An unusual couple have just moved into the quaint town of Westview New Jersey: “magical gal” Wanda and Vision, her “hubby who’s part machine.” They get into all sorts of hilarious hijinks trying to fit in but at the end of the day their love will pull them through. But something’s wrong with this picture. Neither can recall their lives prior to Westview, and the strange happenings are becoming increasingly sinister. Please stand by and do not adjust your set. This is WandaVision.
Originally, WandaVision was to be the fourth Marvel phase 4 release but due to delays caused by the pandemic it is now their first, and I think this is actually to their advantage. Instead, leading with this bonkers idea instead of a more conventional MCU story shows that Marvel are willing to experiment with their formula and that they can produce something new and different in order to maintain audience interest. This is especially important now that they are embarking on a new phase where a lot of previous fan-favourites are no more and the story arc that they were invested in for over a decade has been concluded and the most dangerous thing a large franchise can do is become complacent about their audience. And it’s a risk that seems to have paid off: WandaVision is a brilliant show that’s been largely well received by audiences and critics alike.
Set a few weeks after the events of Endgame, the story is loosely inspired by a collection of Marvel comic storylines—most notably ‘The Vision and the Scarlet Witch’ miniseries and Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel’s ‘House of M’ storyline—and sees Wanda Maximoff and the Vision apparently living a happy life of wedded “suburban bliss”. But of course Vision was killed in Infinity War and was not one of those brought back in Endgame. This is a world that Wanda has created (hence Wanda -Vision, get it?), inspired by the American sitcoms she loved as a child, that she took comfort in and retreated into when life got too much. It just happens that she’s forced this reality on an entire town and its residents.
Writer Jac Schaeffer—who has previously written for Captain Marvel (2019) and Black Widow (2021)—said that she “tracked the narrative according to the stages of grief. It seemed like a very exciting place to start that Wanda is with the audience and is in legitimate denial. That obviously it’s a metaphor for human grief, but it also works for the narrative structure of the show” and this is exactly how WandaVision plays out: the strangest session of grief counselling ever that finally develops Wanda into the Scarlet Witch, fleshing her out as something of an anti-hero (or at the very least, a hero with occasional villainous tendencies), before becoming a full-blown MCU spectacle by the finale.
The first three episodes are pure sitcom—albeit with Twilight Zone-esque glitches in reality that establish the overarching mystery—before episode four shows us these events from the ‘real’ world’s perspective, then weaves the two strands together. It’s a bit of a slow burn to begin with but made me realise how much I’d love to see a straight Avengers sitcom. Each sitcom episode pays homage to a separate decade and the style and shows of that period, beginning with the 1950s and shows like I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show, through to Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, Family Ties, Malcom in the Middle and ending with Modern Family in the 2010s. Director Matt Shackman is no stranger to sitcoms (he starred in one as a child) and the level of attention to detail is INSANE! To list every way in which they recreated each era would make this review even longer than it already is (I recommend watching their “making-of” episode, ASSEMBLED: The Making of WandaVision, if you’re interested) but suffice to say, everything from costumes, props and sets, through to special effects, score, and cinematography is considered. This means they can play with those conventions to give the audience visual clues as well, create whatever atmosphere they want to convey or subvert it. (Another thing that would also make this review even longer would be to go through all the references and easter eggs, just trust me that there are a lot and that there are plenty of YouTube videos that go through them.)
A good story needs good performances however, and WandaVision doesn’t disappoint. It’s criminal that Marvel haven’t allowed Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany to do comedy before now because they are BRILLIANT! Bettany’s ‘drunk-robot’ antics in episode 2 are worth the price of admission alone. It’s no exaggeration to say that they’re the show’s beating heart, able to go from comedy to pathos and back again, but there’s not really a duff performance among them. Other standout performances include Kathryn Hahn’s scene-stealing turn as Agatha Harkness and Teyonah Parris’s adult Monica Rambeau (last seen as a child in Captain Marvel). Returning side characters Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis (Randall Park and Kat Dennings), last seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and Thor: The Dark World (2013) respectively, also became firm fan favourites.
Lastly, the other important element tying it all together is music. Christophe Beck (who had previously scored both Ant-Man films) composed the score for the series, creating tracks that pay homage to the sitcoms in each time period, as well as creating several themes and motifs to bridge the sitcom reality with the more traditional music for the world outside. Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (who worked with Beck on Disney’s Frozen franchise) created the central four-note motif that ties everything together, and wrote (and in many cases performed) the sitcom theme songs, each of them ear-worms, their villain song for Kathryn Hahn, ‘Agatha All Along’ (a delightful Munsters homage) proving so popular that the digital release of the soundtrack album for that episode was a week early.
Despite how great it is, WandaVision isn’t perfect. The finale left some feeling a little let down as there were “so many chess pieces on the board” that even the writers were gently warning people that they may be disappointed before it aired. Firstly, it’s important to remember that, like everything else, the pandemic wreaked havoc on filming, meaning that production was halted halfway through. This led to them reconfiguring material as they edited what they already had, and due to travel restrictions some actors weren’t able to come back when filming resumed. It also meant that they only finished editing the finale two weeks before broadcast. Secondly, Kevin Feige has stated that the shows don’t need to be seen in order to understand upcoming films. But that brings us to the elephant in the room: fan theories. The MCU’s raison d’être is to set up things that pay off later down line and WandaVision is no exception. Releasing a new episode each week allowed the fans to theorise and generate discussion, Marvel knew this and took advantage of it, even referring to it in the show itself. This is the source of some main bone of contention for some fans: the Evan Peters cameo. Peters’ version Quicksilver from the FOX X-Men films is very popular. We knew before WandaVision began that it would tie directly into the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so when he turned up at the end of episode 5, many (myself included) were excited that this was the first sign of multiverse crossover. Cue massive disappointment when it just turns out to be a sitcom recast joke. Disappointment of a scale that seems to have taken Marvel by surprise. In an interview with Variety earlier this month, Schaffer revealed that Evan’s appearance was an idea she had early on in the process and was surprised by the strength of the reaction. I’m surprised that no one at Marvel who know exactly what their fanbase is like, and what they expect, didn’t warn her what the likely response would be if his inclusion didn’t amount to anything significant. Like the rest of the cast, Peters’ performance is brilliant but he’s severely underused.
But there’s still a chance it could lead to more. There’s a theory that Marvel have already set up the quantum entanglement of the multiverse with the appearance of J.K. Simmons (the J. Jonah Jameson from the SONY Spider-verse) in the post credit scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), which is supposed to take place 7 months AFTER WandaVision. There are also rumours that Peters will be playing his Quicksilver incarnation in Multiverse of Madness (though how this will work with the American Horror Story season 10 filming due to begin remains to be seen).
Still, one disappointing element does not a great series ruin. Though it’s part of an interconnected universe, WandaVision is still a great series that stands as a piece of art on its own. And if you haven’t yet seen it, or were previously unsure, now all 9 episodes are available on Disney+, it’s the perfect opportunity to binge.
