WandaVision Review t57i Marvel’s Endgame Boom Made This Experiment Possible

A sitcom with Avengers that’s really about mental illness. 6q6cn

By Akhil Arora | Updated: 5 March 2021 20:04 IST

WandaVision Review: Marvel’s Endgame Boom Made This Experiment Possible

Photo Credit: Disney/Marvel Studios 4m5x1g

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision

Highlights

WandaVision streaming on Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar
All nine episodes, including series finale, are out now
WandaVision set up two MCU movies (and maybe more)

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WandaVision, Marvel Studios' first ever TV series, inspired by decades of American sitcoms, was one of the funniest entries yet. But it was also one of its saddest. At its heart, WandaVision was about its protagonist, Wanda Maximoff/ Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), navigating a deep and personal loss. Wanda might be an Avenger and have superhuman abilities, but her heart is still human. Spoilers ahead. And she's led the most heart-wrenching of lives, as WandaVision reiterated, having literally lost everyone she has ever cared for: her parents Iryna (Ilana Kohanchi) and Olek Maximoff (Daniyar), her only brother Pietro Maximoff (Aaron-Taylor Johnson, not Evan Peters), her lover Vision (Paul Bettany), and her — real? — twin boys, Tommy (Jett Klyne) and Billy (Julian Hilliard).

The Avengers: Infinity War.

Not just once, but twice — it's actually thrice now after Avengers: Endgame — it was the first time that she was able to properly grieve.

Paul Bettany as Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision
Photo Credit: Disney/Marvel Studios

Grief is usually the first act of a story, more so for the likes of Star Wars: A New Hope, after losing his guardians, Luke Skywalker throws himself into a galactic conflict and trains to be a Jedi. The protagonists, propelled by the loss, launch themselves into an adventure. Grief is the catalyst, not a destination. But not so for WandaVision. Moreover, its longform nature allowed WandaVision to explore a character's inner life like never before. No other MCU property has had this amount of time to navigate how a Marvel superhero is feeling. Even the three-hour Endgame had to get on with its plot after a point.

Of course, it helps when you've a talent like Olsen. The 32-year-old has never had the space in Marvel films previously — she's always been the ing player, across two Avengers films (Age of Ultron and Infinity War) and Captain America: Civil War, in addition to a cameo in Endgame — but here on WandaVision, Olsen showcases what she's truly capable of. Olsen kept up with the demands the sitcom beats asked of her, even as they changed every episode. And though the dramatic beats were more akin to what she's done before in the MCU, there were scenes on WandaVision episode 8 that allowed her to dig deep into Wanda's emotions. And she delivered. Through its five-hour-plus runtime, Olsen proved that she is a terrific actress.

A non-exhaustive list of WandaVision's sitcom inspirations

Episodes 1 and 2: Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, I Love Lucy, and The Dick Van Dyke Show
Episode 3: The Brady Bunch, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Courtship of Eddie's Father
Episode 5: Family Ties, Full House, Growing Pains, Step by Step, and Who's the Boss?
Episode 6: Malcolm in the Middle
Episode 7: Modern Family, The Office, and Parks and Recreation
Agatha All Along: The Munsters, and The Addams Family

Wanda's grief manifested itself as the Hex — as Dr. Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) termed it — which she created after crumbling and giving into “chaos magic” at the site of the Westview, New Jersey home that Vision had earmarked for their future, as we saw in WandaVision episode 8. The ever-changing sitcom eras (that Olsen nailed) were essentially Wanda's coping mechanisms, because she was unable to live with the pain and suffering she had endured. For WandaVision, that became an early selling point, in that it would pay homage to American sitcoms through the decades. Across its nine-episode run that ended Friday, WandaVision traded on over a dozen of them, including the likes of Modern Family (from the ‘00s).

WandaVision may have started as a homage to sitcoms, but it became a reveal-driven show as it went on. In White Vision”, who had all of his powers but none of the soul.

Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) becomes a superhero in WandaVision
Photo Credit: Disney/Marvel Studios

And because it's also a Marvel property at the same time, WandaVision also had to do the obligatory work of setting up future MCU entries.

For one, it served as the origin story of Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), with the Hex helping to turn her into a superhero — as we saw in WandaVision episode 7. Parris is already part of the WandaVision episode 9 mid-credits scene confirmed, which includes supposedly meeting Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). It will no doubt also tell us why Monica doesn't like talking about Carol — which we were shown in WandaVision episode 5. In the comics, Monica once owned the Captain Marvel moniker, before Carol ever existed. Could Captain Marvel 2 put a spin on this? It'll be interesting to see that, more so in light of their less than cordial relationship.

Then there's the direct continuation of WandaVision's story that Marvel has repeatedly talked about: WandaVision episode 9 post-credits scene hinted at a different storyline, one that involves Wanda trying to find out how her twin boys Tommy (Jett Klyne) and Billy (Julian Hilliard) are still around.

WandaVision might have also set up Marvel's far-off future, if the twins are indeed alive — and it's not a trick. In the comics, Tommy and Billy grow up to be the superheroes Speed and Wiccan, respectively, who are both part of Young Avengers.

Given what we know of the MCU's nature, something tells me this will link into the multiverse — it's right in the title of Doctor Strange 2. The multiverse is said to be first explored in Disney+ Hotstar.

Jett Klyne as Tommy and Julian Hilliard as Billy in WandaVision
Photo Credit: Disney/Marvel Studios

MCU Phase 4 movies and series in 2021 6w1e5a

January–March: WandaVision
March–April: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
May 7: Black Widow
June–July: Loki
Mid-2021: Marvel's What If...?
July 9: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
November 5: Eternals
Late 2021: Ms. Marvel
Late 2021: Hawkeye
December 17: Spider-Man: No Way Home

That's two different series (WandaVision and Loki) and one movie sequel (Spider-Man: No Way Home) all playing into another sequel. WandaVision, hence, seems to be the start of a new interconnected era for Marvel, where it can — and will — do even more links than ever before. While films set up future (Avengers) get-togethers previously, now it's going to become more like a spider's web. And that's partly thanks to the arrival of Disney+. For us fans, to have the best MCU experience, you will need to stay updated on all the series and movies. But for some, this might begin to seem like homework. After all, there are 10 MCU entries alone in 2021.

But Marvel's success — it's the biggest franchise of all time with over $22.5 billion (about Rs. 1,63,711 crores) at the box office worldwide, and WandaVision is said to be one of the most streamed original series — shows that people are willing to go on the journey. It's why virtually every Hollywood studio has attempted to copy this model (with varying degrees of lesser success), now including its own sister studio Jessica Jones), but it never truly exploded. With Disney+, it's now bringing its film stars to television screens.

Star Wars has yet to do that, save for that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) cameo in IMAX screens and had budgets running into hundreds of millions. The latter bit stands true for WandaVision and other MCU series, except they are now being beamed straight into our homes, in a piecemeal fashion.

Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, Randall Park as Jimmy Woo in WandaVision
Photo Credit: Disney/Marvel Studios

And that's what makes WandaVision the first true MCU TV show. While most Marvel movies are about two hours long (unless you're called “Kevin Feige has said that others (like Loki and The Falcon and the Winter Solider) will be even longer, with episodes ranging from 40–50 minutes — longer than most TV dramas though shorter than the hourlong fixtures that Netflix has (unfortunately) made a habit of.

The longform approach helped the storytelling on WandaVision, and so did the fact that it wasn't beholden to being an out-and-out actioner. That said, this is not true across the board. The Falcon and the Winter Solider — premiering March 19 — looks a lot more like what Marvel has offered on the big screen. But WandaVision has shown that Marvel isn't taking its position on top of the world for granted. It's willing to try out new things — the studio delivered the biggest movie of all time with Endgame, so why not experiment — on the same giant canvas as its blockbusters. Go back a couple of years with the help of Doctor Strange's Time Stone and try telling someone that Marvel would soon give us a sitcom with Avengers, which in actuality would be about a superhero processing their trauma. That's WandaVision.

All nine episodes of WandaVision are streaming on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar.

WandaVision 634t2e

Release Date 15 January 2021
Genre Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Superhero
Cast
Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Debra Jo Rupp, Fred Melamed, Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, Evan Peters
Director
Matt Shakman
Producer
Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Matt Shakman, Jac Schaeffer

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