A bewitching twist
‘WandaVision’ takes Elizabeth Olsen’s superhero into classic sitcom territory
As a mighty member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Elizabeth Olsen — aka Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch — thought she knew to expect the unexpected.
Yet she was surprised when Marvel honcho Kevin Fiege asked her to star in “WandaVision,” a nine-episode original series arriving on Disney+ Friday with the first two episodes.
It began in 2018 after “Avengers: Infinity War” came out.
“I went to Kevin’s office, who explained that Disney+ was going to be launching a streaming show, that they wanted Marvel to be part of that launch.
“And he already had a concept for our show where Wanda’s living in the suburbs and is seen through American sitcoms.
“I was completely shocked that we were going to be doing a TV show! Because that was totally not what we have been doing for six years. And it was such an original idea! So different from what we’ve seen in all of the big-screen Marvel Universe movies.”
Wanda is a superhero whose powers, as revealed in the series, include telepathy and telekinesis, as evidenced by flying dishes and magical transformations. She lives with her bigscreen co-star, her beloved android mate Vision, played by Paul Bettany.
“I would describe it as American sitcoms through history. Family sitcoms with Wanda and Vision, mixed with kind of ‘Twilight Zone’-y elements.
“These characters are trying to figure out why everything’s not exactly the way it seems.
“We play with these tropes of the American sitcom, where these two people are trying to fit in and not be found out by the other people in town.”
Maybe the best part is there’s no need to know everyone’s Marvel history.
“I feel this is a very familiar experience as audience members. The fun and the humor is that they’re trying to pretend like they’re normal and make sure that people don’t know they’re superheroes.
“While we start to unravel our story, there is a very clear mystery that is happening. But I don’t believe anyone needs to know Marvel to enjoy the story. Even an older audience would be able to enjoy this show because of its playfulness and relationship to these American sitcoms through the decades.”
Olsen, 31, went to “sitcom bootcamp” along with Bettany and the rest of the cast, going from ’50s and ’60s classics like Mary Tyler Moore in “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and Elizabeth Montgomery in “Bewitched” through the ’70s and ’80s.
“And I really think about ‘Third Rock From the Sun,’ where you know,” she added, “the people are not wanting anyone to know that they’re aliens.”