WandaVision was one of the most original Marvel shows released through Disney+, and the show is still available to watch on the streaming service. It was the first of several long-form TV series streaming on the platform.
WandaVision brings the MCU to the world of classic television, as Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) find themselves living as a married couple in a perfect suburban ideal. Set following the events of Avengers: Endgame, the two super-powered beings are happily living in a 50’s style suburban American dream, albeit with some holes in their memories of the how and the why. They soon discover mysterious cracks in their reality and realize things are not quite right in this quiet suburb.
How to Watch WandaVision
WandaVision is exclusively streaming on Disney+, which you can watch with a subscription to the service starting at $7.99 a month or $69.99 per year when paid in advance. Subscribers can stream all of the Disney+ content through their browser, streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV, and iOS and Android mobile devices.
See our review of Disney+ for full details on subscribing to the service.
What is WandaVision About
Stylistically, each episode takes the pair to another decade and genre of the family sitcom, kicking off with the black-and-white world of The Dick Van Dyke Show followed by Bewitched—complete with a live studio audience. The balance that the creative team struck between style and irreverence is one of the strongest charms of WandaVision so far. Clearly, a lot of attention was paid to the shows that it pays tribute to, from Ron Petrie’s living room on The Dick Van Dyke Show to the costumes, camera angles, and filming styles of each era. The dialogue is both spot-on in tone and just a little cheesy in all the right ways, even as Wanda and Vision joke about his non-human nature and her superpowers. And both Olsen and Bettany are nailing the range of delivery and physical comedy of their varied iconic television predecessors; it’s clear they are having fun stepping outside of the intensity usually reserved for our superheroes.
Hanging over all the sculpted hair, cheery smiles, and tongue-in-cheek sincerity is just the right hint of something ominous, which grows a little in each episode. As the series moves forward in time, through shows more like Family Ties, Family Matters, and even Modern Family, there is more than a little Twilight Zone going on behind the scenes. It will be interesting to see what’s really happening to Wanda and Vision and who is pulling the strings.
What sitcom would be complete without a nosey neighbor popping in the back door or over the fence, intent on knowing all the neighborhood gossip, especially when one is trying to keep a superhero-sized secret? For Wanda and Vision, Agnes is played by familiar comedian and character actor Kathryn Hahn (Transparent and Parks and Recreation). The series also includes several Marvel film characters such as Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) from the Thor films; Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), Scott Lang’s FBI parole agent in Ant-Man and the Wasp; and an all-grown-up Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), the precocious daughter of Carol Danvers best friend in Captain Marvel, who will be a major part of The Marvels movie releasing on November 10, 2023.
Marvel fans should also keep a lookout for several MCU Easter eggs, as well as a few threads that may come up later, particularly in the quirky faux commercial breaks in each episode.
WandaVision was developed and written by Jac Schaeffer (The Hustle, Timer) and directed by Matt Shakman (Game of Thrones, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Good Wife, and House) and marks the first series of Phase 4 of the MCU.
The series is a delight to watch and an excitingly different approach for Marvel as a whole, not to mention for our heroes. You can watch WandaVision on Disney+.
