WandaVision will pay tribute to The Office, too

WandaVision is the weirdest-looking thing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the more we hear about it, the more intrigued we get.

If you ask me, WandaVision looks like the most interesting thing to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in years, maybe ever. Most MCU movies follow a pretty standard formula — the hero de jour steps up to face down some supervillainous problem, punches and kicks are exchanged, and justice is done in the end — but I have no idea what’s happening in WandaVision, which finds Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) living in some kind of sitcom-inspired fantasy world with her beau, the Vision (Paul Bettany).

There are lots of questions here yet to be answered. Most obviously, didn’t Vision die in Avengers: Infinity War? (And not in a way that he was brought back to life when Tony Stark undid the great Snap at the end of Endgame.) Clearly, something is afoot, and it has to do with Wanda’s nebulously defined powers.

“If you look at the Infinity Saga, I don’t think any single person has gone through more pain and trauma than Wanda Maximoff,” MCU boss Kevin Feige told Empire. “And no character seems to be as powerful as Wanda Maximoff. And no character has a power-set that is as ill-defined and unexplored as Wanda Maximoff. So it seemed exploring that would be worthwhile post-Endgame. Who else is aware of that power? Where did it come from? Did the Mind Stone unlock it?”

It’s true that Wanda’s powers have always been a little mushy, often boiling down to, “She waves her hands and red stuff comes out.” But in the comics, Wanda — aka the Scarlet Witch — has control over probability (sort of; her powers are hard to pin down on paper, too). It leads to some very interesting stories. For example, in House of M, she uses her powers to create a world without mutants. So far as we can tell, she’s doing something similar in WandaVision, using her powers to alter reality.

And for whatever reason, she’s altered reality so she and Vision live in an idyllic sitcom land, with references to everything from Leave It To Beaver to Full House and beyond. Why? We don’t know that part yet. Like I said, there are lots of questions yet to be answered.

One thing’s for sure, though: sitcom fans will have a ball watching the show, because its pool of references is deep. “I loved TV, and watched far too much The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy and Bewitched and everything,” Feige said of his childhood viewing habits. “We go up to the Modern Family and The Office style. The talk-to-the-camera, shaky-camera, documentary style.”

That’s why I’m so intrigued by WandaVision. Whether or not you like sitcoms (and I love them, so bonus), there’s little else in the MCU like this. There’s little else on TV in general like this.

WandaVision premieres on Disney+ on January 15.

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