WandaVision, season 1.

[Nu-D]

Three days to go!

Is anyone else annoyed it’s coming out on a Friday?

[Jesse James II]

Why is that a bad thing?

[Spectral Knight]

I don't mind a Friday except that it comes out on the same day as Agents of SHIELD in the UK.

Is it a weekly release schedule or all in one drop?

[Cable]

Two episodes the first day, once a week after that

[Magik84]

I don't mind a Friday except that it comes out on the same day as Agents of SHIELD in the UK.

Is it a weekly release schedule or all in one drop?

Well theres only 2 episodes left for AoS, so there won't be much overlap.

The weekly schedule probably good fo me, busy at work right now so wouldn't have been able to binge anyway!

[Spectral Knight]

Eugh, I was hoping to binge. I've got so much on my watch-list that having it all on in one would've allowed a deep dive before I get into the shows I got for Christmas (Castle Rock S2, Watchmen) plus American Gods S3.

Is it only two episodes left for AoS? Booo... really enjoying this season so far. Admittedly, it still doesn't match the sheer genius of the Ghost Rider / LMDs / Agents of Hydra 4th season (the unquestionable high point of the show for me) - but every episode has been pretty good, and the time-jumps allow a bit of a tribute to the entire run.

[EvilMonkeyPope]

Is this a multi-season show or a one-off event?

[XtremeOne1]

If I had to guess; one-off event. I feel this and WInter Solider and Falcon will be one season shows that bring the characters into new directions for the movies. Loki has rumors for season 2 but Feige himself said there are so many rumors out there right now, some false and some true, so who knows whats the case there.

My money is on She-HUlk, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel and IronHeart being the multi-season shows, while each year we'll get mini-series like Wanda Vision.

[Nu-D]

Is this a multi-season show or a one-off event?

Depends on how much money it makes.

I’m not sure why Friday irks me. Perhaps because for the past two weeks I’ve been looking forward to watching it tomorrow. But I feel like Thursday is the night they air the good stuff, and Friday gets shows that are close to cancellation. You can probably tell, my ideas about television programming were formed circa 1987-93, and haven’t been updated since TGIF went off the air

[Blackcyclops]

Is this a multi-season show or a one-off event?

Depends on how much money it makes.

I’m not sure why Friday irks me. Perhaps because for the past two weeks I’ve been looking forward to watching it tomorrow. But I feel like Thursday is the night they air the good stuff, and Friday gets shows that are close to cancellation. You can probably tell, my ideas about television programming were formed circa 1987-93, and haven’t been updated since TGIF went off the air

Yeah because Netflix almost always drops big shows/movies on Friday’s in time for the weekend like how films used to drop back when we went to theaters.

[EvilMonkeyPope]

Wagers on whether this will debut Agatha Harkness, Master Pandemonium, Bova, Mephisto, Mordred the Mystic, High Evolutionary, Victor Mancha, Cthon, Grim Reaper, Alkhema, or Nathan Fillion as Wonder Man?

[Blackcyclops]

Damn, Nicole Kidman should not be playing Lucy in the I Love Lucy movie, Elizabeth Olsen would kill it! Because she is excuting 60s sitcom vibes perfectly.

[Blackcyclops]

Anya!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EvilMonkeyPope]

Spoiler: show

BOVA MILK!

[das_boot]

Anya!!!!!!!!!!!!

I SCREAMED

Spoiler: show

SO, this was brilliant, and this feels a lot like the MCU’s adaptation of the Truman Show meets American Horror Story. The little splashes of colour that we see in both episodes were all predominantly red, which I’m guessing is signposting Wanda taking the mantle of Scarlet Witch. What I find intriguing so far is that both episodes so far have clearly shown Wanda using reality manipulation as well as her telekinesis, but it also kind of follows her journey from the comics— random outcomes that she can’t really control or fine-tune in episode one, followed by her trying to cover up for Vision’s weirdness via reality manipulation in the second.

I was dubious about Agnes=Agatha to be honest. From the clips and previews I honestly discounted it and thought it could mean that she was maybe one of the folk behind the Westview simulation, but considering the woman we KNOW is going to be Monica Rambeau introduced herself as Geraldine, I definitely think that this is some kind of enforced Truman Show-esque kind of deal. I also enjoyed the nod to Stark industries and Hydra, which, considering the Struckers were a big part of the extended Fox X-verse, I think also could signpost this being the start of the merger between Marvel and Fox properly, as we’ve all speculated.

This was sublimely acted, and Olsen and Bettany both just seem to be having SO much fun with this. The few moments where we’re taken out of the kitschy sitcom atmosphere into the more creepy side of things was incredibly well acted as well as mildly disturbing (hence my prior comparison to AHS). Overall this didn’t fail to impress, and while I get that part of the reason for the episodes only being half an hour long is to continue playing on the sitcom vibe, I DID find myself wishing that these were hour long episodes, but that’s probably me feeling greedy because I really did feel like they managed to hit character beats, plot beats, and build the 50’s/60’s sitcom atmosphere so well that when the weird moments happened, it felt like a total dissonance to what went before.

Really enjoyed this, and I can’t WAIT for the rest

Okay,

[Blackcyclops]

Anya is my heart so seeing her again just, ugh made me so happy

[EphemeristX]

THAT'S who that was! She looked so familiar.

[Nu-D]

So, I think there’s a lot of 616 stuff in here I don’t recognize. I know Agnes is Agatha Harkness. Who’s Dottie?

What’s the significance of the August 23 date in real life? Is that from 616, or is it the date AoU was released (Wanda met Vision?)

Do we recognize the symbol on the notebook, helicopter and bee keeper?

Who’s this Anya y’all are talking about?

What’s the significance of the name Geraldine?

And wasn’t Strucker the Hydra agent in The Winter Soldier?


When Bethany says “well that really gummed up my works, didn’t it,” he is totally channeling David Tennant’s Doctor Who.

[das_boot]

So, I think there’s a lot of 616 stuff in here I don’t recognize. I know Agnes is Agatha Harkness. Who’s Dottie?

What’s the significance of the August 23 date in real life? Is that from 616, or is it the date AoU was released (Wanda met Vision?)

Do we recognize the symbol on the notebook, helicopter and bee keeper?

Who’s this Anya y’all are talking about?

What’s the significance of the name Geraldine?

And wasn’t Strucker the Hydra agent in The Winter Soldier?


When Bethany says “well that really gummed up my works, didn’t it,” he is totally channeling David Tennant’s Doctor Who.

Dottie is as far as we know, just a character. However she DOES share a name with the Red Room agent we saw in Agent Carter.

August 23rd... no idea. I think they maybe just picked a date at random or it’s something that’s going to come up in a later episode. Potentially the date of Quicksilver’s death, given the “SAVE HIM” vibe.

I think the symbol matches the stuff we’ve seen from set photos that’s theorised to be the SWORD logo— but let’s get real, the beekeeper outfit most closely resembles the uniforms of AIM, who I believe are yet to appear in the MCU.

Dottie was played by the actor Emma Caulfield who was the best thing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer from season 4 onwards, where she played a character called Anya.

“Geraldine” is played by the actor we know is the MCU’s grown up Monica Rambeau, previously seen as a child in Captain Marvel. The pause before giving her name implies it is NOT her real name, and again, we know that actor is playing auntie Monica going forward.

Yes, Baron Strucker was the guy at the start of Age of Ultron who experimented on the twins with the infinity stone

[Blackcyclops]

The logo is most centrally SWORD but the beekeeper does invoke AIM which a watered down version was in Iron Man 3...but if the Mandarin can get reinvented for Shang Chi, then AIM can get an upgrade!

[Nu-D]

Is 616 Vision still made from the spare parts of the WW2 Human Torch, or was that retconned? Think we’ll see any fan service from Vision’s 616 back story, or is this really going to be all Wanda?

[Blackcyclops]

Is 616 Vision still made from the spare parts of the WW2 Human Torch, or was that retconned? Think we’ll see any fan service from Vision’s 616 back story, or is this really going to be all Wanda?

Well Vision’s original body still was made from the body of the original Human Torch sorta...(fwiw this isn’t a new retcon but one from the pre-Bendis Avengers in Busiek’s Avengers Forever)...

But Vision was destroyed in Avengers Disassembled and was rebuilt more or less by Tony Stark. So his origin remains intact (even that his brain waves were based on Wonder Man’s)...

[Nu-D]

I have a foggy memory of the WCA story by Byrne retconning the Torch into Vision’s backstory, and then out again. Or the reverse. Or something. It was in the same run as Vision’s white phase, and the Master Pandemonium story. I’m still baffled how Disassembled was written 15+ years after Wanda’s kids were disappeared. Seems like a long time to let that story sit fallow.

Anyhow...

I really liked episodes 1 & 2, but I have a feeling this is going to get a LOT better. The problem with the current format is that you admire the craftsmanship in re-creating the classic sitcoms for about 3 minutes, and then you remember how dull the Dick Van Dyke show is to modern viewers. The only thing that kept my interest was seeing how the gags would be Marvel-ized, and the Easter eggs and the sparse, tantalizing hints as to what’s really going on. I found myself browsing the web during the magic show because, well, that gag’s been done before, fifty years ago. Yuck, yuck.

But notably, the cracks in the sitcom facade are more regular in the second episode than the first, and I expect we’ll see even more in the third. I think that a lot of care and attention was put into the first two episodes, and they were excellently executed. Once the show starts to go, if they can keep up this level of craftsmanship and performance, it’s going to be excellent AND fun to watch. In fact, I suspect in hindsight these episodes will be even better once we have the context.

I’ve come around on Paul Bethany. The Vision character in the films doesn’t give him a lot of range to work with, so I’ve found his performance uncompelling. But here he brings charm and grace. He has great chemistry with Olsen, who’s a charmer in her own right. I’ve been a fan of hers since AoU, and I love seeing her get a chance to really breathe in this show.

Katherine Hahn, as always, is perfect, particularly in the first episode.

Here’s my current theory. Not really spoilers, but I’ll tag it anyhow:

Spoiler: show

This is post-Endgame. Wanda has been captured by Hydra/AIM and is in some kind of coma-dream. They’re digging around in her subconscious, either trying to program her as a weapon (like Winter Soldier), manipulate her powers to change reality, or simply hunting around for some secret or other.

SWORD is trying to find her and rouse her from the illusion, but she’s resisting coming back to reality. Monica is an agent working to save her. I’m not sure if Agnes is an agent of SWORD, Hydra/AIM, or something else. Dottie is a Hydra agent trying to find her secret.

Wanda will be forced to forgo her wish-fulfillment, lose her kids and husband, and comes back to reality. It will be a “no more mutants” moment, that leads into Doctor Strange 2, though not immediately. Whatever she does will create ripples or cracks in reality that may take time to reach a critical stage.

It will be an ongoing theme in Phase 4, like the appearance of Infinity Stones was an ongoing theme before. I could even see nods to the Bad Wolf and Pandorica stories in Doctor Who. We’ll see a lot of post-credit scenes alluding to reality being damaged, and some of the shows/movies will actually address it head-on. Certainly, Loki and the TVA could be built around trying to deal with one manifestation of multiversal chaos. It will come to it’s culmination in the Multiverse of Madness.

The fallout from DS2 will include the resurrection of Vision and the introduction of Speed and Wiccan, probably holdovers from a different multiverse. Perhaps Pietro too.

A MUCH more ambitious version would be to do a Secret Wars/House of M hybrid in Phase 4. Each new series/movie is an alternate reality Wanda has pulled into the MCU. Again, all coming to a conclusion in DS2. That would allow for the introduction of so many new properties. But it leaves shows like Hawkeye and F&WS a bit out of place if they’re just going to be workaday continuations of the prior MCU. I don’t really see this happening.

[Usernamenotimportant]

This was just the right amount of bonkers. Looking forward to see where this goes.

[XtremeOne1]

Okay, so theory:

I'm with NuD. Agnes = Agatha Hawkness, She's working for Hydra, who have kidnapped Wanda and her using her powers to create this world...to probably get Wanda to remake the world in Hydra's image. I mean, I'm literally spitballing. Not sure how SWORD fits into this, but they do(obviously). Maybe they've broken into the feed and are trying to get in, but when they do(like in Monica's case, with her being Geraldine) they lose their identity? I saw the Hydra logo on Vision's hat(or I thought I did) so I think its Sword vs Hydra here.

So since we're going by decade

Spoiler: show

Episode 3- 70's
Episode 4 - 80's
Episode 5- 90's(Which is when I feel the kids will turn into pre-teens or teens IMO)
Episode 6 - 00's(WOnder what they'll do here for sictom? Doc style?
Episode 7- 10's(SIngle Cam comedy)
Episode 8 and Episode 9 - Probably no parody, straight up story?

The question is, how much longer will we only see hints? From what I've heard, episode 3 is another ep of 'something is wrong but no one knows what and everyone is getting along great' with some reveals here and there.

If I had to guess, ep 3 ends with

Spoiler: show

Monica waking up in a field, in her 70's outfit from the trailer. It's the moment I turned off the trailer and watched no more, since it was a spoilery. From there, I feel we'll have like 80% of the story of Wanda and 20% of MOnica on the outside, trying to reach Wanda

I do think, somehow, Wanda is manipulating reality. I don't think she's in an illusion mostly because Kitty from the 70's was telling her to 'stop it'. SO I think she's controlling the show, but she's being guided in doing so(kinda of like House of M).

I'm so interested in where this will go, because yes this is only the beginning and it will only get better from here(well, hopefully).

Spoiler: show

Certainly this will have a tragic cliffhanger ending that will lead Wanda to running off into the multi-verse or somehow making Westview the center of a multi-verse 'madness' event

And yes, I LOOOOVED seeing Emma Caulfield, who was not only the best thing about Buffy after season 4(as Daniel said) but the only likable character by season 7. Xander, who was the worst, always seemed to date the best characters. Glad to see her back on television and hope this isn't the last of her.