Over the years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown to be the most profitable film franchise in the world. Despite its record-breaking numbers and critical acclaim, it’s impossible to deny that some of the films have become formulaic. Good guy is normal, he gets powers, he learns his powers by a mentor, mentor dies, he fights supervillain that is just a dark reflection of himself, and he wins. At least 8 of the 22 films follow that blueprint, and although they’re a fun ride, fans expect something different every once in a while. Films like “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Thor: Ragnarok” have broken that formula, but few have done something as original as the limited mini-series “WandaVision.”
“WandaVision” follows Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) as she lives her idyllic suburban life with her late husband Vision (Paul Bethany), switching through decades of sitcom tropes. Wanda’s not going crazy, no. She created an entire reality, brought her husband back, and took an entire New Jersey town hostage to play neighbors and workers in her sitcom.
Marvel has never really experimented with genre-bending before, usually sticking to realism and occasionally psychedelic tones. By seeing the story through only Wanda’s sitcom-loving eyes, the reality of the situation is completely shrouded by mystery. This surreal and eerie mood is one never before seen in the superhero genre.
This new Disney+ show adds entirely new layers of depth to Wanda and Vision. These characters were frankly underutilized in previous movies, almost always being squared away for a majority of the movie. It’s obvious why: these two characters are some of the strongest in the entire franchise, and if the writers didn’t have an excuse to keep them occupied, almost every movie would be over in minutes. This leaves them as extremely underdeveloped characters. “WandaVision” fleshes them out completely, making them characters we truly root for and feel sorry for.
Elizabeth Olsen delivers the performance of her career. From eerie delusion in the beginning to heartbreaking acceptance at the end, her range is baffling. Paul Bettany is great as well, bringing the comedy to an otherwise serious character. Randall Park returns as the hilarious Jimmy Woo, as does Kat Dennings, who plays Darcy Lewis. They’re the funniest characters of the show, and although it sometimes doesn’t match the otherwise mysterious setting, it’s entertaining nonetheless.
Teyonah Parris plays Monica Rambeau, and her character has so much potential going forward in the MCU. She was the highlight of the world outside Wanda’s reality by a mile. Lastly, Kathryn Hahn plays Agnes, Wanda’s nosy neighbor, who is later revealed to be an evil witch named Agatha Harkness who has been trying to discover the secrets behind Wanda’s powers. When we first found out the truth about her origin, it seemed like she would have been one of the best villains in the franchise. By the finale, however, she was reduced to a laser-blasting witch with very weak motivations. The door is still open for her, however, as the creators didn’t kill her and leave her in the dust like so many other Marvel villains.
Another player in “WandaVision” who unfortunately had less of a prominent role was Evan Peters. For those who don’t know, Aaron Taylor-Johnson played Quicksilver, Wanda’s brother, in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” He ultimately died, and he hasn’t showed up since. However, in Fox’s “X-Men” Universe, Evan Peters plays the role of Quicksilver, and is highly regarded as the better version of the two. Even though Disney acquired Fox in 2019, there has been no sign of a crossover between the two universes.
Until “WandaVision,” that is. In “Episode 5” Evan Peters shows up at her door, playing her brother back from the dead. This blew fans’ minds, igniting many theories about the multiverse and connecting the MCU to the “X-Men.” The main theory that I found believable was that she wanted her brother in her perfect world, but he was actually dead (unlike Vision, as he was never very alive to begin with). So Wanda tore a hole in the multiverse, plucked Quicksilver from the “X-Men” Universe, and put him in her reality.
When it was revealed in “Episode 7” that Agatha was controlling him, it made the theory a bit more confusing, but valid nonetheless. Well, we finally learned the truth in the finale, and it was extremely disappointing. Agatha just picked a random actor named Ralph to play the part of Quicksilver using mind control, and then gave him super-speed. To top it all off, they made his last name “Bohner.” It was pretty cheap of Marvel to give us a taste of the first link between the universes, only for it to amount to a dick joke. This is a pattern that continues through the rest of the finale.
Throughout the show, fans speculated immensely about every single detail. Many thought that Mephisto was the big bad, and Agatha was just a henchman to him. There were even a couple of lines about the Devil that indicated his appearance. But as the weeks went by, and the show was inching closer towards its finale, it became apparently clear that the fan-favorite villain wouldn’t appear. It was rather disappointing, as it made the show a bit smaller in scale. There are other examples of things referenced in the show that didn’t amount to anything. Monica kept mentioning an aerospace engineer who she was supposed to meet with, who could potentially help her. Many thought it would be the introduction of Reed Richards and the Fantastic 4, or maybe Blue Marvel, or even Beast from the “X-Men” films. But in the finale, we didn’t even get a mention of the mystery character. It was like the creators forgot about it.
But I can live with my fan theories not coming true. It’s fine to have a nice, self-contained story without anything big going on around it. Or, it would’ve been, if the cast and crew didn’t clearly say otherwise. Paul Bettany mentioned that the cameo was someone he’s always wanted to work with. Ian Mckellan? Patrick Stewart? No, turns out Bettany was just trolling, and he meant the evil doppelganger of Vision. The actor he always wanted to work with was himself. Teyonah Parris mentioned she was extremely excited for audiences to find out who the aerospace engineer was, but alas, no sign of him or her. Elizabeth Olsen mentioned that there would be a “Luke Skywalker-level cameo”, referencing his appearance in “The Mandalorian,” but there was nothing. Again, it would be fine if fans were just disappointed by their own speculations. Instead, Marvel promised all of these big events and didn’t deliver.
By the end, it just seemed like “WandaVision” did very little to progress the universe. And I’m okay with that, as it was one of the most well executed entries in the MCU so far. But it’s becoming apparently clear that this pattern will only continue with these Disney+ shows. Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel, said that nothing extremely important will happen in these shows, as to not confuse people who only watch the movies. That is a bit frustrating, as it not only shows that Feige thinks that some much needed character development is not important, but also that these series will continue to neglect the larger universe.
“WandaVision” was easily one of the most well-acted and well-written MCU projects, and the style and tone was near perfection. But after getting teased by rumors of a cameo and connections to other franchises, the endgame leaves us high and dry, even if the series offers some of the most unique stylings to come out of the Marvel.
*”WandaVision” is available to watch on Disney+.
