“Wandavision,” set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and released weekly on Disney+, is vastly different from any MCU show produced previously, like “Agents of Shield” or “Daredevil.” 

“Wandavision” is set just days after the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” and stars Elizabeth Olsen (“Avengers: Endgame”) as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany (“Avengers: Infinity War) as Vision. Viewers immediately question how Vision is alive, as he was killed twice in “Avengers: Infinity War.” “Wandavision” shows Wanda and Vision as a couple living in suburbia, living a peaceful life. 

Right off the bat, Disney switches up its style by having each episode be a different decade’s style of sitcom, starting with the 1940s and going up a decade each episode to use the styles seen in shows like “I Love Lucy” and “Full House.” While each episode starts like a fun look through TV history, the show quickly takes a darker psychological turn, showing exactly how the events of “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” damaged Wanda.

While Disney has released plenty of Marvel TV shows, few were released on a weekly basis, and none to the scale that “Wandavision.” In the past, Marvel’s focus on blockbuster movies left little for shows to work with. Fans of “Daredevil” or “Jessica Jones” would love for those characters to make the jump to the movies, but that never happened, and these shows were quickly canceled. Even “Agents of Shield,” which utilized characters like Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg, “Captain Marvel”) who was prominent in earlier MCU movies like the first “Avengers” movie and “Iron Man 2,” never truly crossed over. The largest cross-over “Agents of Shield” ever got was a single line of dialogue in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” 

Instead of having characters join the Avengers on the big screen, the shows had to work around the movies, and it left them with much to be desired. Stakes could never get too high, and plot lines could easily be snipped off by one line in a movie. Super villain groups in “Daredevil” were contained to New York City, and even then, only regions of Manhattan like Hell’s Kitchen or Harlem. The villains could never be taken too seriously, because if something was actually going to happen in-universe, Iron Man could just drop in and take care of the problem in a second as he first does in the beginning, of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” before Peter Parker gains his footing. However, “Wandavision” changes this.

Originally, Disney was going to start “Phase 4” of the MCU with the release of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” Slated for release in August 2020, production was majorly delayed, and the release was moved to March 19. This pushed “Wandavision” forward to be the first Disney+ MCU show. 

Disney seized the opportunity, and the use of “Wandavision’’ as the flagship MCU show has paid off. Minor characters from “Thor’’ and “Captain Marvel” have been given major roles, and these new roles have given opportunities for these characters to be moved to the MCU movies and truly shine. This shows that unlike “Agents of Shield,” superheroes and villains created on Disney+ shows can move to the big screen. 

This is an intentional move by Disney, as it’s always about the money. Having seen the failure of MCU shows separated by streaming services like Netflix or Freeform, condensing the releasing service enables Disney to force viewers to stream through them, and only them, if they’d like to understand everything going on in the next big “Avengers” movie. By creating new canon characters essential to future plots, viewers are caught in Disney’s big money grab and must watch the shows to understand. 

On a more hopeful thought, this can pay off big for future movies. Instead of forced character exposition, characters can come in more fleshed out from their individual shows, and the movies can be used to explore more interesting villains or new characters. Similarly, smaller plots or niche characters from movies can be moved to the small screen and new spinoff shows can be created. 

“Wandavision” is released Fridays on Disney+, with the final two episodes to be released on Feb. 26 and March 5.

Image from Marvel Entertainment via YouTube