The first two episodes of Marvel Studios’ WandaVision will premier together on January 15th. After a year without a Marvel movie, I cannot wait to jump right into the Disney+ series. The show follows Scarlet Witch a.k.a. Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) as they attempt to live a quiet suburban life following the events of Avengers: Endgame. Early reactions say that this is “Weirder than the usual MCU film.”
I dig small-screen superheroes. Legion offered imagery the likes of which I never could have imagined seeing on television. All of its mismatched pieces held themselves together just long enough to create something more beautiful than their sum total. HBO’s Watchmen built upon a recognizable, celebrated title without indulging in the maximalist nature of today’s franchises. Instead, it created something original in its own right. The Boys on Amazon is better than its source material and is equally insightful and disturbing.
WandaVision is what the MCU needs after Endgame. Step back for a few years and give their heroes threats that don’t leave you wondering “Why aren’t the Avengers here?” Give me character study more than a global crisis. Throw in some heavy foreshadowing of a large group plot, as it ties into Doctor Strange & The Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man 3. Mash it all up with a sort of Lynchian vibe and really show off the selling points of doing series on Disney+ without alienating audiences. I also wonder if the whole sitcom trope thing will be tied in with Wanda’s immigrant background – there are a number of immigrant stories about learning English by watching lots of American television. Maybe that will explain her suddenly disappearing accent.
What is this all about? My guess: They need Wanda to do her House of M thing in Doc Strange 2, but they know that they haven’t done nearly enough in the movies to justify the transition from “somewhat misguided kid who can move stuff with her mind” to “utterly unhinged woman who can alter reality itself” I’m thinking Wanda throws a bubble up around an actual town that she more or less takes over, pulling everyone who lives there normally into her delusions. It could be Katherine Hahn’s a.k.a. the Nosy Neighbors bubble too. She has to be playing some sort of witch for sure. I still think Mephisto is involved. Somehow. Someway. Also curious how Monica Rambeau gets throw in the mix. Would be a hell of a coincidence if she’s in the bubble when it’s created. It’s more likely she’s part of the investigation in to the bubble (SWORD?) and what we see is the result of Wanda figuring out she’s not supposed to be in there. Will Monica get to be Photon? Because likely that power is from Danvers. And she was hit with the Space Stone. All of this is a little suspect because post Endgame all the stones should be destroyed. I also wonder if there’s going to be fall out from her powers being tied to the Mind Stone. Especially now that it’s destroyed. The stones themselves may be gone, but can you truly destroy the energy they contained? Perhaps by destroying the stones, Thanos released that energy “into the wild”. It might seek out sympathetic vessels… those individuals (at least the living ones) who once possessed or were affected by the stones. I think it’s likely that the MCU will avoid the Infinity Stones for the most part, if for no other reason than to not dwell on them past their prime. There’s a massively magical mélange of mystical material for Marvel to muck about with. Lets do new things.
–Dagobot
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