During the PandEmmys, Disney+ dropped a trailer for WandaVision, easily the most interesting of the upcoming MCU TV shows. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was supposed to be the first of the Disney+ Marvel series, but they only just resumed production this week after COVID shut them (and everyone else) down back in the spring. WandaVision appears to be closer to done, and Disney-Marvel is promising it will come out by the end of the year (the trailer just says “coming soon”). The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has to follow Black Widow, but WandaVision only must precede Doctor Strange 2, so I don’t think it will throw the MCU timeline into chaos if WandaVision is the first series out of the gate, or even if it comes out before Black Widow. I DO think Marvel’s increasingly complex continuity is a massive headache they’d do well to dispose of, but whatever. They’re committed to it.
WandaVision has looked great from the beginning, and this new trailer gives us split second glimpses of Wanda and Vision in their classic, goofy comic book costumes, as well as the couple holding their baby twins (Speed! WICCAN! Young Avengers! In the 2020s, the prospect of the Eternals and the potential Young Avengers are the most interesting things Marvel is cooking), and at the 68 second mark, there is a brief glimpse of Teyonah Parris as the now-grown Monica Rambeau. Somehow, Wanda imagining her and Vision in various sitcom fantasies is going to end up revealing (creating?) the multiverse, and we get a little sense of how that might be as Monica Rambeau rockets out of one reality and into a dark field surrounded by military types. WandaVision is setting a BIG table for the MCU, but as long as it is entertaining while doing so, I’m good with it. I am ESPECIALLY good with any show that casts Kathryn Hahn to play a series of stereotypical sitcom neighbors, from the nosy 1950s hausfrau to the boppy 1980s Jazzercise queen. I am SUPER into every second Kathryn Hahn is on screen.
My only concern for WandaVision is that they do not make this “crazy Wanda breaks the world”. The comics have a nasty habit when it comes to powerful female characters of creating vulnerabilities in flagrantly sexist, terrible ways (see also: the Carol Danvers “Marcus” arc). Wanda is frequently a victim of her own mental instability, and it is NEVER fascinating, and even as a kid I couldn’t help but notice similarly powerful male figures like Professor X hardly ever get treated this way. There is a popular comic book arc called “House of M” in which Wanda basically breaks reality with her crazy, and I just hope the TV/film side of Marvel finds a more tactful approach, one that doesn’t intentionally or otherwise suggest great power is too much for the female mind to handle. It’s one thing to suggest that in her grief, and still not fully understanding the scope of her power, Wanda accidentally does some sh-t with significant repercussions. It’s something else entirely to dismiss her power by making her too “crazy” to handle it. WandaVision looks super fun with all the sitcom riffs and Kathryn Hahn, but I hope it is also, finally, justice for Wanda Maximoff.
