WANDAVISION
WANDAVISION I Do not adjust your set. Scarlet Witch is back…
Why you need to s-Witch on to Marvel’s sorta sitcom.
Across the finales of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, a faint sense lingered that Wanda Maximoff remained curiously opaque to us and the characters on-screen. After all, this was a character hit by seismic losses: of her parents, brother, lover. When Thanos claimed to understand her pain, she hit back with, “You could never.” And although she reassured Hawkeye that Natasha Romanoff and Vision knew “we won” (“She knows – they both do”), did we know how Wanda felt behind the comforting words?
Well, as she said to Thanos, “You will.” In January, WandaVision will be the first psionic strike from Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series slate, preceding titles including The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Loki, What If…?, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel. And if MCU CCO Kevin Feige’s hint that we will see the full scope of her reality-bending powers holds up, Wanda’s promise to Thanos should extend to viewers, too.
But not before a few home comforts. Under showrunner Jac Schaeffer (co-writer on Black Widow) and director Matt Shakman (Game Of Thrones, The Boys), WandaVision initially assumes the form of a ’50s-style domestic sitcom. Despite his death, maroon man-droid Vision (Paul Bettany) is living the good life with Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda in suburban Westview, partly created on the Warner Bros Ranch in Burbank, home to sitcoms including Bewitched. Episode one was shot in black-and-white before a live studio audience, with Vision painted blue so he looked peachy in monochrome.
As the trailer suggests, the series soon embraces a colour vision, cycling through the years via nods to decades of familiar TV styles. And as the psychedelic poster implies, something impinges on the fringes of Wanda’s perfect little world. In the trailer, their dinner guests’ enquiries - “Moved from
where? Married when?” – turn unsettling; off-screen, mysteries mount. Who is their nosy neighbour, Agnes (Kathryn Hahn), and is ‘Agnes’ a contraction of comics witch Agatha Harkness’s name? Why is Captain Marvel’s now-grown-up Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) – the first female African-American Avenger in the comics, whose operating names included Photon and Captain Marvel – making an appearance? Plus, “we got a Vision situation” – what is Vis doing alive?
More importantly, why are our happy home-bodies quaffing Maison Du Mépris wine? As Marvel-watchers have speculated, perhaps WandaVision will draw on 2005 comics arc House
Of M, tagged by TF285 as a possible platform for the X-Men’s MCU entry. In Brian Michael Bendis’ story, a grief-stricken Wanda suffers a breakdown and uses her witch-y powers to remodel the universe to the desires of those around her. For spoiler-y reasons, many details can’t match exactly. But that cheeky red looks like a tipple disguised as a teaser, unless the showrunners are deliberately misdirecting our perceptions, Wandastyle. Tom King’s Vision comic is also invoked by Vision’s attempt to live a ‘normal’ life.
By Bettany’s account, such questions won’t be left hanging. “WandaVision is an incredibly intricate show that crosses many different genres, but I can assure you that it will all make sense when you see the finished product,” says the co-lead. “It’s absolutely bonkers, but it’s been exhilarating to spend this much time on these two characters, who have had a small percentage of screen time in the movies – and necessarily so.”
Bonkers or not, the movies-to-TV transition certainly makes sense, says Bettany. “There’s an argument to say that there is no difference, in that the Marvel experiment is an episodic experiment. They all interconnect.” Reinforcing the film/TV parallels, the budget ($150m) for the series falls into the Thor/Ant-Man range and one director tackles all six episodes. While supervising producer Mary Livanos likens the show to “a multi-issue comic-book run”, Parris promises thrill-seeking MCU-watchers will be catered for. “This is a full-on action movie, mixed with sitcoms… It’s wild.”
After the demise of its adult Netflix (Daredevil, Jessica Jones and company) and younger ABC (Agent Carter, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.) shows, Marvel heralds a new era with WandaVision. And Feige, a sitcom fan who consulted with TV veteran Dick Van Dyke to help get it right, recognises its potential impact. “It really energised everyone creatively at the studio, the notion that we could play in a new medium and throw the rules out the window in terms of structure and format.”
The result will now be the first title from Marvel Studios since 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, after the delays to proposed 2020 features (Black Widow, Eternals) and TV shows (The Falcon And The Winter Soldier) alike. Where this leaves questions of continuity is unclear, though WandaVision is said to set up Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022) – perhaps notably, Rambeau and Maximoff helped Strange fight Dracula in the comics.
Whatever transpires, Feige reckons the show will satisfy Easter Egghunting MCU-watchers and newbies alike. No less teasingly, he promises that Wanda finally gets to go by the name Scarlet Witch on-screen. “And what does that mean, that she is the Scarlet Witch? That’s what we play into with this show, in ways that are entirely fun, entirely funny, somewhat scary, and will have repercussions for the entire future of Phase 4 of the MCU.”
For Olsen, the show was “the biggest gift” she could get in terms of playing Wanda. “You get to just focus on her,” she says, “and not how she felt through everyone else’s storylines.” Must be the season of the Witch. KH
ETA | 15 JANUARY / WANDAVISION STARTS ON DISNEY+ NEXT MONTH.
‘IT’S BEEN EXHILARATING TO SPEND THIS MUCH TIME ON THESE CHARACTERS’ PAUL BETTANY