Development

By September 2018, Marvel Studios was developing several limited series for its parent company Disney's streaming service, Disney+, to be centered on supporting characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films who had not starred in their own films, such as Wanda Maximoff. Actors who portrayed the characters in the films were expected to reprise their roles for the limited series, including Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda. The series for Disney+ were expected to be six to eight episodes each, have a "hefty [budget] rivaling those of a major studio production", and be produced by Marvel Studios rather than Marvel Television, which produced previous MCU television series. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was believed to be taking a "hands-on role" in each limited series' development,^[55] focusing on "continuity of story" with the films and "handling" the actors who would be reprising their roles from the films.^[56] Brian Chapek, a director of production & development and creative executive at Marvel Studios, began initial work on a Wanda series before co-executive producer Mary Livanos joined the project in mid-2018 and took over the series' development.^[25][57] By the end of October, Paul Bettany's Vision was expected to play a significant role in the series, which would focus on the relationship between Wanda and Vision.^[58] In the following months, the titles Vision and the Scarlet Witch and The Vision and Scarlet Witch were both reported.^[59][60][61]

Feige came up with the idea of having Wanda and Vision living in a fantasy world of "suburban bliss", based on his love of sitcoms and how they can be used to escape from reality.^[2] When he was meeting with potential head writers for the series, some did not feel his proposed sitcom element would work. Jac Schaeffer, who was working on Black Widow (2021) at the time, heard the premise of the series and was excited by it. She had a meeting to pitch her ideas,^[62] and was hired as head writer in January 2019.^[60][63] Schaeffer was set to write the first episode and executive produce the series.^[60] That April, Disney and Marvel officially announced the series as WandaVision,^[3] and Matt Shakman was hired to direct and serve as an executive producer in August.^[64][65] Feige also executive produces alongside Marvel Studios' Louis D'Esposito and Victoria Alonso.^{[66]: 50 [67]: 20} Rather than call the series Wanda and Vision or The Scarlet Witch and Vision, Feige was inspired to use a compound title like WandaVision after seeing the title for the film BlacKkKlansman (2018),^[25] but he was hesitant about using it. Schaeffer insisted on using the title after hearing it, feeling it was perfect for the series. There was some backlash when the title was announced as it was perceived to be "the silliest title possible", but Schaeffer felt viewers would change their minds once they watched the series.^[68] Feige said the series would tell the story of Wanda and Vision, show Wanda's full abilities, explore who Vision is, and introduce Wanda's comic book name "Scarlet Witch" to the MCU in ways that are fun, funny, and "somewhat scary". He added that the series would have repercussions for the rest of the MCU's Phase Four,^[69] but said viewers would not need to be familiar with the MCU to understand the series. He did think there would be a "wealth of rewards" for those who had already seen all the MCU films and knew the plans for Phase Four.^[2]

The series was described as part sitcom, part "Marvel epic" by Feige,^[70] "super avant-garde and weird" by Bettany,^[71] an action movie mixed with sitcoms by actor Teyonah Parris,^[72] and a combination of superhero action and "small-town sitcom silliness" by Livanos.^[2] Shakman was "uniquely equipped" to direct such a series because of his experience directing series like the psychological drama Mad Men, the large-scale action series Game of Thrones, and sitcoms like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Shakman also felt more qualified to make WandaVision since he was a child actor on 1980s sitcoms such as Just the Ten of Us.^[73] The series totals approximately six hours of content across nine episodes,^[74][75] which vary from a half-hour comedy format to 50 minutes long.^[27][76] During development, the budget was reported to be as much as $25 million per episode.^[77]

Writing

Inception and structure

Jac Schaeffer created WandaVision and served as head writer for the series.

Much of the series takes place within a fictional sitcom called WandaVision.^[78] Schaeffer received comics material and an outline of what Marvel Studios hoped to accomplish so she could help shape their ideas.^[10]: 28 Feige was visually inspired by Mike del Mundo's "Norman Rockwell meets Leave it to Beaver" covers for the comic book series The Vision by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta,^[79][80][81] and pitched the series to Olsen and Bettany as a combination of that comic book and the "House of M" storyline by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel.^[65][82] Other inspiration was taken from the Scarlet Witch: Witches' Road trade paperback,^[83] the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline by Bendis and David Finch that preceded "House of M",^[81] the "Vision Quest" storyline from West Coast Avengers by John Byrne,^[84] and the comic book runs of The Vision and the Scarlet Witch by Bill Mantlo and Rick Leonardi,^[81][85] and by Steve Englehart and Richard Howell.^[81][86]

Feige, Schaeffer, Shakman, and Livanos dedicated themselves to "nail[ing] down" the series' irreverent tone.^[2] Schaeffer was inspired by the MCU film Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and the Marvel Television X-Men series Legion (2017–19), believing those projects broke the mold of what Marvel stories could be and were daring, original, and "bananas". She felt they allowed WandaVision to also be unique and different,^[87][88] and noted that it would be the polar opposite to her work on Black Widow which focused on aggressive, visceral action.^[89] Schaeffer hired Gretchen Enders, Megan McDonnell, Bobak Esfarjani, Peter Cameron, Mackenzie Dohr, Chuck Hayward, Cameron Squires, and Laura Donney for the series' writers room,^[90] a grouping of half men, half women, and several people of color,^[89][91] because Schaeffer believed the varying perspectives would create better stories.^[89] Each writer had different areas of expertise that they brought to the series and were aided by Schaeffer's assistant Laura Monti and the general writers' assistant Clay Lapari.^[90] Staff writer McDonnell was eventually promoted to story editor.^[92] Many of the writers had previous television experience, unlike Schaeffer, which helped her with the initial challenge of crafting the limited series' long-form structure as well as each episode within that larger narrative.^[10]: 29 Schaeffer believed the story could never have been told with a film format because it needed to establish its sitcom reality with a true television aesthetic before that could be broken.^[87]

Schaeffer found the central idea of Wanda being responsible for the sitcom reality to be a simple concept, and felt it would be more compelling if it was revealed through a mystery. This is done by showing Wanda and Vision living in the sitcom reality for the first three episodes before the fourth episode retells those events from a real world perspective to provide answers for viewers.^[93] Schaeffer described this as starting in a "grounded" sitcom with Twilight Zone "fraying edges", followed by a bottle episode to explain the early events.^[15] How long the series remained in the sitcom reality before giving answers to viewers was a big concern for Schaeffer.^[94] Following the "enormous info dump" in the fourth episode, Schaeffer hoped the audience could experience the rest of the series as an "emotional and a psychological journey, rather than a sneaky mystery the whole way".^[93] She pitched the rest of the series as mixing sitcom and real world elements until the penultimate episode explores Wanda's history and creation of the sitcom reality,^[15] concluding in a big finale with the spectacle of an MCU film.^[83] She compared the series to a multi-issue comic book and said it remained very close to her original pitch,^{[10]: 29 [15]} which was structured to follow the five stages of grief by starting with denial and ending with acceptance.^[40][95] Ten episodes were originally planned, but this was reworked to nine episodes to improve the "rhythm".^[96] The episode titles come from phrases featured in promotions or the opening credits of television series.^[97]

Casting

Stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, who reprise their roles from the MCU films, promoting WandaVision at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con

With the official announcement of the series in April 2019 came confirmation that Olsen and Bettany would reprise their respective roles of Wanda and Vision.^[3] Bettany agreed to join the project after meeting with Feige and D'Esposito, who pitched an "exciting and bonkers" idea for his character's return.^[65] Feige pitched the series to Olsen during negotiations for her to return in Endgame after Wanda's temporary death in Infinity War.^[119] She was initially hesitant about the move to television,^[65] wondering if it was a "demotion" from the films,^[119] but was excited when she learned of Schaeffer's involvement as well as the comic book storylines that inspired the series.^[65] Olsen came to see it as her "wildest screen opportunity yet".^[119]

Teyonah Parris was announced in the role of a grown-up Monica Rambeau in July 2019. Rambeau was previously portrayed as an eleven-year-old by Akira Akbar in Captain Marvel, which is set in 1995.^[26] The character first appears in WandaVision as "Geraldine" inside the sitcom reality, and Schaeffer had been under the impression that Parris would be announced as playing "Geraldine" to keep the character reveal a surprise.^[120] A month later, at Disney's biennial convention D23, Kat Dennings and Randall Park were set to reprise their respective MCU film roles as Darcy Lewis and Jimmy Woo.^[32] Dennings had appeared in the films Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013),^[32] and was surprised and thrilled to be brought back to the MCU for WandaVision after so many years.^[33] Park joined the series following a general meeting with Marvel to discuss Woo's MCU future following his introduction in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018).^[7] Schaeffer felt it was fun to feature Dennings and Park since both were veteran sitcom actors, respectively starring in 2 Broke Girls and Fresh Off the Boat.^[9]

Also at D23, Kathryn Hahn was announced in the role of Agnes, Wanda and Vision's neighbor.^[2][32] Hahn had been fascinated by the "gasp of human magic" in the MCU,^[2] and had a general meeting with Marvel Studios since the studio was also interested in working with her. Shortly after, Marvel suggested Hahn for the role of Agnes to Schaeffer and Shakman, and they agreed that they should cast her. Several days after the general meeting, they contacted Hahn about the series and she said that she "couldn't have dreamt a cooler part", partially due to the sitcom elements.^[121] The seventh episode reveals that "Agnes" is actually Agatha Harkness, a character in Marvel Comics.^[20]

The official trailer revealed that Fred Melamed and Debra Jo Rupp would appear in the series,^[85] portraying Todd and Sharon Davis. They appear as Wanda and Vision's neighbors, "Mr. and Mrs. Hart", within the fictional WandaVision program.^{[18][19][122]} Rupp previously had a long-running role in the sitcom That '70s Show and was comfortable with WandaVision's sitcom style. She was asked to join the series by Shakman, who she had worked with at the Geffen Playhouse where Shakman is the artistic director.^[123] Similarly, Shakman and Schaeffer offered Melamed the role without him auditioning, and he accepted the role because he was interested by the idea of the series.^[124] WandaVision's fifth episode introduces Evan Peters as a "recast" Pietro Maximoff, Wanda's brother. Pietro was previously portrayed in the MCU by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, while Peters played a different version of the character named Peter Maximoff in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series.^[34] Schaeffer stated that it took a while to learn if Peters would be able to be a part of the series, and noted that the creatives did not have a secondary plan if they were not able to use him.^[40] The character's "real name" is revealed to be Ralph Bohner in the finale.^[36]

Emma Caulfield Ford was cast in October 2019 as Sarah Proctor, who plays "Dottie Jones" in the WandaVision program, after being approached by Schaeffer to audition for the role; they previously worked together on the film Timer (2009).^[46][125] Ford said she was cast in part to help attract genre fans who would recognize her from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and her involvement was also intended to be a red herring for the series' mysteries.^[46] Asif Ali was revealed to be cast in October 2020,^[126] as Abilash Tandon who plays Vision's co-worker "Norm",^[19][41] as was Jolene Purdy, cast as Isabel Matsueda who plays Wanda and Vision's neighbor "Beverly".^{[41][50][127]}

Design

Titles

Joe Quesada's variant cover for House of M #1 (L), depicting Wanda Maximoff's "block-like" reality changing abilities from that comic, and a screenshot from WandaVision's end credits (R) which uses a similar style to form the house from the series out of RGB pixels^[143][144]

The series' main title sequence was created by Perception, and starts with a "please stand by" visual in the style of the episode's sitcom era. This is followed by close-ups of footage from the episode on a television screen, which the camera then pushes through to show the RGB pixels that form television images. The pixels are rendered as hexagons, as a reference to Wanda's hex abilities and the informal name "The Hex" that is given to the sitcom reality. The pixels form various elements from the series including Wanda and Vision's house, the baby mobile from the third episode, and the Westview water tower,^[143] which is reminiscent of the art style in "House of M".^{[144][145][146]} The pixels are then disrupted by a single red pixel that represents Wanda's "world falling apart around her", before forming two wedding rings at the end of the sequence since the series is "at its core a love story".^[143] Charles Pulliam-Moore at io9 felt the credits were "undeniably Marvel in the big screen sense", despite WandaVision otherwise attempting to embrace its streaming series format.^[145]

Perception also created many of the sitcom-style opening credits for the series,^[143] with Shakman saying a lot of work went into creating these openings to be as authentic to each era as possible since the creatives "knew that they were a key part of the storytelling".^[147] Additional work from Perception included graphics for the fake commercials, based on real commercials from the different sitcom eras; titles and smoke effects for the Agatha All Along sequence; onscreen locator cards; and two new transitions for the Marvel Studios logo (into black-and-white and a 4:3 aspect ratio for the first episode, and into purple smoke for Agatha's Salem backstory in "Previously On").^[143]

Filming

Filming began in early November 2019,^[148] at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia,^[149] with Shakman directing,^[70] and Hall serving as cinematographer.^[111][150] The series was filmed under the working title Big Red.^[149] The actors went through sitcom "boot camp" before filming, watching episodes of past sitcoms to help learn the tone and style of each era,^[66]: 50 as well as the different approaches to comedy.^[11] Dialect coach Courtney Young helped the actors speak like people from each era,^[98] even noting the manners of each decade.^[11] Bettany felt the approach to the series was clever since it had to make six hours of content on a budget similar to a two-and-a-half-hour MCU film. This included filming content from different episodes at the same time,^[111] though Shakman did try to shoot chronologically to aid the actors with the progression through the sitcom eras.^[10]: 34

The first episode filmed for two days in black-and-white and in front of a live studio audience, to mimic sitcom filming in the 1950s.^[2][111] A 4:3 aspect ratio is also used for the black-and-white scenes,^[79] and Shakman enjoyed experimenting with the aspect ratio based on the narrative.^[98] Scenes set outside the Hex used the 2.40:1 cinematic ratio of many MCU films.^[151] Shakman wanted to ensure that the sitcom elements never felt like a parody and were as authentic as possible,^[66]: 50 since they were a reality that Wanda created to escape from her grief and were real to her.^[101] Hall used Arri Alexa 4K HDR cameras for the whole series,^[151] to create a coherent look for the story,^[152] and to make it easier to switch between different sitcom decades without needing to change the camera setup;^[128] era-specific touches such as period-appropriate camera lenses, lighting, and live special effects were used to differentiate the period settings.^[2] Hall used 47 different camera lenses for the seven time periods covered in WandaVision, many of which were modern lenses custom modified to keep characteristics of the period lenses.^[67]: 6 The custom period-appropriate lenses were used on the first three episodes and the fifth, while Hall used the Ultra Panatar lenses that had been used on Infinity War and Endgame for all of the scenes set outside the Hex reality.^[151] Tungsten lights were mainly used for the 1950s to the 1970s episodes since those were the lights of the era, with LED lighting used starting in the 2000s episodes which is when those began to be used for real sitcoms.^[67]: 6 Shakman used lenses, lighting, and sound design inspired by The Twilight Zone to change the mood for moments when something goes wrong with Wanda's illusion.^[153]

Location shooting took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area throughout December 2019 and February 2020.^[154][155] A filming wrap party for the series occurred on March 1,^[156] ahead of a planned four-week hiatus,^{[66]: 50 [157]: 1:07} but all production halted on March 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[158] Filming resumed in Los Angeles in September 2020 with rigorous COVID-19 safety protocols in place,^[66]: 50 to complete required backlot and outdoor filming.^[98][159] Olsen found it hard resuming production after being isolated during the shutdown, while Bettany disliked that the safety protocols meant the actors had to return to their trailers when not filming, which he felt removed much of the camaraderie between the cast and crew.^{[157]: 1:29–2:23} External filming for Westview took place on Blondie Street at the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, California, where past sitcoms had also been filmed. Shakman felt the Blondie Street backlot had "that weird sense of fakeness" that no real-life street could replicate.^[2] Filming for the Westview town square was originally planned for the Universal Studios Lot near Blondie Street, but this could not happen due to scheduling and the pandemic so filming for those scenes instead took place at the Golden Oak Ranch.^[160][161] Production on the series wrapped by mid-November,^[162] with Olsen shooting back-to-back with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.^[163]

Editing

When the production shut down due to the pandemic, Marvel took around a month to figure out the logistics of remote work. Post-production then continued on existing footage,^[164] which informed Shakman of how to approach a few things differently once filming began again,^[10]: 34 though the series was not creatively altered by this.^[27] Post-production continued after filming resumed, and Shakman said working on every step of the process at once felt "schizophrenic".^[10]: 34 Tim Roche, Zene Baker, and Nona Khodai served as editors for the series,^{[67]: 20 [165]} and each brought different experience to the project: Baker previously edited Thor: Ragnarok; Khodai previously worked on the superhero series The Boys; and Roche came from a background editing comedy series with no visual effects. The editors agreed to treat the series like an MCU film since they knew Marvel Studios would not "resort to [standard television series] money-saving tactics for a show like this", and Baker said editing the series was no different from editing Ragnarok.^[164]

The editors did not have formal meetings to discuss the series' tone, but did work together on issues. Roche felt the series' tone was most interesting when the sitcom and MCU elements were mixed together, such as when Vision discovers anomalies in Westview during "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"^[164] Aspect ratio shifts were created during post-production to give Shakman control over the lengths of the transitions,^[151] with some of the earlier aspect ratio changes going through many variations to find the best length and style and have a bigger impression on the audience. Transitions in later episodes are sometimes just a straight cut from one ratio to another, relying more on music and sound to show the change. Some scenes were rearranged to avoid changing between aspect ratios too many times and distracting from the story.^[164] One of the most discussed elements of editing was the laugh track,^[7] and the creatives worked with sound engineer and laugh track historian Paul Iverson to explain how laugh tracks changed throughout time which informed the sound design.^[98][166] Iverson provided the editing team with a selection of laughter track recordings utilized in sitcoms of the 1950s and through the eras.^[166]

Previsualization company The Third Floor, Inc. added temporary effects to edited sequences as a guide for visual effects vendors. These were also sent to the DI team to finalize the coloring of shots before the visual effects were completed, which Baker said was unusual and done to save time but did not have much of an effect on the production's timeline. The editors all worked on the sitcom opening titles and fake commercials in their episodes, as well as the "previously on WandaVision" segments that begin each episode.^[164] The latter have some differences from the episodes they are recapping, such as slightly different dialogue, which plays into Wanda's manipulation of reality.^[167] Later episodes were not completed when the early ones began airing, so the editors were able to see fan theories about the series while they were still working on it. This made them question some of their decisions, but there was no time for this to have any creative effect on their work. Editing for the final episode was completed two weeks before it aired.^[164]

Visual effects

Tara DeMarco served as the visual effects supervisor for WandaVision, with visual effects vendors for the series including Digital Domain, Framestore, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Lola VFX, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ), RISE, Rodeo FX, SSVFX, The Yard VFX, and Zoic Studios.^[168] The series has 3,010 visual effects shots,^[169] more than the 2,496 in Avengers: Endgame,^[170] though DeMarco noted that the series is longer than Endgame and that film had a lot of effects that were much more complex than many of those seen in WandaVision.^[171] The creatives tried to keep the number of visual effects in each episode to a minimum until the 2000s-set episodes where it made sense to allow more prevalent visual effects due to the technology available at the time;^[172] each episode has more visual effects shots than the previous one, building up to the "big Marvel finale" in the last episode.^[173] For the first three episodes, contemporary visual effects were used to augment on-set practical effects and replicate other period-specific effects.^[67]: 8

DeMarco took inspiration from the Scarlet Witch: Witches' Road comic book for the look of Wanda and Agatha's magic in the series.^[174] Wanda's magic was created based on Olsen's on-set hand movements, with the visual effects team letting her create the movements that she wanted and then adding "something tasteful with her hands that isn't distracting from her performance".^[175] The look of her magic initially matches the same red energy that was seen in the films, but becomes a darker, richer red when she starts using chaos magic to signify that it is more powerful.^[171] This look was developed with Digital Domain, who primarily worked on the final episode and contributed 350 visual effect shots over 14 months.^[176] Framestore, who worked on 99 visual effects shots for the series, developed the look of Agatha's magic, which is a purple version of Wanda's magic with a black, ink-like texture added to make it appear more evil.^[177][171] Mr. X contributed 152 visual effects shots for the scenes in the final two episodes featuring a coven of witches.^[178]

Visual effects progression showing the process to create Vision for the series (example from "Don't Touch That Dial"), depicting (L to R) Bettany on set wearing a bald cap, blue face makeup, and tracking markers; several iterations of the tracking markers being removed and sections of his face being replaced with CGI; and the final frame from the episode in black-and-white.^[179]

DeMarco used Vision's introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), which was primarily created by Lola VFX, as the definitive version of the character when approaching his visual effects for WandaVision. Close-ups of the character in Infinity War were also referenced. Bettany wore prosthetics over his ears to portray the character in the films, but these were replaced with CGI in post-production and were not actually needed. For the series, Bettany asked not to wear the prosthetics so he could hear better on set and be more comfortable. He instead wore a bald cap and face makeup to match Vision's color,^[179] with the blue color used for Vision in the black-and-white episodes suggested by Lola VFX supervisor Trent Claus based on his knowledge of the makeup used for I Love Lucy.^[180] The series' second visual effects supervisor, Sarah Elm, focused on Vision's effects and came to know what parts of Bettany's face needed to be kept and replaced to match the character's look in the films while retaining Bettany's performance. Multiple vendors worked on Vision for the series, and they were allowed to use their own methodologies for the character as long as the result was consistent. They generally used complex 3D and digital makeup techniques to create the character, with sections of Bettany's face replaced with CGI on a shot-by-shot basis; the actor's eyes, nose, and mouth were usually the only elements retained. Vision's skin needed to move to match with Bettany's performance, and sometimes specular highlights from the makeup were kept for the digital version, but it was not intended to look like actual skin with makeup on it and does not have pores or wrinkles. Digital contact lenses were applied over Bettany's eyes to create the "complex digital radial graphics" that Vision's eyes have,^[179] though these were not added for the first three episodes to give Vision a more "wholesome" look during those sitcom periods.^[181] The visual effects artists also had to manually fix the backgrounds around Vision's head since he has a narrower head than Bettany and has no ears.^[179] MARZ, SSVFX, and Lola VFX were the primary vendors for Vision's face in the sitcom reality,^[180] while Digital Domain created a full digital version of the character for the final episode which they shared with other vendors for use in earlier episodes. They also created a full model for White Vision.^[179]

Rodeo FX spent nine months developing the visual effects for the Hex boundary and worked on 348 shots across most of the series' episodes.^[179] DeMarco said the Hex was meant to look like it was made of the "cathodic lines of old tube TVs and pixelization and a lot of cool RGB chromatic aberration effects",^[182] with photography that had "the language of television" also referenced for the design.^[183] Rodeo tried using point cloud technology to create the effect, but this only worked well for dark backgrounds.^[179] The boundary is initially clear and difficult to see, but turns red once Wanda emerges from the boundary in "On a Very Special Episode..." to reflect her anger and reinforce that it is a hard barrier.^[182] Rodeo was also responsible for the sequence where Vision attempts to leave the Hex in "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" and begins to disintegrate, and the scene where Rambeau enters the Hex and gains superpowers in "Breaking the Fourth Wall".^[179] ILM handled the creation of the Hex and Vision in "Previously On", and also the effect of them disappearing in "The Series Finale".^[172] Cantina Creative designed and animated graphics for different monitors and devices such as S.W.O.R.D.'s holographic table.^[184] A number of final visual effects were reportedly added to the series after it had premiered.^[185]

Music

External videos
Marvel Studios' WandaVision Final End Credits Main On End Title Sequence presents the end credit sequence created by Perception with composer Christophe Beck's theme, YouTube video from Perception's channel

In January 2020, Christophe Beck announced that he would compose the score for the series, after previously scoring Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp.^[186] Beck paid homage to the sitcoms in each time period through his instrumentation, compositional style, and period-specific recording and mixing techniques. Earlier episodes feature small orchestral ensembles, with later episodes having more of a rock-pop style, and the music becoming more pervasive as the series progresses.^[67]: 9 Beck had hoped to match the spotting of each sitcom era as well, but found that this would not always work due to modern audiences expecting more music than older sitcoms would have included.^[187] Michael Paraskevas and Alex Kovacs co-composed the series' music,^[188] with Kovacs hired due to his experience with older orchestration techniques and jazz music which Beck found helpful when writing for the series' early episodes. Beck was more comfortable once the episodes required music inspired by the 1980s and 1990s.^[187] To connect the music for the different sitcom eras, as well as the more traditional music for outside the sitcom reality, Beck composed several themes that are used in the different styles, which was possible since he knew where the series and characters were going from the beginning.^{[67]: 9 [187]} Beck was most excited for the opportunity to write a definitive theme for Wanda that is heard during the series' end credits, which he hoped other composers would reprise for the character's future MCU appearances. Beck also wrote a love theme for Wanda and Vision that he said would convey feelings of love, tragedy, and sadness, which he compared to the romance music he composed for the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.^[187]

In December 2020, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez were announced to have written theme songs for some of the series' episodes.^[189][190] They were approached for the series in mid-2019 by Shakman, who was friends with Lopez at college, and they had previously worked with Beck on the music for Disney's Frozen franchise.^[189][191] To help sell the series to the couple, Shakman referenced the Adult Swim short Too Many Cooks, which the couple were aware of and called one of their favorite sketches. The couple were inspired by the theme songs from past sitcoms as well as the music from James Bond films, composer Burt Bacharach, and jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck.^[191] To tie their themes together, Lopez and Anderson-Lopez created a four-note motif that worked in each of the theme song styles.^[192] The motif consists of an octave, followed by a tritone, which is also known as "the devil's interval"; this was their way of saying musically that the series was a "big bright-colored swing while also being really unsettling".^[193] Lopez described the motif as "kind of like the WandaVision call-out, easily identifiable in some way in each song" that was incorporated in different ways each time.^{[67]: 9 [192]} The pair used their knowledge of sitcoms from watching them as they grew up, and found the 1990s to be the most challenging era to write a theme song for due to them both being at college during that decade when they did not have a television,^[194] while the 1980s was their favorite. Anderson-Lopez added that it was challenging to ensure the themes were not "parodying any one show" but "would evoke all of the iconic songs from an entire decade and be their own thing". She also felt it was their job with the theme songs to establish the tone, place, and time of the episodes in lieu of title cards providing such information.^[192] The couple sang on many of the theme songs, something they normally do not do for the final versions of their songs, which Anderson-Lopez attributed in part to the pandemic. They were joined by a group of backup singers for some of the songs.^[192][194]

Beck chose to align the style and instrumentation of some of the episodes' music to the theme songs of those episodes, and tried to include motifs from the songs in the background score wherever possible.^[195] His music was recorded with a 75-player orchestra at Synchron Stage in Vienna,^[196][197] and he completed work on the series in February 2021.^[187] Soundtrack albums for each episode, including Beck's score and the theme songs by Lopez and Anderson-Lopez, were released digitally by Marvel Music and Hollywood Records from January 22 to March 12, 2021, one week after each episode premiered.^{[198][199][200]} One of the theme songs, "Agatha All Along", went viral after appearing in "Breaking the Fourth Wall",^[201] peaking at number one on iTunes' Soundtrack chart, reaching fifth on iTunes' Top 100 singles chart,^[202] and debuted on Billboard's Digital Song Sales chart at number 36.^[203] It also earned the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.^[204][205]

Streaming

WandaVision premiered on Disney+ on January 15, 2021, with its first two episodes.^[234] The other seven episodes were released weekly until March 5.^[74][234] Marvel Studios originally planned to release the first three episodes at once, but decided against this because the final episode would not have been completed in time for that release schedule.^[96] They also considered releasing the entire series at once, but chose weekly releases after seeing the success that the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian had with that approach. The episodes were subsequently structured with the weekly release in mind, with Feige explaining that they wanted viewers to try to "guess what happens next, to have a week speculating or rewatching and building that anticipation." He felt binge-watching the series after all the episodes were released would be an "equally fun experience".^[235]

According to Shakman, the series was able to premiere so soon after filming ended because post-production work had already begun during the series' COVID-19 production shutdown.^[10]: 34 Schaeffer felt the series was "suited to [being released during] this moment in time", amidst the pandemic, because it is a "reflection of a lot of the anxiety that we're feeling, and a lot of the pathos and chaos of [2020], so it feels very right to me".^[10]: 35 Esquire's Matt Miller felt WandaVision had incredible timing with its release since much of the audience was "collectively escaping to nostalgia to cope with a pandemic and the general chaos of the real world". He also felt WandaVision was "commenting on the very nature and purpose of consuming comic book entertainment".^[236] The series was originally set for release in early 2021,^[237] before being moved forward to a December 2020 release in February 2020.^[238] It was then moved back to the early 2021 slot in November 2020.^[239] It is the first series in, and the start of, Phase Four of the MCU.^[27][240]

Home media

WandaVision was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on November 28, 2023, with SteelBook packaging and concept art cards.^[241][242] Bonus features include "Through the Eras" with the cast and crew,^[242] along with a look at the spin-off series Agatha: Darkhold Diaries;^[243] deleted scenes; a gag reel; and the Marvel Studios: Assembled documentary special "The Making of WandaVision".^[242]

Audience viewership

WandaVision was Disney+'s most-watched series premiere on its opening weekend, ahead of the second season of The Mandalorian, until Disney+ announced that it had been surpassed by the series premiere of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in March 2021.^[244] When compared to other streaming series in each week of its release, WandaVision did not have the highest number of minutes viewed using Nielsen Media Research's measurements. Scott Mendelson of Forbes felt that this could be attributed to WandaVision's weekly release schedule, and opined that Disney accepted this in exchange for the continued discussions and coverage that the weekly release had given to event series such as Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian.^[245] According to analytics provider TVision, who count U.S. viewers on connected televisions who have watched at least two minutes within a session of watching content for at least five minutes, WandaVision was the most viewed title of January 2021 across all major U.S. streaming and advertising video on demand services. The series had an 8,127 indexed audience size, which was 81 times more views than the average series measured by the service.^[246]

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating with an average rating of 7.80/10, based on 414 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Part loving homage to TV history, part off-kilter mystery, WandaVision is a wonderfully weird and strikingly bold step into the small screen for the MCU—and a perfect showcase for Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany."^[247] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 77 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[248]

The first three episodes were given to critics to review the series ahead of its premiere, and TVLine's Rebecca Iannucci gave them an "A", praising WandaVision for deviating from the expectations of an MCU story.^[249] Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter said it was "creatively courageous" for an action-focused franchise to make a "postmodern exploration of sitcom conventions" that its core fans may not enjoy.^[23] Shirley Li at The Atlantic praised the series' small stakes and focus on Wanda's grief and trauma, giving the character a chance to process loss in a way that superhero films generally do not allow.^[250] Caroline Framke, writing for Variety, was more critical of the series, believing it would be too confusing for casual fans and stating that it was not as good at being a sitcom as the series it was copying. She preferred when it focused on its underlying mysteries.^[45] Dominic Patten of Deadline Hollywood was also critical, describing it as a "baby boomer punchline in search of a joke" and believing that Marvel Television's Netflix series and ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were better.^[251]

Many critics praised the recreation of sitcom styles and tropes.^{[249][250][252][253][254]} Iannucci felt WandaVision was able to perfectly encapsulate the sitcoms it was replicating, and this helped make its mystery elements compelling during the first three episodes.^[249] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times described the series as a "painstakingly crafted, impressively spot-on tribute to the evolution of the American sitcom", and gave it 3.5 stars out of 4,^[252] while Melanie McFarland at Salon said the creative team had recreated the sitcoms with "admirable precision", and especially praised Shakman's work. She did question whether the unique style of the first three episodes would be maintained until the end of the series, but felt it was going to be worth watching it all either way.^[253] Li and Slant Magazine's Niv M. Sultan both felt it was likely that the series would move towards a more traditional MCU format, but still praised the sitcom elements in the early episodes.^[250][254] Roxana Hadadi at RogerEbert.com was less positive about the sitcom elements and the way they had "sidelined" Wanda and Vision. Hadadi questioned what role the sitcom recreations played in the story and character development, which was not clear in the first three episodes.^[255] Michael Phillips, writing for the Chicago Tribune, was critical of the sitcom tropes themselves, such as "canned and deadly" laugh tracks, as well as the episodes' pacing,^[256] though he went on to enjoy episodes four through seven more because he felt those sitcom elements were a better fit for the cast.^[257]

Reviewing the full series for Polygon, Joshua Rivera criticized its ending for setting up future MCU projects rather than resolving its own story. He said the series' biggest success was not being interested in heroism or justifying Wanda's actions, but felt it had undermined its exploration of Wanda's grief by not exploring Rambeau's grief as well.^[258] Rolling Stone's Alan Sepinwall and Entertainment Weekly's Chancellor Agard also expressed concern with the series' focus on setting up other MCU stories in its finale, but both felt that this did not take away from the series' success.^[36][259] Agard enjoyed the series' lower-stakes goals of exploring grief and developing Wanda into a fully fleshed-out character in a way that previous MCU films had never done. He gave the full series a "B+".^[259] Sepinwall praised the series for its use of "narrative form to serve emotional function" and expressed hope that Marvel Studios would continue to experiment with its MCU projects in a similar way.^[36] Zaki Hasan at the San Francisco Chronicle felt WandaVision worked as both an installment in the MCU franchise and also as an "introspective tale", with an ending that was "honest with its audience [and] true to itself". He also felt that it was a story suited to serialized television, with the central mysteries giving way to "meditations on love and loss" across its episodes.^[260] Matt Purslow from IGN gave the series an 8 out of 10 and praised it as a bold change for the MCU that was unlike any other mainstream television series. He felt the series' biggest flaw was the fact that its emotional stakes were kept a mystery for so long, but with hindsight he praised the structure of the series' episodes which had no formula and made "each installment feel like a genuinely new adventure".^[76]

The performances of Olsen, Bettany, Hahn, and Parris were all praised by critics,^{[23][76][249][253][260]} and the roles of Dennings and Park as comic relief were also appreciated.^[257] Sam Barsanti of The A.V. Club said the series' greatest strength was the way it took established MCU characters and put them into a new kind of story for the franchise.^[261] Olsen received particular praise, with Iannucci describing the series as an opportunity for the actress to showcase her acting skills,^[249] and Feinberg calling it a better "acting vehicle" than Olsen's roles in the MCU films.^[23] Framke praised the way Olsen balanced her existing portrayal of Wanda with the series' sitcom influences, and felt the series would not work without a "nuanced actor like Olsen tethering it to some kind of reality".^[45] Purslow highlighted Olsen's "chameleon-like ability" to replicate the performances of actresses from the different sitcom eras while also providing the required "heft" for the character's more dramatic scenes.^[76] Discussing the series for The Ringer, Alison Herman praised it for focusing on Olsen as Wanda and exploring themes of grief, motherhood, and the history of gender in media without being marketed as a female-focused superhero series. She described WandaVision as a "piece of mass entertainment that's centered on women and adds depth as a result, but doesn't demand up front to be read as such".^[262]

Analysis

Accolades

WandaVision was nominated for eight Primetime Emmy Awards and fifteen Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (winning three Creative Arts Emmys),^[204][280] as well as one American Film Institute Award (won),^[281] one Annie Award,^[282] one Art Directors Guild Award (won),^[283] four Critics' Choice Television Awards,^[284] one Directors Guild of America Award,^[285] two Golden Globe Awards,^[286] one Grammy Award,^[287] one Hugo Award,^[288] one Nebula Award (won),^[289] four People's Choice Awards,^[290] one Producers Guild of America Award,^[291] four TCA Awards,^[292] three Visual Effects Society Awards,^[293] and one Writers Guild of America Award, among others.^[294]

Bettany and Hahn were widely considered to be the front-runners to win Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, respectively, at the Emmys, with their losses deemed a surprise, along with the series only receiving wins at the Creative Arts Emmys.^{[295][296][297][298]} The series is one of 117 television series that received the ReFrame Stamp for the years 2020 to 2021. The stamp is awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame as a "mark of distinction for projects that ... hire female-identifying people in four out of eight critical areas of production" to show progress in gender-balanced television production.^[299]

Continuation

In January 2021, Schaeffer said she was unable to talk about any potential plans for a second season, but said the series would feel "very complete".^[302] Shakman said there were no plans "at all" for a second season and one would only be made if a specific story came about that would warrant it.^[303] Feige did not rule out a second season being made, but said one was not planned and pointed to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness instead as the continuation of the story set up in WandaVision,^[304] with the story also continuing in other places;^[305] Parris will star as Rambeau in the film The Marvels (2023), the sequel to Captain Marvel,^[306] with WandaVision writer Megan McDonnell as one of its writers.^[92][307] In June 2021, Olsen referred to WandaVision as a limited series.^[104]

Spin-offs