WANDAVISION Cast and Crew Share New Details and Discuss the Highly-Anticipated Disney+ Series
Earlier today we shared a collection of new photos from Marvel’s crazy upcoming series WandaVision. Members of the cast and crew also talked about the series with EW and shared some additional information on the series and what they were trying to achieve with it.
WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer explained, “The show is a love letter to the golden age of television. We’re paying tribute and honoring all of these incredible shows and people who came before us, [but] we’re also trying to blaze new territory.”
The six-hour series is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany)—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems. The series takes ”inspiration from beloved TV comedies, from campy 1950s classics to the zany family shows of the ’90s.”
The series picks up after Endgame, and Schaeffer teases, “We find Wanda and Vision living a blissful suburban existence, trying to keep their powers under wraps. But as the newlyweds cycle through the decades — and the familiar TV tropes — they realize their white-picket-fence life may not be as gleamingly picture-perfect as it seems.”
Feige explained how he came up with the idea of the show saying, “I would get ready for the day and watch some old sitcom because I couldn’t take the news anymore. Getting ready to go to set over the last few years, I kept thinking of how influential these programs were on our society and on myself, and how certainly I was using it as an escape from reality where things could be tied up in a nice bow in 30 minutes.”
Feige then brought on Schaeffer, and they got to work developing a show with an “irreverent tone." Just as “Vision himself is an odd amalgamation of both the homicidal robot Ultron and Tony Stark’s wisecracking computer J.A.R.V.I.S., so too is WandaVision a mash-up, marrying epic superhero action with small-town sitcom silliness.”
Mary Livanos, co-executive producer, said, “It really does feel like we’re all programmed to know and love and understand these suburban family sitcoms. So, to mess with expectations has been really fun.”
The report also sheds some light on some of the other characters in the show, including Kathryn Hahn who plays Agnes. She plays the “prototypical nosy neighbor, who gleefully inserts herself into Wanda and Vision’s lives.” When discussing her character, Han explained, “I’ve always loved that gasp of human magic that they have. It’s not like I had never done anything like this, but especially since becoming a mom, I have always been interested in those jolts of adrenaline and humanity.”
Then there’s Teyonah Parris, who plays the grown-up version of Monica Rambeau, who made her debut in Captain Marvel. The show’s creators don’t really reveal much regarding how the adult version of this character fits into the weird world of Westview. But Livanos points out that Monica has frequently fought side by side with Wanda and Vision.
When talking about being a part of the series, Parris said, “I feel so special and honored to be able to walk in her shoes and bring her story to life. I hope that me playing this character (a) gives a group of people who are underrepresented a chance to see themselves, and (b) seeing my face and my Black body helps them engage with Black women and our humanity.”
The first episode was also actually filmed in front of a live studio audience! When talking about that Olson said, “It was insanity, There was something very meta for my own life because I would visit those tapings as a kid, where my sisters were working [on Full House].” Bettany added, “We were all so high by the end of it, we wanted to keep on running the show. Maybe take it out on tour or something. WandaVision on ice.”
Feige also, once again, confirms that WandaVision will directly set up the 2022 film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with Olsen’s Scarlet Witch playing a key role alongside Doctor Strange.
It’s also explained by Feige that if you’ve never seen any of the Marvel movies, this is a series that will work for you. He says, “If you haven’t seen any of them and just want to step into this weird thing because you love The Dick Van Dyke Show, it’s going to work. But if you’ve been tracking the 23 movies we’ve made and following along the stories into Phase 4, there’ll be a wealth of rewards waiting for you as it all unfolds.”
WandaVision is set to hit Disney+ sometime this year!