Paul Bettany Teases WandaVision's Theatrical MCU-Level End Game
After a full year lacking any new Marvel Cinematic Universe content — which hasn't happened since 2009 — fans are more than eager for the upcoming WandaVision, a limited series debuting on Disney+ on January 15. But while we'll still have to wait several months for an actual MCU feature film, it seems the highly secretive WandaVision may actually scratch that itch.
At this point, we know very little about WandaVision's plot other than it stars the superhero couple Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) in a sitcom-inspired suburb where things aren't exactly as they seem. There's some hopping between decades, and a few faces from other MCU films, but the six-hour series is sure to surprise us all with its "bonkers" story — as Bettany called it in an interview with Collider.
Everything we do know of WandaVision certainly does sound bonkers: The premiere episode was actually filmed in front of a live-studio audience, which is perhaps as far as you can get from the standard cinematic MCU film, while still in Hollywood.
However, Bettany recently teased on SiriusXM that things will ramp up to something more reminiscent of a regular Marvel movie by the end of the series.
WandaVision will have the action of an MCU movie
As the first Disney+ entry into the MCU — Falcon and the Winter Soldier was meant to come out first but was delayed — WandaVision has a lot to live up to. But as the weird, unconventional series that it is, it's very risky. "We've taken a really big swing," Bettany told SiriusXM. "It's a beautiful puzzle that the audience will get to open over the episodes ... As the show progresses, and we go through the eras, we end up in a full-on action MCU world with all of the same production values."
This isn't the first time one of the WandaVision actors has alluded to the series being more than it seems. Teyonah Parris, who plays a grown up version of the young Monica Rambeau from Captain Marvel, told Entertainment Weekly, "I was like, 'Oh, I thought we were doing a little show,' but no, it's six Marvel movies packed into what they're presenting as a sitcom."
MCU-level action suggests an MCU-level threat, so who or what will Wanda and Vision be fighting? Well, Olsen was convinced to do the series after Marvel studios president Kevin Feige referenced particular Scarlet Witch storylines as inspiration, so the comics could provide clues. Either way, it sounds like we'll truly get to see the reality-bending potential of Wanda's powers.
WandaVision is meant to fit right in with the MCU movies in story, if not in storytelling. The series will lead into 2022's Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which features Wanda as a main character and promises strange things are afoot with the weighted word "multiverse" in its title. It certainly feels like WandaVision will have huge consequences for the MCU, so of course it will also have action befitting the sprawling cinematic universe.