Marvel films have been a big part of my life ever since I was in middle school. From the first time I saw “The Avengers” in theaters when I was 11 years old, to all of the Marvel-themed movie nights I spent with my family, I have watched the tremendous growth of the cinematic franchise over the past decade, enjoying almost every single movie Marvel has released. Having watched all of the characters I grew up with appear together in “Avengers: Endgame,” an eventful conclusion to three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one question lingered with me as I left the theater that night: What would happen next?
Marvel continues to address the fallout from all that happened in “Endgame” in its next movie “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” The story focuses on Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as he tries to grapple with the loss of his mentor while struggling to fit himself into the huge legacy that Tony Stark left behind. This theme of revisiting the aftermath of “Endgame” reoccurs in one of Marvel’s newest creations, “WandaVision.”
Announced back in 2018, Disney and Marvel introduced “WandaVision” alongside other shows that would spotlight Marvel characters from the franchise, including “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “Loki.” The first two episodes of the nine-episode limited series were released in mid-January on Disney’s streaming service Disney+. The rest of the season aired on a weekly basis, with each new episode available to stream every Friday.
Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany return as title characters Wanda Maximoff and Vision, starring in their own sitcom show. Each episode takes place in a specific decade, drawing from the structure and style of past television shows like “I Love Lucy” from the ’50s and “The Dick Van Dyke Show” from the ’60s. As the couple progresses through decades of television, navigating suburban life while trying to hide their powers from the people around them, they soon realize that everything isn’t as it seems.
“WandaVision” provides a more in-depth look at Wanda’s character compared to previous films in the franchise, as she struggles with her grief following the loss of her partner. While her character is no stranger to loss, having lost both of her parents in early childhood as well as her twin brother in “Age of Ultron,” the “Avengers” movies, which tend to look more at the group dynamics of the heroes rather than the development of one single character, didn’t offer much screen time for Wanda and how she coped with her grief. However, in “WandaVision,” the spotlight is on her, and the show even revisits moments in Wanda’s life from both before we first met her, as well as other moments in the cinematic universe that we didn’t get to see. For example, there is a very sentimental scene between Wanda and Vision that takes place after the events of “Age of Ultron,” where Wanda is struggling to cope with the death of her brother. The scene underscores Wanda’s strength and resilience as a character, and fans get a stronger sense of how much Wanda has been through during her life. Wanda and Vision’s emotional conversation even results in what may be one of the strongest lines in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: “What is grief, if not love persevering?”
“WandaVision” marks the start of a new era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it brings back a lot of plot points from previous films, the series also paves the way for a new line of films, introducing new characters and storylines for future Marvel creations to further delve into.