WandaVision: The Office Homages and Hints at Wanda’s “Unexplored” Power

WandaVision is on the horizon. With each day, we’re getting closer and closer to the show I’m probably most excited about out of Marvel’s Disney+ line-up. (Don’t worry, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, you’re also up there.) What I love about the latest news out of it all is that we’re getting more of a glimpse into what kind of TV show styles the unique series is going to tackle.

As far as we know, WandaVision is a journey through Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) coping mechanism. She had to watch her brother die during the battle with Ultron. She had to kill Vision (Paul Bettany) with her own hands and then watch as Thanos reversed time and killed him again. All of that, and she was then snapped away, only to return to a world where neither Pietro nor Vision could come back to her.

She deserves time to heal and figure out how to take care of herself, and I think that WandaVision is going to start to give that to her. And … give us Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany starring in some of our favorite family comedies. (And I guess just normal comedies as well???)

Marvel’s #WandaVision will delve into Scarlet Witch’s ‘ill-defined and unexplored power-set’, and include sitcom homages right up to Modern Family and The Office, Kevin Feige tells Empire. Read more and see exclusive images here: https://t.co/Gr04LEIN03 pic.twitter.com/N3qzB9AAVr

— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) November 23, 2020

While the pictures continue to show the 1950s era of the show, it is the fact that WandaVision will tackle sitcoms as recent as Modern Family and The Office that has me excited.

“I loved TV, and watched far too much The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy and Bewitched and everything. We go up to the Modern Family and The Office style. The talk-to-the-camera, shaky-camera, documentary style,” Marvel’s Kevin Feige told Empire Online, and as a super fan of The Office, I just have one thing to say:

(NBC)

So yes, I’m excited to see how they’re going to tackle the mockumentary style with Wanda Maximoff, but more than that, this gives us an idea that our initial understanding of the show tackling “family sitcoms” isn’t exactly the case. Sure, we’re getting a look at those comedies from the ’50s like Leave It to Beaver and I Love Lucy and even Bewitched, but it’s also clearly using comedies as a way to help Wanda cope.

Feige went on to talk about Wanda and the pain that she’s suffered throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe:

“If you look at the Infinity Saga, I don’t think any single person has gone through more pain and trauma than Wanda Maximoff. 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?”

As someone who calls Wanda Maximoff my “baby girl,” I do have to thank Kevin Feige for constantly talking about Wanda and her importance. (If only the movies of the MCU would use her more, though.) He clearly knows and loves her from the comics, and her power does make her one of the strongest Avengers there—and could factor into some big shakeups on Marvel’s horizon.

My hope for WandaVision is that this is some kind of reverse House of M storyline, and Wanda brings the X-Men into the world of the MCU, now that Marvel has those movie rights again—and that her power is finally completely understood by the remaining Avengers. But, until we know more about what WandaVision has in store for us, I just know I’m going to love this show because it’s finally time for Wanda to have her due.

(image: Marvel Entertainment)

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