WandaVision: The MCU gets very trippy in first trailer for Disney+ series

People often accuse the Marvel Cinematic Universe of being too homogenous. Too samey. Well, WandaVision has something to say about that. The upcoming Disney+ series has been very intriguing as it’s unlike anything we’ve yet seen in the MCU. And no, I’m not talking about bringing back Paul Bettany’s Vision, who died in Avengers: Infinity War, to rejoin Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff – people get resurrected all the time in the MCU – but rather just how damn weird and trippy this whole thing looks in the first official trailer.

According to the official blurb, WandaVision “blends the style of classic sitcoms with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany)—two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.” Well, they definitely got that last part right as the show sees the pair stuck in a Bewitched-styled retro sitcom of some sorts, complete with Kathryn Hahn’s trope-y loud neighbour… that is until reality starts to unravel around them. Check it out below.

Okay, that’s quite a bit to unpack for a trailer that barely runs a minute long. Firstly, let’s get the easy one out the way. If you’re wondering about the young lady that is seemingly blasted out of a portal back into the “normal world”, that’s actress Teyonah Parris, playing a grown-up version of Monica Rambeau. The latter was introduced as a young kid in the 1990s-set Captain Marvel, where it was hinted at that she would grow up to follow in her comic book counterpart’s footsteps to become a superhero herself. With Captain Marvel writer Jac Schaeffer actually acting as showrunner on WandaVision, it’s easy to see how this would link up.

Now, coming from an idea by Marvel boss Kevin Feige himself, WandaVision will reportedly not just bring back Vision, but also have Wanda finally fully adopt her comic book persona of Scarlet Witch. And we get a look at Olsen in a comics-accurate version of that iconic red outfit. Given Bettany’s hilariously awful getup later though, this is probably just some kind of Halloween dress-up. More than sticking characters in new duds though, the show will reportedly have huge ramifications for the rest of the rest of the MCU, including leading directly into a co-starring role for Olsen on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

As we can see in this trailer, Wanda is seemingly experimenting with the extent of her powers, no longer just creating energy blasts but actually rewriting reality. This is very likely how Vision is back and why they’re stuck in this quasi-world. But seeing the whole “Multiverse” mentioned right there in the title of the Doctor Strange sequel, you have to think that she will be creating or rewriting more realities than just a black and white sitcom.

My suspicion has always been that Schaefer and co are combining elements from Marvel Comics crossover House of M and Tom King’s run on Vision. I’ll do a full write up on that later this week, as that’s too much to unpack here. Just suffice it to say that we may potentially be looking at the first steps in getting mutants (specifically, the X-Men) into the MCU. Ooh!

Also, although not seen in this trailer, WandaVision also sees Kat Dennings reprising her role from Thor: The Dark World as Darcy Lewis, while Randall Park is also back as FBI Agent Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man and the Wasp. WandaVision has no exact release date set yet, but it will be releasing within the final few months of 2020. Yes, the show has actually been brought forward from its original 2021 release date, with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – which had to pause production due to the COVID-19 pandemic – now seemingly pushed to next year.

Last Updated: September 21, 2020