Month: June 2024

Apple is rumored to be working on screens that bend for its hardware, and now it’s talking about screens that stretch.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on a foldable iPhone, but a new patent suggests there might be screens that stretch as well as screens that bend in development for numerous upcoming Apple products.

As spotted by AppleInsider, the patent is simply titled “Stretchable Display”, and goes on to describe a screen that can wrap around different surfaces and shapes, while still operating like a standard OLED display.

While the patent doesn’t specifically mention any devices in the Apple portfolio, it could potentially be used for a number of them. Imagine a HomePod with a display that curves around the top of the speaker, for example.

The patent is notable for the number of inventors attached: 55 rather than the usual 10 or so. However, as ever with patents, this is only an indication of what a company is spending time researching – there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see this tech in an actual product.

How this could be used

The patent includes several stretchable display diagrams (Image credit: Apple/USPTO)

We’ve already mentioned how a future HomePod could have a display that stretches and wraps around the device, and such a display could also find a use in a foldable iPhone – enabling the phone to have a wraparound screen on the outside, as has been rumored.

Then there’s the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch 10 is supposedly bringing some design tweaks with it, but a future model could have a screen that wraps all around the wrist (Apple has actually filed patents hinting at this in the past).

The patent mentions phones and watches, but also laptops, smart glasses, virtual reality headsets, and kiosk and car displays. This is clearly a technology that could find a place in many Apple products, if development on it continues.

That development will most likely take several years, so we’re not going to see it appear in the iPhone 16. However, don’t be surprised if future Apple devices, like an all-screen MacBook, arrive with displays that can stretch as well as fold.

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Here’s what we know about Agatha All Along, the first WandaVision spin-off from Marvel Studios.

Agatha All Along will be the next live-action Marvel TV show to debut on Disney Plus. The first of two planned WandaVision spin-offs, the Kathryn Hahn-fronted series will see Agatha Harkness embark on a standalone adventure – one filled with plenty of earworm songs, we suspect – later this year. Now is as good a time as any, then, to find out more about it.

Below, we’ve put together a magical guide filled with the latest intel we have on the Marvel Phase 5 project. You’ll learn more about its official release date, confirmed cast, first-look footage, story rumors, and its potential impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Full spoilers for WandaVision follow, so make sure you’re caught up on that show before reading on. And don’t forget: it was Agatha all aloooooooong!

Agatha All Along release date

Marvel conjured up an official launch date – Wednesday, September 18 – for the show in mid-May; the comic book giant confirming Agatha All Along‘s release date alongside Daredevil: Born Again and Ironheart‘s during Disney’s Upfronts 2024 presentation. Before that, one of the show’s stars suggested it would arrive in time for Halloween 2024. But hey, we’re not complaining that it’ll debut earlier than we initially expected.

As for its episode count, the Disney Plus series will have nine chapters. The first two episodes will arrive on launch day, with new entries airing weekly.

Agatha All Along cast: confirmed and rumored

Kathryn Hahn will star as Agatha Harkness in the character’s spin-off series. (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney Plus)

Full spoilers follow for WandaVision. Potential Agatha All Along spoilers are also discussed.

Here’s the confirmed cast list (confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter (THR), anyway) for Agatha All Along so far:

Kathryn Hahn as Agatha HarknessAubrey Plaza as Rio VidalJoe Locke as Billy KaplanPatti LuPone as Lilia CalderuSasheer Zamata as Jennifer KaleAli Ahn as AliceKate Forbes as Evanora HarknessDebra Jo Rupp as Sharon DaviesEmma Caulfield Ford as Sarah ProctorDavid Lengel as Harold ProctorDavid Payton as John CollinsAsif Ali as Alibash Tandon

Everyone from Hahn down to Forbes on the list will play a dark magic wielder in the show. The final quintet will reprise their WandaVision roles as five Westview residents who were trapped in the New Jersey town by Wanda Maximoff in that MCU series.

Of the named magic users, Forbes’ Evanora, LuPone’s Lilia, and Plaza’s Rio are the only ones with ties to Hahn’s Agatha. Evanora is Agatha’s mom and the leader of the Harkness coven of witches, who appeared in WandaVision episode 8’s 1693-set sequence. Agatha killed Evanora during that scene, though, so Evanora’s appearance in Agatha All Along will be in another flashback. Lilia is a 450-year-old Sicilian witch with the skill of divination (the ability to see into the future). Rio is a warrior witch who wields a mean dagger and, in the Marvel comics, is Agatha’s on-off love interest.

As for Billy, according to LuPone (per Entertainment Weekly (EW)), he’s a Familiar – an individual with supernatural abilities – who’s also believed to be one of Wanda Maximoff’s sons. Billy’s presence in Agatha All Along has generated plenty of discussion among Marvel fans because, well, he died (read: disintegrated) in WandaVision alongside twin brother Tommy. Indeed, the pair were the fabricated offspring of Wanda and Vision (he was also a make-believe version of the deceased synthezoid that a grief-stricken Wanda created following Vision’s death in Avengers: Infinity War). If Agatha‘s Billy is the same Billy we saw in WandaVision, that raises questions about how he survived when nothing else from Wanda’s Hex spell did.

Is the Billy (right) we saw in WandaVision the same Billy who’ll appear in Agatha All Along? (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Billy, Agatha, Rio, Evanora, and Lilia will be joined on the dark magic-wielding front by two other magic users: Ahn’s Alice, who’s simply labeled as a witch, and Zamata’s Kale, a sorceress who, in the comics, is part of another mystical group known as the Cult of Zhered-Na. It’s unclear if Kale and her fellow Zhered-Na members will be a rival faction that the Harkness-led coven will have to duel with.

Other actors are bound to pop up as part of Agatha All Along‘s already extensive cast roster. The aforementioned THR article also claims Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Maria Dizzia will appear in as-yet-revealed roles. There’s every chance that Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda could also make an unexpected cameo, too, depending on how the story progresses. Speaking of which (or should that be speaking of *ahem* witch)…

Agatha All Along story speculation

Agatha Harkness was trapped in her ‘Agnes’ persona by Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision‘s finale. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Major spoilers follow for WandaVision. Potential Agatha All Along spoilers are also discussed.

Marvel hasn’t given us an official story brief yet, but one – for the show’s first entry – was revealed on the US Copyright Office website in September 2023. “In the first episode, we see Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) finally break out of a spell she has been trapped in. She can’t wait to go back to her old murderous ways, only to find that she is powerless. The only way forward for her is to embark on a perilous quest to get her powers back with the help of an unlikely friend or two.”

Anyone who’s seen WandaVision will know how and why Agatha is trapped in a magical reality, not unlike the one Wanda Maximoff crafted post-Avengers: Endgame. But, if you need a refresher, our WandaVision finale deep-dive piece provides more details.

Based on what the previously referenced plot synopsis confirms, though, Agatha will escape from her fabricated reality nightmare. Ordinarily, it would be easy for someone with her power level to do so, but Wanda stripped Agatha of her dark magic abilities in WandaVision episode 9. As such, it’ll apparently take her a long time to snap out of her false reality – prominent MCU leaker CanWeGetSomeToast (per Marvel News Films on X/Twitter) claiming three years will have passed between WandaVision‘s final episode and Agatha All Along‘s premiere. Agatha will need to ‘shed’ her WandaVision costumes as part of her escape effort as well, according to CGWST (see below).

As for the “unlikely friends” she’ll need to round up to help her regain her abilities, those individuals should include Rio, Lilia, Billy, Jennifer, and Alice. Why does Agatha need to surround herself with witches and other supernatural beings? Because the depowered enchantress will reportedly need to embark on a dangerous journey down The Witches’ Road (per Nexus Point News), a life-threatening plane of existence where only sorcerers can tread. 

Clearly, Agatha will need to assemble her own coven to not only keep her safe on said journey but also help her navigate it with their powers and expertise. And, as a recent Empire magazine interview with showrunner/executive producer Jac Schaeffer confirmed, this “disparate, mixed bag of witches”, all of whom are “covenless” and self-serving like Agatha, will join the untrustworthy titular character on her quest to get her powers back. The same article seemingly confirms Rupp’s Debra, who was only thought to be a Westview resident, is also a witch. Interesting, very interesting…

Anyway, in order to travel to this alternate dimension, it seems Agatha and her bewitching crew might need to employ a classic witch trope. Indeed, an image (posted on the Scarlet Witch Updates X/Twitter account (see below)) from Disney’s 2024 Upfronts presentation shows Agatha and company flying on broomsticks. There’s no word on whether there’ll be, say, a black cat or a cauldron attached to one of these transportation methods.

But we digress. There’ll be a few callbacks to previous MCU projects in Agatha All Along, including Doctor Strange 2 and (obviously) WandaVision. Speaking to Deadline after Disney’s Upfronts panel, LuPone also reconfirmed that Agatha All Along will be a musical. Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who penned the hugely popular ‘Agatha All Along’ from WandaVision episode 7, which stormed the music charts in early 2022, were already confirmed to have written new musical numbers by LuPone (via THR). It’s nonetheless pleasing, though, to learn that this element hasn’t been cut from the final product.

Other rumors about the series’ plot have circulated online recently but, to preserve some of the mystery, we’ll refrain from mentioning them here. We’ll add more story details as and when Marvel releases more information about it.

Agatha All Along trailer: is there one?

Marvel hasn’t released an official trailer for Agatha All Along. We might get one at San Diego Comic-Con or D23 Expo but, right now, the only footage we’ve seen is via an extras featurette on WandaVision‘s 4K Blu-Ray release.

There’s little in the way of actual footage in said bonus feature, but we do get a cursory behind-the-scenes look, with Hahn, Schaeffer, and co-executive producer Mary Livanos discussing Agatha’s WandaVision legacy, plus the spin-off’s creation. 

We also get a glimpse at Agatha’s new costume, which *ahem* harks back to her 17th-century roots, a couple of brief looks at some of the show’s sets (including the aforementioned Witches’ Road), and a fleeting glimpse of Locke’s Billy/Wiccan walking alongside Agatha on the Witches’ Road. Again, it’s not much, but it’s a magical tease ahead of the official trailer reveal. We’ll update this section once one is released.

Will Agatha All Along set up future Marvel movies and TV shows?

Agatha All Along could set up plot threads for another WandaVision spin-off called Vision Quest. (Image credit: Marvel Television/Disney Plus)

It’s possible. Marvel is still focused on telling its Multiverse Saga, which began in Phase 4 and will continue in Phases 5 and 6. That hasn’t stopped the comic book giant from branching out and telling standalone tales that have few to no ties to its overarching multiverse narrative.

So, which movies or shows might be born out of Agatha All Along? There’s only one project whose events could be set in motion by the series, and Marvel hasn’t formally announced it. That untitled show is a second WandaVision spin-off that’ll supposedly star Paul Bettany as White Vision, whose release has reportedly been set for sometime in 2026 (per Variety).

If Billy Kaplan is the same Billy we saw in WandaVision, and if he survives the events of Agatha All Along, we suspect he’ll embark on an adventure to track down White Vision – the closest thing he has to Vision, aka his ‘birth’ father – and/or his twin brother Tommy, with the aim of seeking their help to find Wanda, aka Billy and Tommy’s mom. She was last seen in Doctor Strange 2, where she seemingly perished after destroying the Darkhold and Mount Wundagore. However, we didn’t actually see her die and, given Wanda’s popularity among MCU fans, it wouldn’t be in the studio’s best interests to consign her to the MCU’s history books. Expect some plot details for this White Vision-focused series to be revealed as part of an Agatha All Along post-credits scene, and/or once the show is out in full.

For more Marvel and Disney Plus-based coverage, read our guides on Deadpool and Wolverine, the best Marvel movies, and how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

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