Ever since her introduction in the post-credits sequence of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Wanda Maximoff has always been an ensemble player in its subsequent superhero smackdowns, realigning her allegiances in Age Of Ultron, joining the airport fray in Civil War, and making sure Thanos knew exactly what she was capable of in the finale of Endgame. But she’s never been centre stage before, until now. In WandaVision, the first of the MCU’s upcoming run of Disney+ limited series which tie directly into the long-running movie franchise, she’s the star of the show, paired up once again with Paul Bettany’s Vision for a mind-bending sitcom-inspired comic book mystery.
Elizabeth Olsen’s character, aka Scarlet Witch, might have proved she was more powerful than we were ever aware of at the end of Endgame, but audiences are about to understand her a whole lot better – including what exactly she can do with those Mind Stone-imbued powers. “If you look at the Infinity Saga, I don’t think any single person has gone through more pain and trauma than Wanda Maximoff. And no character seems to be as powerful as Wanda Maximoff. And no character has a power-set that is as ill-defined and unexplored as Wanda Maximoff,” MCU boss Kevin Feige tells Empire. “So it seemed exploring that would be worthwhile post-Endgame. Who else is aware of that power? Where did it come from? Did the Mind Stone unlock it?”
The natural vehicle to explore that power-set? A six-episode romp through sitcom history, with Wanda experiencing a reality that sees her somehow living the American Dream with her robo-beau – despite the fact that we saw him definitively cark it in Infinity War. The results should be like nothing Marvel – or anyone else, for that matter – has done before, bringing superhero set-pieces and psychological character study to an unabashed love-letter to classic domestic situation comedies. “I loved TV, and watched far too much The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy and Bewitched and everything,” Feige says of his viewing habits as a kid. And while the bits we’ve seen of WandaVision so far tease homages to old black-and-white series, it has plenty more up its sleeve. “We go up to the Modern Family and The Office style,” Feige reveals. “The talk-to-the-camera, shaky-camera, documentary style.”
Read Empire’s full WandaVision story in the January 2021 issue, on sale Thursday 26 November, and available to order online here. WandaVision comes to Disney+ on 15 January.