WandaVision is fixing the worst part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
The most unlikely Marvel show is welcoming legions back to the MCU since 2019. The implications could be immense.
Marvel didn't want to start Disney+ with WandaVision. In the aftermath of a culture-shaking Avengers: Endgame, Marvel wanted traditional movies like Black Widow and a blockbuster TV show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to set the tone before WandaVision could get weird. But a pandemic and a need to push product on a quarterly schedule necessitated releasing WandaVision, which takes after post-war television sitcoms more than a run of the mill superhero adventure.
A show like WandaVision is easier to swallow when there's been a steady stream of familiarity, but this unplanned shakeup may just be the biggest change for the Marvel Cinematic Universe since The Avengers assembled in 2021.
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WandaVision puts the spotlight on two movie Avengers who've never had a movie of their own: Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), a psychic known as "Scarlet Witch" in the comics; and the Vision (Paul Bettany), an android created by two geniuses, an evil robot, and an Infinity Stone. In the comics, Wanda and Vision were an unlikely, and troubled, romantic couple. In a 2016 issue of The Vision, a flashback saw Wanda and Vision gaze into each other's eyes like high school sweethearts as their Avengers colleagues dealt with an immediate threat.
Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany return to their Avengers film roles in the new sitcom-style thriller, WandaVision.
The Marvel film franchise planted the seeds for WandaVision nearly six years ago. In the 2015 movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Vision first leapt out of Tony Stark's laboratory table, a single reaction shot of a bewildered Wanda lingers. It was the first domino to fall, culminating in an entire streaming series centered on their domestic bliss.
“The entirety of the love story between Wanda and Vision was basically one shot in Age of Ultron where he swoops in to rescue her,” Marvel's Kevin Feige told The New York Times. Their relationship developed further in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, and by 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, the two were having weekend trysts in Scotland — until Vision was killed by Thanos.
Now, three years later, Vision is back under circumstances yet to be explained. But he's not a superhero anymore. Neither is Wanda. Vision's a sitcom dad (and Wanda, a sitcom housewife). No longer is Vision calculating the odds of survival for the Avengers, he's now calling his dear Wanda because the boss is coming for dinner. If Hasbro were to release an action figure of Vision as we see him in WandaVision, his accessories would include a trilby hat, horn-rimmed glasses, and a newspaper under his armpit.
In a normal Marvel movie (or a more traditional Marvel show like Flacon and the Winter Soldier), we'd already know who the main villain is. A full hour in, there'd be at least one huge action scene and lots of explosions, and the plot would be moving at a mile-a-minute. WandaVision is throwing all of that out the window. The question is: Will Marvel learn anything from this weird experiment, or return to "normal" as soon as it's over?
What will be the MCU after WandaVision?
In WandaVision, the two Avengers live a domestic life inside a fabricated reality. But there is something going on outside their view.
There will be plenty of normalcy, to be sure. We are getting Black Widow and Eternals eventually, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in just nine weeks. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in July. Morbius in October. By all accounts, 2021 will be just another year for the Marvel calendar. But this is a franchise that reacts to its audience. The post-credits scene of 2008's Iron Man drummed up excitement, so Marvel kept giving it. The Avengers, which could have been the last MCU movie if it made no money (highly unlikely, but in 2012 it was a possibility) paid off big time. And it's shepherded all by Kevin Feige, a producer that even Ben Affleck sang in praise of, saying:
“He’s the only guy in the world who, if he told me, ‘I know what the audience wants! This is what we’re doing!’ I would believe him 100% ... Kevin is like a ringmaster at the circus, he knows exactly how much to wink at the audience, exactly when to pull at the heartstrings, exactly when to do the effects, how many jokes, what the sensibility, what the tone is. Because people didn’t know to run away from the pajamas or embrace it, or make it serious.”
Whether people want more or less of WandaVision, you know Marvel is paying attention.
WandaVision is streaming new episodes weekly on Disney+.
