For sitcom and superhero lovers alike, the new Marvel show “WandaVision” captivated audiences this year.
“WandaVision” follows the lives of a super-powered family: Wanda, her husband Vision, and their two sons Billy and Tommy.
Wanda, otherwise known as the Scarlet Witch, has many powers including chaos magic, or the ability to reshape reality.
“Wanda is my favorite overall in the entire MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe] because her powers and her story are super cool,” freshman Rhea Choksey said.
Vision is a super-powered artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, and Dr. Bruce Banner, or the Hulk. Middle School Dean Jeff Wilson, a comic book enthusiast, was interested in the character Vision from his first appearance, and was excited to see his development throughout the show.
“In Infinity War, [Vision] sacrificed himself, the ultimate heroic attribute,” Wilson said. “Sacrificing himself for humanity, even though he’s not human. I’m a big fan of [that] kind of nobility.”
The MCU is most commonly known for its thrilling action movies and gripping battle scenes. “WandaVision” is different because it models each show after popular sitcoms from different eras.
“I like that Marvel is moving into different types of entertainment, and so this is a welcome change,” Wilson said. “It’s a chance for Marvel fans to get some more character development over the course of a nine-episode series rather than just a two-hour block.”
Executive Producer Jac Schaeffer said the use of sitcoms was actually the idea of her co-Producer Kevin Feige.
“Sitcoms are so seemingly innocuous, but they speak volumes about who we are and who we want to be and these elemental truths about family and connection and love and parenthood,” Schaeffer said in the podcast “The Treatment.” “It seems like this almost pedestrian way into a show that has very large emotional stakes and themes.”
For example, the first episode was modeled after “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” From “I Love Lucy” and “Bewitched” to “The Brady Bunch” and even “Modern Family,” “WandaVision” has presented itself in several different styles that have intrigued spectators.
“As the first new content that we’ve seen from Marvel in two years, it was an interesting way to get people back into the MCU that we haven’t seen before,” Wilson said. “So WandaVision was kind of a cool hook and gave people the chance to see things from a new perspective.”
According to Choksey, the sitcom format was deliberate and cleverly incorporated. The sitcom style ties into Wanda’s development and backstory.
“It worked really well for WandaVision because later we found out Wanda’s love for sitcoms has been consistent throughout her entire life,” Choksey said.
However, as the season progressed, the show slowly moved away from the sitcom format.
“But ultimately it still ended up being Marvel,” Wilson added. “It started with the sitcom and ended with a big action battle at the end.”
The making of “WandaVision” began in November 2019, and to the fan’s dismay, was abruptly stopped by the pandemic in March 2020.
“I think it was supposed to be 10 episodes, and I think what happened was the pandemic shut down and so they had to truncate and move everything into episode nine, which was supposed to be spaced out over two episodes,” Wilson said. “I think we lost some of the motivation so that’s the only thing I wish we would have gotten more of.”
Due to the show’s popularity, there is a lot of desire for a second season. Yet, thus far, there are no reported plans for a second season of “WandaVision.” However, Feige did confirm that “WandaVision” will lead into the Doctor Strange sequel, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”