Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal Could Actually Be Blackheart in Agatha All Along

The following story contains some spoilers for episode 1 of Agatha All Along, “Seekest Thou the Road.”

IF YOU THINK back to the long, long ago time of January 2021, when WandaVision first debuted on Disney+, there was a whole lot of excitement in the air. Not only was the show really good (and to this day remains one of the best MCU projects overall), but it was drawing attention from both Marvel loyalists and outsiders alike. But among those Marvel fans, the excitement ended up translating into speculation. Lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of speculation.

Who would make a surprise appearance? Is this person actually talking about Reed Richards? Does this fake commercial mean this? Is this a reference to Mephisto (oh yes, we remember all of that)? WandaVision ultimately didn’t totally play in all that, instead opting to tell a profound story about grief that still was unique, strange at times, and fit nicely within the Marvel universe (earning a bunch of Emmy nominations along the way, too).

Agatha All Along, the sequel/spin-off series to WandaVision, comes from the same showrunner (Jac Schaeffer), and is keeping much of that same energy. After the series’s debut pair of episodes, there’s already ton of speculation about who “Teen” (played by Joe Locke) really is—and let’s be honest, it’s pretty obvious that he’s actually Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) son, Billy Maximoff.

But there’s another character in Agatha All Along who may not be who they claim right from the jump, and that’s Agatha’s fellow witch Rio Vidal, played already with a wonderfully chaotic/demonic streak by Aubrey Plaza. It’s clear from the very start that Rio Vidal has a deep connection to Agatha and her history, as she was the one to help Agatha realize that she was deep in a TV-inflected, Mare of Easttown-esque spell, placed on her at the end of WandaVision by Wanda.

Rio also arrives at Agatha’s home, once the spell is broken, bringing some seriously demonic energy, energy that is so much fun to see come from an actor like Plaza who has always been so good at bouncing between completely deadpan and alternatively completely off-the-wall.

Agatha All Along is playing a bunch of these threads as mysteries, and we’ll definitely have answers revealed as the show pulls the curtain back more and more with each passing episode. But for now, we’ve already gotten some hints on Rio Vidal’s true identity that could point in the right direction.

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Rio Vidal could really be a classic Marvel Comics villain named Blackheart—who is the child of Mephisto

All we really know about Rio Vidal from the jump of Agatha All Along is that she’s a “green witch,” and that she’s got some kind of witchy past with Agatha (and that she cannot kill her, for some reason we will probably soon learn). But the MCU almost always pulls its villains and characters from comic book source material (even Ethan Hawke‘s deep cut Moon Knight villain Arthur Harrow appeared in one single issue).

We also know that there’s some kind of twist coming with Rio, based on an interview that Plaza did on the red carpet.

“I’m just so happy they let me play this character because, it’s like… I can’t spoil it, but what happens, the reveal is pretty amazing,” she said. “For the fans especially, they’re going to go crazy.”

That suggests something pretty major is coming, does it not? Luckily, there were some clear hints in the early going that Rio Vidal is more than her name suggests. In the first episode, when Rio is attacking Agatha in her Westview “home,” Agatha suggests that Rio doesn’t have a heart. Rio quickly replies: “Yes I do. It’s black, and it beats for you.”

Now, normally, in just about any other show, world, franchise, etc., this could be easily dismissed as a pretty typical thing that a character being portrayed as goth/emo would say. It makes sense! But not in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where almost everything is some kind of reference and comes with some kind of purpose. And so it’s a perfectly reasonable jump to hear Rio’s reference to a black heart, and start to think about the Marvel Comics villain named Blackheart.

First appearing in 1989’s Daredevil #270, Blackheart is created when his father, Mephisto (!!!) conjures up all the evil energy from a town called Christ’s Crown, New York, and uses it to create an evil son. Blackheart eventually rebels against his satanic father, but remains a villainous presence throughout the decades since his induction into the Marvel universe. Obviously, if Rio turns out to be Blackheart, this would be a gender reversal, but the MCU has never been afraid of altering characters. Hell, Agatha herself is a much older woman in the Marvel Comics than the version we see played by Kathryn Hahn.

If Rio is really Blackheart (who is generally considered to be one of Ghost Rider’s arch enemies, and was previously played by Wes Bentley in the 2007 Nicolas Cage film), it would fit with all the clues we’ve seen to this point—and make for an even bigger ramp to eventually finally introduce Mephisto.

Aubrey Plaza plays Rio Vidal

Whether she’s Rio Vidal or actually Blackheart, Aubrey Plaza is one of Agatha All Along‘s greatest assets.

While most probably still know Plaza for her work in comedic projects like Parks & Recreation, Safety Not Guaranteed, or Judd Apatow’s Funny People, she’s expanded her repertoire in recent years to include all sorts of exciting and engaging projects. She played Lenny in Noah Hawley’s Legion, which was loosely connected to the X-Men, and was one of the trippiest superhero shows you’ll ever see.

The highest profile of those her recent projects has been season 2 of HBO’s The White Lotus, a role that earned her an Emmy nomination. She’s also led acclaimed indie films like Ingrid Goes West, Black Bear, Emily the Criminal, and My Old Ass, which was just released in theaters. Later this month, she’ll appear in Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited (and very polarizing) passion project Megalopolis, playing acharacter named (and yes, this is for real) “Wow Platinum.”

She’ll next appear in Honey Don’t, a romantic comedy from Ethan Coen (of The Coen Brothers fame), where she’ll star alongside Margaret Qualley, Chris Evans, and Charlie Day.