WandaVision is intriguing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that one
of its main characters is currently dead.
But we know better by now than to second-guess Marvel, so despite the confusion, we're eager
to see what WandaVision has in store for us when it hits Disney+.
Release date
During the company's Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic Con in July of 2019, Marvel
Studios revealed a pretty packed calendar for 2020 and '21, laying out plans for a whopping
ten new films and television series centered around various characters in the Marvel Cinematic
Universe.
Originally, WandaVision was scheduled to be the second of seven MCU projects premiering
in 2021, but those plans have been reworked numerous times since then, with multiple unanticipated
delays altering the series’ release date.
WandaVision initially moved its release up to late 2020, before being pushed back to
2021 once again due to the ongoing delays and disruptions caused by the coronavirus
pandemic.
While WandaVision was originally intended to be preceded in Phase 4 by the movie Black
Widow, the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and another movie debuting
the Eternals team of superheroes, the space-and-time-twisting series will now be the first entry in the
MCU's new chapter, with a premiere date set for January 15, 2021.
The shakeup comes as a result of the theatrical releases for both Black Widow and Eternals
being delayed to later in 2021.
On the TV side, the pandemic-related disruptions caused The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to
experience production delays that made its planned 2020 release impossible.
Currently, WandaVision is the only one of Marvel's upcoming Disney+ shows to have an
official release date.
Originally, it was scheduled to lead right into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,
the follow-up to 2016's Doctor Strange in which Wanda Maximoff is said to play a significant
role.
However, at least as far as the current schedule is concerned, the two MCU properties may have
their releases separated by more than a year, with Doctor Strange now being the last of
the Phase 4 films slated to hit theaters.
"Time is the true enemy of us all.
Time kills everything."
Main attraction
Alongside Disney's original announcement that they would be making shows centered around
popular film characters came the confirmation that Elizabeth Olsen would indeed be reprising
her MCU role on the small screen.
Olsen has been playing Scarlet Witch, a.k.a. Wanda Maximoff, since Captain America: The
Winter Soldier, when she and her brother Quicksilver, a.k.a. Pietro Maximoff were teased in a scene
at the end of the credits.
Quicksilver was tragically killed at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, but Wanda went
on to join the Avengers.
While it's debatable which Avenger is the most powerful, Wanda is a strong contender
for the title, and proved to be one of the team's most effective weapons against Thanos.
Her abilities in the MCU include telekinesis, telepathy, and energy manipulation.
In the comics, Wanda is an immensely powerful magic user who can manipulate Chaos Magic,
allowing her to alter reality.
While we have yet to see that ability manifest in the MCU, don't be surprised if WandaVision
delves deeper into the more mystical side of her abilities.
Co-starring alongside Olsen in WandaVision will be her frequent MCU scene partner, Paul
Bettany, reprising his role as the android Vision.
Of course, Bettany's inclusion is a little surprising, since as of the end of Avengers:
Infinity War, Vision is dead — double-dead, so maybe those reality-altering powers of
Wanda's have a little something to do with this yet-unexplained development.
Beyond his role on-screen as the Vision, Paul Bettany has actually been with the MCU as
a voice actor from the very beginning.
"JARVIS, you up?"
"For you, sir, always."
However, Vision wasn't introduced as a character until 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, when
Tony Stark's A.I. butler J.A.R.V.I.S. was uploaded into an android body and brought
to life using the Mind Stone.
Since then, Vision has fought alongside the Avengers, with formidable powers including
superstrength, flight, energy blasts, and density manipulation.
Prior to Avengers: Infinity War, he also fell in love with Wanda Maximoff, and the two were
hoping to start a life together before Thanos' arrival put a tragic end to their plans.
Vision was murdered by Thanos when the Mad Titan ripped the stone from his head in order
to complete the Infinity Gauntlet.
However, it would appear that one way or another, Vision will be resurrected in WandaVision.
Supporting cast
Captain Marvel first introduced us to Monica Rambeau, the school-aged daughter of Carol
Danvers' best friend, Maria.
In the comics, Monica is a grown woman and a superhero herself.
She's gone by several codenames, including Spectrum and her own version of Captain Marvel,
with Monica technically taking on the name before Carol Danvers ever did.
While we still don't know whether Monica will be suiting up as Spectrum or one of her other
comic aliases, we now have confirmation that an aged-up Monica will be entering the MCU
as part of the WandaVision cast.
The adult Monica will be played by Teyonah Parris.
While no details have been revealed about exactly how Monica will factor into WandaVision,
it seems likely that the events of the series could lead to her receiving her powers, based
on what seems to be a hint by Parris at San Diego Comic Con.
"This is a dream, to be a Marvel superhero.”
Also joining the cast of WandaVision are MCU scene-stealers Kat Dennings and Randall Park.
Dennings appeared in the first two Thor films as Darcy Lewis, assistant to astrophysicists
Jane Foster and Eric Selvig.
Darcy was last seen at the end of Thor: The Dark World and wasn't even mentioned in Thor:
Ragnarok, making her return in WandaVision a pleasant surprise.
Helping round out the cast of WandaVision will be Ant-Man and the Wasp's former S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent Jimmy Woo, played by Randall Park.
Like Dennings, Park's role in his previous MCU film was largely comedic, as the FBI agent
tasked with making sure Scott Lang stuck to the restrictions of his house arrest.
It's hard to anticipate a scenario that would lead Wanda and Vision to cross paths with
Woo and Darcy, but if there's one thing that's becoming abundantly clear about WandaVision,
it's that it will be embracing the unexpected.
Hark!
Who goes there?
Rounding out the WandaVision cast is comedic actress Kathryn Hahn, playing a character
who has only been officially identified as a "nosy neighbor."
However, while the subtitles on the WandaVision trailer refer to her as Agnes, many clues
point toward Hahn playing the sorceress Agatha Harkness.
In the comics, Agatha and the Scarlet Witch have a long and complicated history, with
Agatha acting as Wanda's mentor and teaching her how to use her magical powers.
But it's her interaction with Vision in the WandaVision trailer that may offer the biggest
clue to her role in the series.
"Am I dead?"
"No, why would you think that?"
"Because you are."
In Tom King's The Vision comics, Agatha Harkness is in fact dead, and it is her ghost who acts
as the narrator for the series, which serves as a cautionary tale for Wanda.
Since the WandaVision trailer shows Hahn jumping through time alongside Wanda and Vision, she
may be serving a similarly omniscient role here, which teases some dark possibilities
for the seemingly upbeat series.
A vision for WandaVision
The first and possibly the weirdest of Marvel's slate of Disney+ shows will be helmed by television
director Matt Shakman, best known for his work on the irreverent FX comedy series It's
Always Sunny in Philadelphia, of which he directed 43 episodes between 2007 and 2017.
However, just because Shakman has some serious comedy chops doesn't mean that WandaVision
will lack the epic stakes of the rest of the MCU.
Over his extensive career, Shakman has directed his fair share of serious dramas, including
episodes of The Good Wife and Fargo, and has even dabbled in superheroes, directing episodes
of Heroes Reborn and the recent Amazon original series The Boys.
He was also responsible for the Game of Thrones season seven episode "The Spoils of War,"
which featured the visually stunning "loot train attack" sequence.
Most recently, in 2020, Shakman was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the pilot episode
of the Hulu period drama, The Great.
Loosely based on the life of Catherine the Great, the series deftly balanced history,
comedy, high-stakes conflict, and emotional drama.
Given that WandaVision seems as though it will be trying to pull off a similarly challenging
juggling act, Shakman seems like the ideal director to balance the power and emotional
backstory of WandaVision's characters with the show's weird and wacky tone.
Time hopping
Although Vision was one of just a few fallen heroes to not be resurrected at the end of
Avengers: Endgame, Marvel has confirmed that WandaVision will be set after the Avengers'
final battle against Thanos in 2023.
But the actual timeline for WandaVision may be a lot more complicated than even that suggests,
with the trailer jumping through numerous points in time from the 1950s to today.
In 2019, Elizabeth Olsen revealed that her new series would be set in the 1950s, although
the trailer seems to indicate that's only partially true.
Yet for at least its first episode, the series committed to its 1950s aesthetic, filming
in front of a live studio audience, with the crew members dressed in 1950s-era clothing.
MCU mastermind Kevin Feige and WandaVision director Matt Shakman even met with Dick Van
Dyke while preparing for the show, asking for any advice the iconic sitcom star could
bestow.
His response, based on his own experience, was:
"If it couldn't happen in real life, it couldn't happen on the show."
But that advice leaves room for some intriguing applications on a reality-bending Marvel show.
Those words of wisdom will surely be reinterpreted for a series that seems to skip across decades
as easily as a walk from room to room.
No direct adaptations
While fans have speculated that WandaVision may draw from certain popular comic book storylines,
Elizabeth Olsen said that WandaVision will actually be pulling from a number of different
comics.
So while many aspects of WandaVision may seem familiar to comic fans, viewers probably shouldn't
expect the series to feel particularly beholden to any individual storyline.
Vision and Scarlet Witch have a long comics history for Marvel Studios to pull from for
their Disney+ series, leaving the door open for a host of possibilities.
Over the course of their existence in the comics, the characters have been both heroes
and villains, and have gotten married, had children, and faced all manner of opposition
from both enemies and allies.
While a six-hour series probably doesn't leave enough time for all of that, at least the
writers of WandaVision have no shortage of material from which to draw inspiration.
Leading to Doctor Strange
Originally scheduled to release in the spring of 2021, WandaVision's six-episode run was
intended to end just as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness swept into theaters
that May.
However, both have since been jostled around on Marvel's calendar, and WandaVision will
now be bowing on Disney+ in January of 2021, while the Doctor Strange sequel won't hit
theaters until March 25, 2022.
Still, despite the scheduling shake-up, the two tales are likely to be closely linked.
Elizabeth Olsen has been confirmed as a co-lead of the Doctor Strange sequel, and Kevin Feige
teased that the events of WandaVision will lead Wanda right to Stephen Strange's doorstep.
"Allow me to help you."
There are a number of reasons why Wanda may ultimately need assistance from the Master
of the Mystic Arts.
Given the title of the second Doctor Strange film, it seems likely that the events of WandaVision
will somehow contribute to the Multiverse of Madness that Doctor Strange will be dealing
with in his second solo outing.
Whether Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange wind up as allies or opponents remains to be seen,
but it's safe to assume that Wanda and Vision's adventures in WandaVision are going to have
some unforeseen — and possibly magical — consequences.
Origin of "Scarlet Witch"
Even after playing a pivotal role in four films, Wanda Maximoff has yet to be called
"Scarlet Witch" out loud in the MCU.
The closest anyone has come to uttering her codename was in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when
Tony Stark was trying to calm down Hulk.
"That little witch is messing with your mind."
Although she goes by both names interchangeably in the comics, Wanda has always been referred
to by her given name on screen.
However, if Elizabeth Olsen's comments at San Diego Comic Con in 2019 are any indication,
she will finally receive her official code name in WandaVision, along with an explanation
for exactly why she goes by that moniker.
Chances are, it has something to do with her immense, potentially reality-shifting, magic-like
powers, and the color of the energy she manipulates with her hands.
But even though the origin of her code name seems rather obvious, it will still be nice
to get explicit confirmation of her name and its meaning within the MCU.
"I don't even know who you are."
"You will."
Sitcom inspiration
Frequently touted as the MCU's first sitcom, the first trailers for WandaVision have revealed
that not only will the Disney+ series be heading into uncharted Marvel territory, but it will
be paying homage to a number of familiar titles in the process.
Scattered amongst the brief glimpses of the show we've seen so far have been what appears
to be nods to a number of sitcom classics, including Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, Roseanne,
Family Ties, I Love Lucy, and of course, The Dick Van Dyke Show.
What it all means is more mysterious than ever, but one thing is for certain: Paul Bettany
was definitely not overstating anything when he described the show as:
"F---ing bonkers."
Young Avengers?
The brief teaser for WandaVision shown during the 2020 Super Bowl featured a short shot
of Wanda and Vision looking down at two cribs, then jumping as two pacifiers pop up into
the frame.
The full trailer seems to confirm that these are indeed Wanda and Vision's twin sons, Billy
and Tommy, whose introduction in WandaVision could have major repercussions not just for
Wanda and Vision themselves, but for the rest of the MCU as a whole.
Of course, comics fans know that Billy and Tommy play a huge role in multiple comics
storylines.
Their disappearance leads to the popular "Avengers Disassembled" and "House of M" storylines,
both of which are significant comics events with lasting repercussions.
If any of those storylines are brought into the MCU, the effects could be huge.
In the comics, Billy and Tommy also grow up to become two of the founding members of the
Young Avengers team.
While their inclusion in WandaVision may not seem significant yet, introducing the twins
leaves the door open for some pretty major developments in the future.
Story speculation
As soon as it was announced that WandaVision would have a 1950s aesthetic, some fans began
speculating that it may adapt parts of Tom King's run of comics for The Vision, which
ran for 12 issues beginning in 2015.
The Vision followed an entirely synthetic family Vision had created for himself, consisting
of his wife, Virginia, and their children, Vic and Viv.
The comic's themes centered around family, normality and what it means to be truly human.
As a family of synthetics, the Visions are constantly in search of a better understanding
of life, driven by their desire to be seen as normal.
Although the specifics would need to change for WandaVision, it's easy to see how these
themes of humanity and family would fit into a series about the MCU versions of Wanda and
Vision.
After all, the last time these two characters were together and happy in the MCU, they were
trying to figure out a way to share in a normal life together, given their extraordinary abilities
and circumstances.
In another comics storyline, after Wanda's children die, she alters the reality of Earth,
creating a new world in which they are alive.
This new reality led to the highly acclaimed "House of M" comics event, an alternate reality
arc created out of Wanda's grief and magic.
That arc led into the less well-received "Decimation" storyline, in which Wanda strips all mutants
of their powers.
"House of M" has long been popular among comics fans, and has even been mentioned by MCU writers
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely as a storyline they considered adapting for inclusion
in either Infinity War or Endgame.
The MCU version of Wanda doesn't have children yet, although the WandaVision trailer hints
that that may soon change, but her grief over the loss of Vision could work as a setup for
a similar story.
A "House of M"-like premise could explain not only Vision's resurrection in WandaVision,
but also the incongruous time periods.
If Wanda is altering reality, maybe she keeps reimagining what that reality looks like.
While the lack of mutants in the MCU means significant liberties would need to be taken
with any sort of "House of M" adaptation, all the other pieces are in place for a grief-fueled
story in which Wanda alters the world to bring back someone she loves.
Big promises
Elizabeth Olsen has been vocal about her excitement for her Disney+ series, telling the audience
at Marvel's Comic Con presentation,
"We're gonna go deep, we're gonna have lots of surprises, and we're going to finally understand
Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch."
Wanda has been described as "weird" in the MCU before, back when Agent Maria Hill was
first bringing Captain America up to speed on Wanda and her brother's superpowers.
"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis.
Her thing is neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, manipulation…
He's fast and she's weird."
However, we expect that when Olsen said the series would be "weird," she wasn't simply
referring to her existing powers, but something brand new and bizarre that we've never seen
before in the MCU.
Kevin Feige backed up Olsen's promises, telling the audience,
"Wait until you see this show.
It's unlike anything we've done before."
And as for the Vision himself, Paul Bettany thinks audiences are in for a unique treat
with WandaVision.
"It's so funny and it just ends up being this huge epic.
The writing's so extraordinary."
So while we may still not know exactly what to expect from the weird world of WandaVision,
after seeing the excitement of everyone involved, we're sure it will blow our minds.
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