Paul Bettany Discusses WANDAVISION and How Wanda and Vision's Relationship Will Turn Cynical

For the most part, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda and Paul Bettany’s Vision have had a pleasant and lovable relationship in WandaVision. That all changed in the most recent episode though, when the two got into their first real fight. I won’t go into any details for those that haven’t seen the episode yet, but it sounds like their fairytale relationship is going to come crashing down and turn cynical.

During a recent interview with TV Line, Bettany opens up about where the relationship of these two main characters is going as the story continues to play out:

“It’s interesting to look at the American century through the prism of which sitcoms were out. You start off with Dick Van Dyke, where there’s real warmth to that relationship. By Bewitched, you’ve got a man whose wife is incredibly powerful, and yet he’s embarrassed by how powerful she is. Then you get to The Brady Bunch where everyone’s pretending there’s nothing wrong in the world, meanwhile you’ve got this huge civil rights struggle and the Vietnam War.”

He then moves into the 80s with “Family Ties and teachable moments,” followed by the the “very cynical and cool time of Malcolm in the Middle and Modern Family,” Bettany was building to the following point:

“[In those shows], couples aren’t necessarily that fond of each other. And that fact serves our purpose in this show very well.”

Olsen has actually made similar comments in a previous interview, saying:

"The humor of Malcolm in the Middle and then Modern Family becomes incredibly cynical, and that's what we found comforting, for whatever reason, as a society. So it was just fun when we were in this boot camp to not only just chart the physical changes as tools, but also, ‘What was comedy for history of that time?' Like the fact that The Brady Bunch is a result of Vietnam or Rosemary's Baby is a film and Brady Bunch is on television, that doesn't make any sense to me. But for whatever reason, that's what the consumer was watching at home."

WandaVision debuts new episodes on Disney+ every Friday. This show is getting awesome and I can’t wait to see where it goes next and how it will affect the MCU even further.