Thanos, though), Season 6 kicked off with nobody on the show mentioning or seemingly impacted in any way by “The Snap,” the event at the end of Infinity War that wiped out half of the sentient beings in the universe. Seems like sort of a big deal that should have come up, and a major indication that Marvel TV had nearly completely veered off from what Marvel Studios had in the works. To the point that, when asked about it, Marvel TV chief at the time Jeph Loeb said, “Someone will figure it out… For us, it really just comes from a place of, just enjoy the show.”

You could apply the same logic to the introduction of the Darkhold on WandaVision: just enjoy the show. Or, alternately, you could spiral off into insane conspiracy theories about the rumored bad blood behind the scenes between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige certainly wouldn’t want you to do that, though. When Feige was prompted to slam the prior shows at the winter TCA press tour, he veered, instead saying, “I think there are legions of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans and Daredevil fans and Jessica Jones fans and Luke Cage fans that would disagree with you in terms of success or not. There’s a very big fanbase for those shows.”

In the same talk, he was non-committal about bringing any of those characters back, or including the actors from the prior shows in any way (Clark Gregg did return as Coulson in Captain Marvel, and characters from Agent Carter have popped up with relative frequency in the movies). But he was nowhere near the point of dismissing them whole-heartedly; and having the Darkhold “accidentally” show up as a mistake doesn’t seem like the sort of thing the normally meticulous Marvel Studios is known for.

So, there are two possibilities here. The first is that as we get more distance from the TV shows, the movies will repurpose ideas without explicitly contradicting, until those shows become distant memories to all but the most die-hard fans. The other possibility is that there are two copies of the Darkhold.

The latter is actually a little sillier than you might think, since that introduces duplicate but otherwise unique magical books that look entirely different from each other. But it’s the sort of thing that, like Loeb’s “someone will figure it out” statement could work without ever being specifically referenced.

But more likely, the Marvel TV series are officially in the rearview mirror. As much as the “legions” of fans would disagree, what Marvel Studios wants to incorporate in their shows and movies going forward, they will, like the Darkhold, and like Coulson’s reappearance in Captain Marvel (one that, mind you, didn’t contradict pre-existing continuity). What they don’t, they won’t. You could see Matt Murdock again played by Charlie Cox, but maybe without referencing any of his previous adventures in Hell’s Kitchen. Or you could see an entirely new actor playing The Punisher. Don’t think about it as Marvel Studios pissing on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s (and the rest) grave, so much as leaving flowers one year, and then forgetting to visit the grave the next. Sad, but that’s how time works.

And we will see the Darkhold again — most likely with The Scarlet Witch in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness — but don’t expect it to ever say “DARKHOLD” in big, English letters on the front.

Where to watch WandaVision