Disney+'s First Look At WandaVision Is A Shock To The MCU System

Wanda Scarlet Witch with powers Avengers Endgame
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)
(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

If you haven't seen or heard anything about Marvel's new WandaVision TV series prior to this new first look image from Disney+, and you only know Wanda/Scarlet Witch and Vision from the Avengers movies ... well! This photo will confuse the bleep out of you, and not just because of how we left things with Vision. As it is, it's a shock to the MCU system -- a black-and-white 1950s sitcom-style image of Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany's vision:

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Lucy, er, Wanda, you've got some 'splainin' to do! Actually, while seemingly detached from the rest of the MCU, this look at WandaVision -- from the many reveals during CCXP 2019 -- is in keeping with the warnings Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and the cast have given about WandaVision being "the oddest" of all Marvel projects.

It's not the first retro image we've seen either, since there was also a sitcom-style poster:

And WandaVision footage shown at D23 apparently mixed MCU scenes with The Dick Van Dyke Show. Will there be a laugh track, at times?

The 1950s vibe suggests WandaVision will adapt Marvel Comics's The Vision series by Tom King. It follows Vision as he tries to create an android family in a suburban home in a '50s style neighborhood -- but of course things go terribly wrong.

Kevin Feige was on hand at CCXP 2019 to share the first looks at WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (literally just the two leads standing there) and show the first footage from The Eternals -- without making that footage available to the public yet.

While talking about WandaVision, Kevin Feige emphasized the series will introduce Scarlet Witch by name -- something, incredibly, that has not happened yet in the movies -- and also set up storylines that have big impacts in the MCU movies:

[We have] the opportunity to tell their story, and show more of what Wanda can do, more of what makes Vision, Vision, and most importantly, reveal a name that I’m not even sure we’ve said in the MCU yet, but we make a big deal of in the show, is the fact that Wanda is the Scarlet Witch. And what does that mean, that she is the Scarlet Witch? That’s what we play into with this show in ways that are entirely fun, entirely funny, somewhat scary, and will have repercussions for the entire future of Phase 4 of the MCU.

As Kevin Feige said (via Collider), there are big repercussions ahead. We already know Scarlet Witch will also be part of the Doctor Strange sequel, which will also have a tie to the Disney+ series Loki. Here's more on that from Feige:

The multiverse is the next step in the evolution of the MCU, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is gonna crack it wide open in ways that will have repercussions for a Disney+ series just before it, that’s not WandaVision, and for movies just after it in a big, fun way.

There's a lot to dissect in there. But this is why some fans are frustrated that they feel like they HAVE to watch the new Disney+ shows to follow the MCU movies. They are very clearly linked.

Sticking with WandaVision, in addition to the two leads, the show will bring back the great Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, her character from the first two Thor movies, and Randall Park as Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man and the Wasp. Teyonah Parris will play Monica Rambeau, the now grown daughter of Captain Marvel's best friend Maria. And Kathryn Hahn is co-starring as a nosy neighbor, which is honestly my favorite thing about this nutty show so far.

I'm excited for this one. As Elizabeth Olsen said back at San Diego Comic-Con...

It’s gonna get weird, we’re gonna go deep, we’re gonna have lots of surprises and we’re going to finally understand Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch.

Kevin Feige added...

I can’t tell you how exciting and different and strange that show is going to be.

Another thing they can't tell us is when exactly it's coming, but WandaVision is expected in early 2021 and it's also expected to have just six episodes. As far as I can tell, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series will premiere first on Disney+ in late 2020, then WandaVision and Loki in early 2021, and the we get the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness movie in theaters on May 7, 2021.

Try your best to keep up with all things MCU with our handy guide and take things one month at a time by seeing what's new on Disney+ here in December 2019. If you want to join the Disney+ party, sign up here for a free 7-day trial.

Gina Carbone

Gina grew up in Massachusetts and California in her own version of The Parent Trap. She went to three different middle schools, four high schools, and three universities -- including half a year in Perth, Western Australia. She currently lives in a small town in Maine, the kind Stephen King regularly sets terrible things in, so this may be the last you hear from her.