Disney+ Marvel's WandaVision (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

I really hope this isn’t the last we see of them together and happy. They may be my favorite Marvel couple.

Well, the finale did leave the dangling thread of where White Vision went after the Westview Vision gave him his memories back. That felt like a very significant dangling thread to me. I interpreted that to mean that they will provide an answer to his whereabouts in some future project. We will almost positively have to see him again at some point.

 

[Jason_V]

Well, the finale did leave the dangling thread of where White Vision went after the Westview Vision gave him his memories back. That felt like a very significant dangling thread to me. I interpreted that to mean that they will provide an answer to his whereabouts in some future project. We will almost positively have to see him again at some point.

Absolutely it did. I guess I just want it to be in the context of being happy and having the life they both want, not an epic battle with the universe at stake.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I guess I just want it to be in the context of being happy and having the life they both want, not an epic battle with the universe at stake.

Well, it's the MCU, so there's probably always going to be some crisis. But I don't think that precludes them from being happy necessarily. I'd be more concerned about Agatha's statement that the Scarlet Witch is destined to destroy the world, which I presume will be an issue dealt with in some manner in the Doctor Strange sequel.

 

[Sam Favate]

I did watch the Assembled special and it was terrific. I highly recommend it. This is the kind of thing that should be on the Blu-ray (if there ever is one). It’ll be on my Blu-ray at least.

 

[Jake Lipson]

If there is a Blu-ray, I don't see any reason why Disney wouldn't include the special as well. But they appear to want to keep their shows exclusive to the service. With the decline in physical media sales recently, I doubt they're leaving too much money on the table by doing that. I would of course buy it and I'd love to be wrong. But they haven't released The Baby Yoda Show yet either and that has been on there a lot longer.

 

[Detour (1945)]

But they haven't released The Baby Yoda Show yet either and that has been on there a lot longer.

I'll say it again...

 

[Jake Lipson]

For anyone who still hasn't finished the show, spoilers, but I'm not sure why anyone would be on page 34 of the thread over a week after the finale dropped without finishing it:

I previously said that the "Ralph Bohner" ending would have been satisfying with any other actor playing Pietro other than Evan Peters because of his history with the role of Quicksilver. I was discussing this with another friend who isn't a HTF member and he came up with a suggestion which would have actually worked better than what they did, if they wanted to use Peters and not have him be the X-Men Quicksilver.

What if, instead of "Ralph Bohner," Evan Peters' Westview identity was revealed to be...Evan Peters?

Short of making him the Quicksilver from X-Men, I think it would have actually been satisfying if Agatha had brought Evan Peters, the actor, to Westview and given him the powers of Quicksilver. This would have worked within the very meta, self-aware nature of the show without feeling like quite as much of a bait and switch as "Ralph Bohner." I would have found that to be a more satisfying twist than doing all of that in service of a Boner joke.

 

[Tommy R]

You can never go wrong with a simple boner joke.

 

[dpippel]

 

[Traveling Matt]

I'm still catching up on the conversation, and I suppose it's all been said, but regardless:

WandaVision was for me a fun show. But not amazing. And while the finale was fun and exciting, the writers wimped out and didn't own their story, gutting the finale of its true strength.

Wanda was a terrible person. By way of her grief and vast powers, she mind-raped and enslaved hundreds, maybe thousands, of people. This is horrific. And the show excused it with Monica spewing pablum garbage about how we'd all do the same if it was us. The show decimated the potential depths of both Wanda and Monica, making them both comic-book characters in a wholly perjorative meaning.

The character study of Wanda as a grieving person is a good story. The possible arcs of redemption or of embracing her evil could either be great. But refusing to acknowledge her evil, and dodge its consequences, to make her warm and fuzzy with neither the hard work of redemption nor the narrative thrill of the antihero embracing villainy is cowardly storytelling.

I agree with this, and had a parallel take on what was missing for me in terms of responsible storytelling. I binged the entire series and finished last night.

What was missing was story told through character. More than any other pairing, Wanda and Vision are the perfect MCU couple for telling stories about them, not merely with them. The first episode seemed the most promising, as we saw them juggle the dinner party in the 1950s. That was delightful, but it didn't build from there. The narrative didn't continue inwards and explore the relationship between the two. Instead the conflict turned more and more outward, an external crisis rather than anything that tells you more about the characters.

Superhero stories in media almost never explore this in a seriously personal way, and a romantic MCU couple in an episodic format would have been the perfect opportunity. I enjoyed Wandavision (especially the theme songs, commercials and that wonderful Kathryn Hahn), but was ultimately left feeling cold because I didn't really get to know Wanda or Vision from the inside as much as I would have hoped.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Wanda was a terrible person. By way of her grief and vast powers, she mind-raped and enslaved hundreds, maybe thousands, of people. This is horrific. And the show excused it with Monica spewing pablum garbage about how we'd all do the same if it was us. The show decimated the potential depths of both Wanda and Monica, making them both comic-book characters in a wholly perjorative meaning.

Wanda isn't a terrible person, but she certainly did a terrible thing. Going back at least to Civil War, the MCU hasn't shied away from the danger of flawed people possessing such enormous power. Wanda had the equivalent of a psychotic break, but because she's the Scarlet Witch it didn't just affect her, it affected an entire town. And by the time she realized what she'd done, she wasn't willing to give up what she'd gained. It was only once she'd come to terms with her grief that she was able to grapple with the moral implications of what she'd done and reverse it (at great personal cost).

Nor do I think the show excused it. Wanda was a cornered animal and Monica was trying to steer her toward a peaceful solution. And Wanda, for her part, understood that there was no way to make it right with the people she'd harmed. The injury was too great. The best thing she could do for them is stop inflicting her presence on them, leave them alone to start to piece back together the rubble of their lives.

It does get to the problem of policing godlike individuals; as the fallout from the Sokovia Accords demonstrated, there's no way to effectively impose punishment on these people unless they willing submit to it. Nor is what she did to the people of Westview necessarily a crime; horrific as it was, it was so bizarre and unpredecented that I doubt there was any violated statute to use as the basis of a prosecution.

 

[DaveF]

Nor do I think the show excused it. Wanda was a cornered animal and Monica was trying to steer her toward a peaceful solution. And Wanda, for her part, understood that there was no way to make it right with the people she'd harmed. The injury was too great. The best thing she could do for them is stop inflicting her presence on them, leave them alone to start to piece back together the rubble of their lives.

I appreciate the perspective. I wish I saw it that way, it would make for a more satisfying conclusion.

I enjoyed the show overall. The meta-stuff in the start being paid off with the subsequent reveals. Vision debating Ship of Theseus with Vision right in my butter zone. The finale was exciting. But it didn’t wholly work emotionally for me.

Ah well. There’s always more TV to try out.

 

[Jake Lipson]

WandaVision is the Honest Trailer this week. If anybody is still reading this thread and hasn't watched the finale yet, be aware of spoilers in the video.

 

[Joe Wong]

Post-Wandavision thoughts...

Wondering how much replayability the series has, now that 2 weeks has passed since the finale.

For the record, I really enjoyed the series:

* the innovative if somewhat wild juxtaposition between the sitcom world and the MCU;
* the welcome return of support characters like Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis;
* the origin story of Monica Rambeau's Spectrum/Photon;
* the intro of the twins Tommy and Billy;
* the mystery surrounding the hex
* the history and lore surrounding witches
* more background on Wanda's family and how her love of sitcoms came to be
* more detail surrounding the Blip and the development of SWORD
* mid- and post credits leading into Dr Strange 2, Captain Marvel 2, etc.

For me, it worked well on first viewing as I was intrigued by the mystery, and the weekly format led to all sorts of speculation and discussion...

But I'm wondering if I would rewatch the whole series or just select episodes? The 1st 3 episodes are "pure" sitcom entries with some mysterious happenings. Now that I know what the premise is, they may not be as interesting to rewatch. I think that the most interesting for me for rewatch purposes would be the ones that are more purely MCU, in particular, eps 4, 5, 7, and 9.

Thoughts?

 

[Jake Lipson]

Marvel will be publishing an art of book for WandaVision on August 24.

Here's the Amazon link so everyone knows what to look for if you're interested. I don't know how to make them HTF-specific so that referrals will go to to HTF, so you might want to actually make a purchase through a HTF link at the top of the forum under "Shop." If a moderator would like to edit this post to make the link work with the board's affiliation, please feel free to do so.

See on Amazon

 

[Jake Lipson]

According to Kevin Feige, Marvel actually did make a deal with Benedict Cumberbatch to appear in the last episode of WandaVision, but ultimately decided to leave him out.

How Benedict Cumberbatch's Dr. Strange Almost Appeared in 'WandaVision'

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explains why a planned Dr. Strange appearance would've "taken away from Wanda."

www.rollingstone.com

 

[Robert Crawford]

Elizabeth Olsen said in a interview that there won't be a second season.

'Wandavision' star Elizabeth Olsen has some bad news for fans | CNN Business

"Wandavision" actress Elizabeth Olsen reveals that there will almost certainly be no second season of the hit show.

www.cnn.com

 

[Jake Lipson]

Elizabeth Olsen said in a interview that there won't be a second season.

I am not surprised by this at all and I think it is the right move. What is she going to do, re-enslave the town after making the deliberate decision not to do that? You can't really put the genie back in the lamp with regards to the sitcom reality. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier could return with Sam and Bucky going on a new mission, but WandaVision is too conceptual to do that. It seemed very clear to me from the outset that it was and should be a limited series. Of course we will see Wanda again, but I don't really see a storytelling track with which to continue this particular show.

 

[CRW]

No surprise. The WandaVision story is done and the next chapter will be picked up in the upcoming Dr. Strange movie. Now a new story of how Wanda and Vision might reunite is possible, perhaps how she helps him regain his humanity? I'd watch that.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Now a new story of how Wanda and Vision might reunite is possible, perhaps how she helps him regain his humanity? I'd watch that.

I assume that might be covered in Doctor Strange as well. Although Marvel has never confirmed that Paul Bettany is going to be in the movie, they did leave White Vision alive at the end of the finale without telling us where he went. So it seems like that particular dangling thread is bound to be picked up at some point.

Spoiler: Doctor Strange casting rumor

Also, I heard something a while ago somewhere about the kids from WandaVision being spotted on set for Doctor Strange. I don't know if it is true or not, but let's say for the sake of this discussion that it is. If the kids are going to be in it with Wanda, then it would also make sense for Vision to be there as well.

If Marvel does want to do another Disney+ show with Wanda and Vision in the future with a different concept as you suggest, that is certainly possible too and I think there would be an appetite for that. But this chapter is finished and needs to remain so.

We'll see what happens.