WandaVision‘s Jac Schaeffer on Scenes That Didn’t Make the Cut
The cast and creators of WandaVision talk fan reactions, memories and more.
It’s been several weeks since the finale of WandaVision, and Marvel’s weirdest, most original show to date is still occupying space in our minds, our hearts, and most importantly, our memes. The cast (Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Teyonah Parris, Kathryn Hahn) and creative team (showrunner/producer/writer Jac Schaeffer and director/EP Matt Shakman) behind the series reunited on Entertainment Weekly’s The Awardist podcast, where they discussed the fan response to the series, ideas that didn’t make the cut, and more.
Jac Schaeffer credited the origin of the series to the head of Marvel himself, saying, “The concept belongs to [Marvel CEO] Kevin Feige, it was his idea to marry Wanda and Vision with the history of sitcoms. He’s a Nick at Nite type of guy, and he, based on this long history in the comics of Wanda and Vision in various domestic, suburban spheres, he thought those two things would go together.”
She continued, “I’ve worked on a few Marvel projects, and it was such a relief to not have this be about saving the universe, to have it be about this woman’s trauma and a specific scenario in a town that was very contained. It was also a gift to be working from the tremendous work that Paul and Lizzy had already done in the MCU, so there was no starting from scratch. There was already a wealth of comics, but there were these two living breathing people who had already brought so much life to them. It was such a delicious opportunity to literally put them in a scenario that is the least expected, anticipated world for them.”
Elizabeth Olsen said the the biggest challenge was “nerdy actor stuff, like learning how to do physical comedy better … our bodies are very important for comedy, so her voice, her inflections, her mannerisms, and then trying to find that sweet spot with Matt [Shakman], where the Marvel Cinematic Universe starts to confront this sitcom world.”
Schaeffer also discussed scenes that didn’t make it to the series, including therapy sessions for Monica Rambeau and more emotional processing. “My pitch was mapped to the stages of grief, it ended up being kind of a reductive thing,” said Schaeffer. “I don’t know if you know this or not, Teyonah, but [Monica] had a therapist in the base, the pop-up base. There were therapy scenes because we, in the [writers’] room, were very pro-therapy.” Schaeffer added, “We were like, ‘Well, we’ve got to have a therapist,’ and then realized that there’s not a lot of time in the pop-up [S.W.O.R.D.] base [outside Westview] for Monica to be stepping into her sessions at all.”
The team has also enjoyed the fan response, ranging from deep dive Reddit theories to memes to the impossibly catchy “Agatha All Along.” Matt Shakman said, “I loved looking at the memes and the TikTok videos, and seeing that there was this dialogue happening between the show and the fans out there. Some of them were really wonderful, watching all of these amazing actors get turned into memes was really fun. Seeing “Agatha All Along” get done by so many wonderful people, some really moving things. Seeing Paul turned into ViShawn was also a pretty good one.”
Everyone also agreed that they knew they hit their pop culture peak when drag queens began doing WandaVision-themed performances, referring to a TikTok of a WandaVision-themed drag brunch that took place in Minneapolis. “I’ve really never felt so seen or proud,” said Kathryn Hahn.
A WHOLE ASS WANDAVISION DRAG BRUNCH???? WANDAVISION’S INFLUENCE IS TRULY UNMATCHED pic.twitter.com/HRNi2SGboB
— ashlyn (@wxndaharley) May 3, 2021
(via EW, image: Marvel/Disney+)
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