After years spent playing supporting roles, Vision and the Scarlet Witch are finally getting the spotlight in WandaVision, an upcoming show on the Disney+ streaming service. The limited series, which is expected to run between six and eight episodes, will be set after the events of Avengers: Endgame and is expected to have major repercussions on the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward.
WandaVision is still cloaked in mystery, particularly with regard to Vision’s return. And yet, Marvel and Disney have released a few small tidbits of information about the show into the wild, including its logo, some of the cast members, its release date (January 15, 2020), and some footage for the series. Here’s everything that we know about WandaVision so far.
First clip
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, star Elizabeth Olsen shared a new clip from the upcoming Disney+ series. Check out the interview and the clip (starting at 4:24) above.
Race to the finish
Speaking to SFX Magazine, director Matt Shakman said “it’s going to be a mad sprint to the finish line” to complete post-production on WandaVision in time for its January 15 release date. “The fact that we did have that post-process in the middle allowed us to finish up quicker than maybe we would have if we had just shot straight through and then just started post.”
New TV spot
A new TV spot reveals some previously unseen footage from the upcoming Disney+ show. One scene includes a shot of Wanda and Vision with two children — a probable allusion to the comic’s storyline in which Wanda magicks herself two twin boys who eventually become Young Avengers’ members Wiccan and Speed.
Release date and a new trailer
At Disney’s 2020 Investor Day, Marvel Studios released a new trailer and finally provided a release date for the upcoming series: January 15, 2021, on Disney+.
"We are an unusual couple." Marvel Studios' @WandaVision, an Original Series, starts streaming Jan. 15 on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/rBIygqUGsw
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) December 11, 2020
A journey through time
In December, the official WandaVision Twitter account began releasing posters for the series with Wanda Maximoff and Vision as the protagonists of different sitcoms throughout TV history. We’ve known since the Super Bowl spot that WandaVision would bend time and genre using American TV as a medium, but there appears to be something dark afoot. Take a look at the images below and note how details change, marking clear passages of time and suggesting that reality may be a bit warped. What or who is causing so much chaos in Wanda’s life and just how aware of it is she?
Exclusive @WandaVision Photo Hints at Super-Surreal Date Night — 2021 FIRST LOOK https://t.co/UxWB4w43Ti
— TVLine.com (@TVLine) December 30, 2020
📺 #WandaVision pic.twitter.com/QdKu2HEowy
— WandaVision (@wandavision) December 4, 2020
🎩 #WandaVision pic.twitter.com/R0kBKtpnQx
— WandaVision (@wandavision) December 5, 2020
✌️ #WandaVision pic.twitter.com/OyPAFvabIo
— WandaVision (@wandavision) December 6, 2020
📼 #WandaVision pic.twitter.com/DZsxvt7oiq
— WandaVision (@wandavision) December 7, 2020
🎃 #WandaVision pic.twitter.com/tnzBW2Mewa
— WandaVision (@wandavision) December 8, 2020
🖥️ #WandaVision pic.twitter.com/KD0SWpsS7e
— WandaVision (@wandavision) December 9, 2020
New set photos and a note on style
Empire Magazine has a new feature on the upcoming Disney+ series, giving us new looks at the set. The genre- and time-bending style sure seems to be in effect.
[NEW] WandaVision set pictures have been released by @EmpireMagazine! 👩🏻🦰🤖 pic.twitter.com/Q1Emi13vBV
— Elizabeth Olsen Access (@LizzieContent) November 23, 2020
Additionally, Marvel President Kevin Feige revealed that WandaVision will include some stylings popularized in sitcoms of the past 15 years. “We go up to the Modern Family and The Office style,” Feige said. “The talk-to-the-camera, shaky-camera, documentary style.”
The first trailer
Disney surprised audiences when they released the first trailer for WandaVision during the 2020 Emmy Awards. The trailer is every bit as wacky as the comic source material. The show seems completely untethered to time and space, which makes some sense because, as the trailer reminds us: Vision is dead.
Super Bowl spot
Disney teased The upcoming Disney+ shows WandaVision, Loki, and Falcon and Winter Soldier in a 30-second spot during Super Bowl LIV on February 2. After we hear Paul Bettany’s Vision saying, “Welcome home,” we see a smash cut of about a dozen versions of Wanda Maximoff and Vision living their domestic lives. Whether these are alternate realities or simply glimpses at a few scenes is up for speculation, but given the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s recent teases of a “multiverse”, it seems plausible that this series will deal with interdimensionality.
The first poster
During Disney’s D23 Expo in August, artist Andy Park debuted the poster he painted for WandaVision, revealing the first piece of official promotional art for the show.
WANDAVISION!!! Official D23 poster I had the honor of painting during the early concept phase of preproduction. This @DisneyPlus show is gonna be something totally fresh.. & weird! #ElizabethOlsen #PaulBettany @DisneyD23 #D23Expo #D23Expo2019 #Disney+ @MarvelStudios #WandaVision pic.twitter.com/VJU4p05Pmb
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 25, 2019
The poster seems to confirm reports that some (or possibly all) of the series will be set in the 1950s, but the shadows on the wall — which depict Vision and Scarlet Witch in their traditional. Marvel Comics superhero costumes — suggests that there’s more in play than what we see in the foreground.
The cast
Like the other Marvel shows coming to Disney+, WandaVision will feature the same actors that you’ve come to know and love on the big screen in their normal roles. In this case, that means that Elizabeth Olsen will return as Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, and Paul Bettany will be back as the robotic Avenger known as Vision.
They’ll be joined by Teyonah Parris, who’s best known for her work on Mad Men, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Dear White People (the movie, not the Netflix spinoff). Parris is new to the MCU, but the character she plays isn’t: Monica Rambeau appeared as a child in Captain Marvel, in which she’s introduced as Lashana Lynch’s daughter, but she’s all grown up by the time that WandaVision begins.
In June, Comic Book Movie also reported that Evan Peters, who played Quicksilver in Fox’s X-Men franchise, has also joined the cast in an unspecified “key” role. Although in Marvel comics, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) are siblings, the Marvel Cinematic Universe already played its Quicksilver card with Aaron Taylor-Johnson so it’s unlikely that Peters will be reprising his X-Men role.
Also reprising their MCU roles are Thor franchise actress Kat Dennings and Ant-Man and the Wasp actor Randall Park, who will return as intern Darcy Lewis and FBI agent Jimmy Woo, respectively.
The plot
Marvel is keeping WandaVision‘s storyline and overall premise a secret for now, but it’s confirmed that the show will play a big role in the MCU going forward. In addition to WandaVision, the Scarlet Witch will also appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which WandaVision will reportedly help set up.
There might be some time travel or alternate dimension shenanigans at play in WandaVision, too. Shortly after Disney unveiled Disney+ to investors, Olsen told Variety that Marvel had shared a picture of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision “in the 1950s.” Of course, in the comics, the Scarlet Witch has reality-warping powers, so who knows if this picture is “real” or not.
Obviously, the big question going into WandaVision is how Vision comes back, given that he was killed by Thanos pre-Snap in Avengers: Infinity War. However, from what Olsen says, it sounds like Wanda is going to be the show’s main focus. “We’re gonna get weird, we’re gonna go deep, we’re gonna have lots of surprises, and we’re gonna finally understand Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch,” Olsen told the Comic-Con 2019 audience.
Even with so many unknowns, we can take solace in the fact that a Marvel veteran is at the helm. WandaVision will be written by Captain Marvel and Black Widow co-writer Jac Schaeffer, who is also the showrunner.
The background
Audiences got their first glimpse at the Scarlet Witch in Captain America: Winter Soldier‘s post-credit sequence, and she made her full-fledged debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron. That’s the same movie that introduced Vision, although Paul Bettany had been voicing Tony Stark’s A.I. assistant Jarvis since Iron Man, which kicked off the MCU in 2008.
Scarlet Witch and Vision have been associated with the Avengers for decades. The Scarlet Witch first appeared in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s X-Men No. 4 as a member of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, alongside her brother, the super-speedster Quicksilver. Wanda is often depicted as Magneto’s daughter, although whether or not that’s officially canon changes fairly frequently. She joined the Avengers in issue No. 16, and has been a good guy (more or less) ever since.
Vision first appeared in Avengers No. 58, and was created by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and John Buscema. Originally, Vision was created by the Avengers’ mechanical nemesis, Ultron, as a weapon to use against the Avengers, but quickly switched sides. Wanda and Vision have been an on-again, off-again couple for years, and even had two children together, although the kids were ultimately revealed to be projections of the demon Mephisto.
Both Scarlet Witch and The Vision have appeared in major storylines over the past few years, both of which could influence WandaVision. In House of M, a grief-stricken Scarlet Witch creates an alternate reality in which mutants never existed, drastically altering the course of the Marvel Universe. Meanwhile, Vision recently headlined his own limited series in which he creates his own synthezoid family and tries to adjust to life in the suburbs.
Monica Rambeau’s presence in WandaVision is another interesting wrinkle. In the comics, Monica gained energy-controlling powers and dubbed herself Captain Marvel a good 20 years before Carol Danvers took the name, although she’s also gone by Photon, Pulsar, and Spectrum. It’ll be interesting to see if WandaVision stays true to Monica’s superheroic roots, or if this take has the character playing a different role.
