WandaVision Director On Why It Was Important To Highlight Wanda And Vision's Romance - Exclusive
One aspect that Marvel Comics fans didn't get to experience a huge amount of in the Avengers film saga was the romance between Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Sadly, all hopes of anything in the future appeared to be dashed with Vision's tragic death at the hands of Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War. But now, thanks to the creative talents of director Matt Shakman and series-creator-slash-head-writer Jac Shaeffer, Wanda and Vision are being given a second chance at love and romance — albeit in a classic-television-sitcom-meets-The Twilight Zone sort of way — with WandaVision, Marvel Studios' debut series on Disney+.
WandaVision kicks off with each episode set in a different decade of the classic television sitcom world, beginning in the 1950s with an episode reminiscent of The Dick Van Dyke Show. It's there and in subsequent episodes where the grand romance that Wanda and Vision never got to explore in depth in the Avengers saga blooms.
In an exclusive interview with Looper, Shakman explained why Wanda and Vision's romance in the series that spans decades was such a high priority amid a much larger story.
"There are many layers to our storytelling, and by the time you get to the end of the series, you'll understand why we went through this journey and what each one of these eras meant and how it worked," Shakman told with Looper. "The thing, though, that is really the through-line or the spine of the whole show is this love affair. It's a romance, it's a story about Vision and Wanda. And it's been in the comics for a long time. It's in the MCU."
Wanda and Vision's romance is the series' through-line
Shakman believes that the reason why Wanda and Vision's romance feels so real is both down to the talents of the show's writers and to the chemistry Olsen and Bettany had during the Avengers saga. Overall, he's thrilled to get the opportunity to help realize the life together that Wanda and Vision never had.
"We understand exactly what's going on between them. We root for them. We love them. We want them to succeed. We're heartbroken when she loses Vision," Shakman shared. "All of that is our jumping-off point for this nine-episode series, where we get a chance to explore that relationship. And so that's the through-line — that romance, that love story. That's the thing that's taking us through this all."
However, as viewers are discovering with some Marvel Easter eggs and various hidden clues tucked within the series, there's quite a bit of intrigue to complement WandaVision's romantic storyline, too. As Shakman told Looper, "My hope is that we've created something that is a little bit of a mystery — a puzzle box — and that you'll sort of lean forward and try to figure out how it's put together."
The first three episodes of WandaVision are available to stream on Disney+ now.