2020 was a ghastly year - That almost goes without saying. Movies and TV series were either put on hold or filming was halted for the better part of the year all over Hollywood. But it’s now 2021 and things are starting to pick up.
Disney+ had about a dozen Marvel shows in development and the first one on tap is WandaVision. This show was slated to originally release in the Fall, but the pandemic pushed it back a few months. The show will now be released on January 15th, with two episodes dropping first and subsequent episodes airing every Friday thereafter.
Season one will consist of 9 episodes which will vary in length from 30-45 minutes long. There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the series, particularly when it was revealed that Doctor Strange would play a role in the series. WandaVision will also directly tie-in to 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and that has caused a frenzy among Marvel fans who are eager to see how this will happen. I have a theory on how the two could connect, and I think it comes down to the villain.
It’s been rumored, but not officially confirmed, that Doctor Strange’s most prolific nemesis, Nightmare would appear in the Doctor Strange sequel as the main villain. With the multiverse being an avenue of the future for the MCU, (Spider-Man 3 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) why not introduce moviegoers to the Dream Dimension? The Dream Dimension is one of many dimensions within the world of Marvel, and this one in particular, is where the villain Nightmare resides. Inflicting nightmares amongst humans but not in a lethal way like Freddy Krueger. Nightmare and his henchmen of demons live in this dimension and long for a way out into the real world.
WandaVision appears to be about Wanda Maximoff living a “fake life” where her lover Vision never died. She is shown in various sitcom scenarios with Vision, living a perfect life. It seems like someone will be pulling the strings to make her believe that this world is real. That is until she inevitably realizes that it is a fabrication and that she needs to escape. Kathryn Hahn is playing a character named Agnes. She can be seen in the trailer where she’s in a car dressed in a witch costume speaking to Vision. Agnes very well could be Nightmare in disguise.
Since the first WandaVision TV spot aired almost a year ago, we’ve known that WandaVision would bend time and take inspiration from classic American sitcoms as a driving force behind the show. Marvel President Kevin Feige has said that WandaVision will include styles from recent sitcoms such as The Office and Modern Family where the “talk-to-the-camera” documentary aspect will be included as well. This is interesting and it’s something that we haven’t seen before in the MCU.
Disney+ will, as Feige has alluded to often, offer the MCU the ability to do things that movies can’t. It will give them a chance to expand on shows and to make them into 6-10 hour long movies. And getting a few documentary-style scenes to expand this universe, is a really intriguing idea.
The cast is set, and many familiar faces will be coming back. Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis (Thor and Thor: The Dark World) will return, along with Randall Park’s Jimmy Woo (Ant-Man & The Wasp). Teyonah Parris will be playing Monica Rambeau who is the present-day version of Akira Akbar’s version of the character from Captain Marvel. Rambeau in the comics becomes a superhero and has gone by the names: Photon, Pulsar, Captain Marvel, and most recently, Spectrum. Her powers are very similar to Carl Danvers’. Having Rambeau in this series makes things more interesting. Parris will be coming back in Captain Marvel 2, so this gets us more of a chance to get to know her better.
Woo will reportedly be leading a faction of the organization known as S.W.O.R.D. which stands for “Sentient World Observation and Response Department”. They usually reside in Space dealing with intergalactic threats, much like S.H.I.E.L.D. who deals with “on earth” threats. S.W.O.R.D.’s presence on the show makes me believe the villain will most certainly be a heavy hitter. One that requires a lot of help to handle, as Nightmare would.
Back in June, Comic Book Movie reported that Evan Peters has joined the cast in an unspecified role. Peters played Quicksilver in Fox’s X-Men franchise. Yes, THAT Quicksilver. Quicksilver was also Wanda’s brother in Avengers: Age of Ultron - and met his demise in that movie. Peters coming back as Quicksilver wouldn’t make much sense. He would however be a perfect choice for Nightmare. Peters’ characterization of Kai Anderson in season 7 of American Horror Story, proves that he can pull off a sadistic villain very well.
The plot of WandaVision has been kept well under wraps for a while now. There have been no leaks coming out about it, which is fine by me! All we know is that the show will play a big role in the MCU going forward. Wanda will appear as a supporting character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so it seems that Marvel Studios wants to make Wanda and Doctor Strange some of the new “faces” of the MCU moving forward. Wanda has reality-warping powers in the comics, and a photo of Scarlet Witch and Vision was revealed by Marvel that took place in the 1950s. So maybe time travel will be playing a role in the series?
Elizabeth Olsen had this to say in the summer of 2019 to a Comic-Con audience: “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.” One of the biggest questions many people have going into the series is how/if Vision will be “reborn” in the MCU. I would assume he will come back into the real world by the end along with Wanda, and how they go upon doing that I believe lies with Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis.
As we know, Lewis is a scientist. We haven’t seen her character in the MCU since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. With S.W.O.R.D. playing a role in the series, maybe she’ll be working for them. Lewis was created for the movies and isn’t a character in the comics. So there’s nothing known about her character that could be used to pinpoint how her path has gone in the 8-year gap. Her being Vision’s savior is a good bet though.
Lastly, there is the possibility that Mutants could be introduced to the MCU in WandaVision. Wanda has two children in the comics: Speed and Wiccan. Speed is, well, a speedster, while Wiccan is a warlock with powers that are very similar to Scarlet Witch’s. In the WandaVision trailer, we see two babies, and if these aren’t Speed and Wiccan, I don’t understand why they’d choose to introduce Wanda’s children without them being the famous super-powered duo. Unless Marvel Studios wants to save them, or Mutants in general, for a future MCU installment… This would be the perfect place to introduce Mutants. In the comics, Wanda Maximoff is a Mutant herself, being the daughter of famed X-Men villain Magneto.
That’s a plot point that Marvel obviously wasn’t allowed to use for 2015’s Age of Ultron due to movie rights, and rewriting over that backstory to have Magneto be her father, seems highly unlikely. So, have her be a Mutant and have her be the driving force behind Mutants in the MCU moving forward. If this series does indeed set up the future of the MCU, Mutants would be a huge way to go, not just in setting up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
You can see the first TWO WandaVision episodes Friday, January 15th on Disney+.