WandaVision: Teyonah Parris talks about Monica Rambeau’s struggles

WandaVision is the first TV series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The premise is pretty there — Wanda Maximoff is living in a sitcom world of her own creation with her dead partner Vision — but it’s had people on the edge of their seats eager to see what happens next.

One of the keys to the show’s success is that it’s not just about Wanda and Vision. The show has brought in several other characters trying to help Wanda from the outside, including Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), daughter of Maria Rambeau, who we met in Captain Marvel. An agent of S.W.O.R.D., Monica had already been through “the Hex” — the name for the barrier separating the real world from Wanda’s sitcom bubble — a couple of times before the most recent episode, where she went through it again, even though she knew it could rewrite her cells. That’s how determined she was to reach Wanda before S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward used force to bring her fantasy to an end.

Going through the hex a third time looked intense, as we saw different versions of Monica all struggling to make it through to the other side. Obviously, filming it wasn’t easy. “[T]hat was on a stage [against] a green screen,” Parris told Marvel.com. “Basically, I had to wear each of my outfits, get tethered to a rope, and pull to have that motion. And so, there was that technical aspect of it. That was a little difficult, especially the ones in the space suit and then the stockings and heels. I just switched to sneakers!”

Does Monica Rambeau have superpowers now?

To Parris, the scene represents a kind of catharsis for Monica, who was Snapped away by Thanos in Avengers: Endgame only to come back five years later to learn that she had missed her mother’s death. “That was Monica’s actual physical moment to grieve and to just scream and let it out, whereas before she’s been trying to get through it by helping Wanda, by throwing herself into work,” Parris said. “But in this one moment here, she got to really sit in her grief and move through it physically. We saw the physical manifestation of Monica moving through her grief.”

As it ends up, Monica saw the plans for this scene during her first meeting with Marvel brass about the show. “I was like, ‘What’s that? What happens? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh,’ she recalled. “I saw magical rays, and glimmers, and stuff on the storyboards…and it was my face! And I’m like, ‘How did they do this already?’”

"When I sat down and talked to the [WandaVision team], they explained it to me that through Monica’s compassion, through her empathy, and her willingness to put her own body on the line, she sacrifices her own self for what she believes is the greater good [to go back to Westview]. And that happens by passing through this energy field too many times, essentially."

And Monica doesn’t come out the hex the same woman. Her eyes glow blue, she has kind of special sight, and when Wanda knocks her to the ground later, she lands cleanly. In the comics, Monica becomes the superhero Spectrum, who can transform herself into any form of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum. We’ll have to wait and see how that translates into the show.

The next episode of WandaVision drops on Disney+ tomorrow!

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