The annual Disney Investors Call this year turned out to be a far more spectacular event than anyone could have guessed, with creatives from all of the studio’s many divisions (including Lucasfilm, National Geographic, Disney Animation, Pixar, and Marvel) revealing new information about upcoming films, TV series, and Disney+ originals. The deluge of teasers, trailers, and reveals will take a while for me to work through – so let’s start with something sweet and simple: a new trailer for Marvel’s swiftly-approaching superhero sitcom, WandaVision, which many of us thought would drop earlier in the day that it did. Either way, we got it, and I’m glad we did.
Wanda Maximoff and Vision | gamesradar.com
The first trailer for WandaVision, which dropped a few months back, quickly broke records and proved that Marvel fans are ready and willing to jump back into the MCU. WandaVision, however, appeals to audiences from all different backgrounds, with a retro aesthetic and zany comedy that are sure to be a hit with fans of classic sitcoms like I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, and The Brady Bunch, or more recent ones like Modern Family, which is also said to be an inspiration for the six-part Marvel series.
This new trailer is a cleverly edited blend of both the sitcom mayhem and the superhero action – plus the touch of psychological horror that I find most fascinating about WandaVision‘s premise. Once again, we see Wanda Maximoff and Vision using Maximoff’s reality-bending superpowers to live out their dream life, with a nice house in the suburbs, twin babies, and suspiciously friendly neighbors. Wanda is able to change the time period at will, and the trailer gives us a better look at the various decades of television history we’ll see replicated in extraordinary detail throughout the show, while the aspect ratio changes accordingly. For instance: notice how Wanda’s magic is achieved with practical effects for scenes set in the 1950’s and 60’s, while actual CGI is used more and more only as the series progresses into the future. The scenes in the 70’s (where Paul Bettany’s Vision sports an appropriately atrocious blond hairdo) seem to have matte painting backgrounds, which is another cool little nod to old filmmaking tricks. In the background, a slowed-down, psychedelic version of “Daydream Believer” by the Monkees plays.
WandaVision | theplaylist.net
But something dark lurks beneath the cheery façade Wanda has designed for herself, as we can see when scenes and characters start glitching. Teyonah Parris, who plays superheroine Monica Rambeau, shows up at Wanda’s door with a knowing smile – but then doesn’t seem to know who she is, or why she’s there. Eerie voices cut through normal radio broadcasts, and a creepy-looking figure in a hazmat suit appears suddenly in the darkness. Even Wanda’s neighbor Agnes (whom we’ve believed for a long time is actually the evil witch Agatha Harkness from the comics) looks a bit freaked out. Meanwhile, in the real world, a team of S.W.O.R.D. agents led by Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis try to break through to Wanda, bringing in armored vehicles, military helicopters, and entire squadrons of army troopers to deal with a massive, flickering red wall of light – which I believe is enclosing Wanda in the pocket-reality where she’s crafted her suburban utopia.
We also get a new tease of how Wanda was able to resurrect Vision, who died in Avengers: Infinity War after having the Mind Stone – his power source, and supposedly the source of Wanda’s own magic – ripped out of his head by Thanos. In this new trailer, Wanda can briefly be seen interacting with the Mind Stone, before an explosion knocks the wind out of her. Since the Mind Stone was destroyed offscreen by Thanos in Avengers: Endgame to prevent anyone from ever being tempted to use its power again, there can be only one explanation: Wanda is strong enough to recreate the Infinity Stones. And even though I don’t expect her to bring back the entire set, one is enough to accomplish what she wants – and probably enough to attract the attention of any number of Marvel villains who might want to exploit her rare skill.
WandaVision | cbr.com
Whether that’s the case or not, Wanda isn’t going to let herself be exploited so easily – which I like, because I’ve always been worried that WandaVision could repeat a long-since trope of depowering strong female characters by having them go mad, usually because they’re “too emotional” to handle the weight and responsibility of their own strength. But what we can see from Wanda is that she’s ready to fight to defend her home and her loved ones, and there’s an awesome shot of her taking flight into battle, buoyed by her characteristic fireballs of red energy – while the final sting shows her and Vision taking each other’s hand and getting ready to face some unseen enemy. Hopefully she has plenty more opportunities to show off her capability and competence, as this trailer promises.
The Marvel drought is officially over, with the release of the first full trailer for the studio’s first ever Disney+ streaming series, WandaVision. In a perfect alternate reality, The Falcon And The Winter Soldier would likely already be well into its first season or might even have already concluded – but as we can see from the WandaVision trailer, picture-perfect alternate realities aren’t always as perfect as they seem from the inside looking out.
slashfilm.com
The trailer includes everything I was most hoping to see (and was worried I might not) in just under a minute and a half. The classic sitcom elements are all there, from the constantly changing aspect ratio to the laugh track that we hear punctuating two separate scenes. The psychological horror elements are front and center, with cheerful music accompanying scenes of a quaint suburban utopia glitching: time rewinding, scenes repeating themselves in a loop – all we’re missing is some color bars to make it apparent that Wanda Maximoff and The Vision (whose names, conjoined, make up both the title of the series and a clever play on the word television) are in fact living in a classic sitcom-inspired alternate reality as many of us have guessed from the day the series was announced.
The last we saw of these two characters, Wanda was still in a fragile emotional state and recovering from the traumatic events of several previous Marvel films – and as for Vision, well, he had been killed…twice. Once by Wanda herself after it became clear that she was the only person strong enough to kill him and seemingly destroy the dangerous Mind Stone embedded in his head; once by the Mad Titan Thanos, mere moments after dying the first time, when Thanos used the Time Stone to reverse the consequences of Wanda’s tragic sacrifice, resurrecting Vision only to rip the reconstructed Mind Stone out of his head, killing him instantly and far more brutally.
But now, in the WandaVision trailer, we find them happily married and moving into a lovely little townhouse in the suburbs….back in the 1950’s or 60’s, as is made obvious by the fact that everything is black and white, “Twilight Time” is playing, and Wanda and Vision appear to be channeling Dick Van Dyke and his onscreen bride Mary Tyler Moore. As the two get comfortable, they try to bond with the neighbors (including the nosy Agnes: more on her in a moment), which leads to an uncomfortable dinner party with the newlyweds trying to vaguely explain where they came from, how long they’ve been married, and why they’re still childless. As the screen glitches and Wanda begins to panic, the truth becomes clear – with the help of her supernatural powers, Wanda Maximoff has somehow built an entire idyllic dreamscape for herself an a resurrected Vision. Unable to achieve her happy-ever-after in the real world, she’s decided to build one from scratch. It helps when your alter ego is The Scarlet Witch and you can just do this stuff.
collider.com
But nothing comes easily. Even though we see Wanda trying to keep her utopia intact, the entire place is clearly coming apart at the seams. Why exactly is still unclear: is this whole world somehow contained within Wanda’s mind, and the mental toll of trying to hold it together is inadvertently causing it to crumble to pieces around her? Or are the events of this show playing out in, as I suspect, a pocket dimension, one which is quickly closing or becoming unstable and potentially deadly? To me this latter option seems the most likely for a number of reasons: note, towards the end of the trailer, what looks to be a gated compound surrounded by armored vehicles, helicopters and teams of heavily armed agents (who, by the way, come from S.W.O.R.D., the sister organization of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Note how, when we see Monica Rambeau get thrown through mid-air in Wanda’s world, she pops out through a rift in the real world before into the earth at the same location where all the S.W.O.R.D. agents are stationed (notice also how she zooms straight by a town sign in the real world that seems like it might say Westview, just like the name of the town in Wanda’s world, according to Vision’s newspaper). I think there’s something beyond all those electric fences, something S.W.O.R.D. is guarding or observing, and I think it’s probably a portal to another dimension into which Wanda has entered and to which she has now lost herself – and I think Monica is the agent who’s been tasked with trying to get in and retrieve the Scarlet Witch before the effects of her tampering with the space-time continuum bleed out into the real world (I’ve speculated previously that this is why I think Darcy Lewis will also be appearing in WandaVision: she was a prominent figure in Thor: The Dark World because of how much she knew about portals opening between worlds and dimensions, and her expertise could be vital to S.W.O.R.D.). But, no matter how much Wanda may privately realize she’s living out a fantasy, she’ll still resist having to leave and she’ll probably become a destructive force of dark magic if anyone tries to separate her from Vision – or the two newest members of her family, her twin boys.
Yes, it looks like Wanda and Vision have been busy making up for lost time in this new life they share. Their twin sons, Wiccan and Speed, are both powerful and important heroes in the Marvel comics, and it’s great to see them onscreen at last, even if they are still babies. Thanks to Wanda’s reality-warping powers and the fact that she keeps changing the decade (we start out in the 50’s and progress through television history all the way to the 90’s or early 2000’s in the sitcom world), I expect both boys to be in their teens by the end of WandaVision, making them perfect candidates to join the ranks of the Young Avengers team being assembled across the MCU. I’ve speculated that we’ll see Wiccan, one of the most notable LGBTQ+ characters in Marvel history, come out as gay to his mother after meeting Hulkling, his eventual boyfriend, when the latter arrives as part of the same S.W.O.R.D. team sent to obtain Wanda.
Hulkling and Wiccan | comicsbeat.com
Whether Wanda will be so fortunate in her love life remains to be seen. We know she’s in Doctor Strange: The Multiverse Of Madness, so she clearly survives WandaVision, but she could be permanently scarred (mentally, emotionally, and perhaps physically) by whatever happens to her and Vision here – I definitely don’t see Vision making it out alive, meaning Wanda will likely once again be left heartbroken (especially if S.W.O.R.D. takes her children into their custody as well). Hiding won’t work: even in the confines of her perfect reality, the couple are still in danger thanks to their nosy neighbor Agnes, who is very likely the evil sorceress Agatha Harkness.
In the comics, Harkness is an agent of chaos who mentors/manipulates Wanda and gets the younger Witch embroiled in a couple of unsavory situations, including some very literal deals with the devil. Her iconic purple and fuchsia outfit is reflected in the character Agnes’ bright purple leg warmers and hot pink tights (circa 1980-something). and the witch hat she wears while sitting paralyzed in her car on Halloween, which is where Vision finds her and gently tries to wake her with his own superpowers. When she jumps, and hurriedly asks if she’s dead, it prompts Vision to ask her in his most innocent tone of voice why she would ever think that. “Because you are,” she responds bluntly, before bursting into maniacal laughter. I’ve got to imagine that being informed in the middle of the night by a teal-haired woman wearing a witch’s hat that you’re actually dead and your wife murdered you (oh, and also you’re definitely living in a simulation and your kids are probably fake) has to be an emotional gut punch of some kind.
Probably explains why Vision looks so glum in the next shot, where we see him trick-or-treating in the neighborhood while wearing his iconic outfit from the comics as a Halloween costume. It looks absolutely ridiculous, but it’s an Easter Egg, and I love it. Wanda also wears a version of her comics-accurate costume for the Halloween episode, which includes her signature crescent moon tiara, red cape and gloves. Here’s hoping she gets a more sophisticated version of the costume (or at least the tiara) to wear into battle when she’s inevitably forced to defend her family from intruders.
nerdist.com
I have a suspicion she’ll take down some S.W.O.R.D. agents before all is said and done, but they may not all be so easy to kill, even though she’s armed with dark magic. The way the trailer ends, with us getting our first good look at Monica Rambeau as she recovers from being thrown through the air, makes me think these two women will quickly become nemeses. It won’t be a one-sided fight, either: in the comics, Monica has some cosmic superpowers of her own, which are similar to Captain Marvel’s, and she goes under the alias Spectrum. If push comes to shove (and it will), I think Monica is more than capable of holding her own. It’s even possible that she’ll obtain her powers due to her close proximity to Wanda’s magical outbursts: since we know only Wanda, whose powers derived from the Mind Stone, was able to destroy the Mind Stone, it stands to reason that the only way to defeat Wanda is to use some of her own power against her.
Before we go, I have to make a bold prediction: based off this trailer and what we already know, I think that WandaVision is about to be the most wildly original and imaginative thing that Marvel has ever done, and I believe that it has the potential to usher in a new era in the studio’s history. Marvel’s tried and true formula is known to work, but many of us have been wanting the studio to branch out, try some new things and take some big risks: this trailer is all of that. The MCU is about to get a whole lot messier, as the complications of the Multiverse ensure that literally anything can happen from now on and creative freedom can go unchecked, and I’m here for it.
If you weren’t previously hyped for Marvel’s multitude of newly announced Disney+ content, prepare to be. We have a lot to discuss.
Over the weekend, Disney Studios sated the appetites of rabid fans at their D23 Expo with some exclusive reveals, including brief footage, concept art, and official posters for some upcoming projects. But now the public can share in the fun, as some of this stuff, specifically the concept art and posters, are being released. And we, being ravenous fans with a desire to nitpick and study every inch of new material, are going through this stuff with a fine-toothed comb, looking for clues.
The first official poster for The Falcon And The Winter Soldier dropped earlier today, sparking a heated discussion about the most trivial of subjects. Yes, Bucky Barnes, whose gloriously long hair has been a trademark of the character’s appearance since 2013, has finally visited a barber, it seems. Either that, or the graphic designer made a huge blunder by choosing to use 1940’s Bucky as a reference for this poster, rather than modern, stylish-Jesus Bucky.
mcucosmic.com
Apart from Bucky’s new haircut, we can see that the Winter Soldier is donning a slightly new, streamlined outfit, as well as his vibranium arm (which still hasn’t seen any real action: here’s hoping we get to see some epic metal-arm fight scenes in the show). Falcon, who was entrusted with Captain America’s shield in Avengers: Endgame, is…not holding the shield, for whatever reason, and is also positioned behind Bucky, looking more like a supporting character than the lead. Perhaps both men are leads, but it does seem a little unusual to place the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new shield-bearer in the background. Then again, he does also show up in the top right-corner of the poster, flying across the sky, looking very much like a patriotic fighter-plane. In fact, the poster does seem to be going for a “war-movie” vibe – the pale watercolor sky, the ever-so-slightly antiquated heroic poses from Bucky and Falcon, the red, white and blue logo: it looks almost 1940’s to me – but again, considering that Falcon isn’t a time-displaced character like Bucky, that choice seems peculiar. Who’s the lead on this show, really?
Speaking of old-fashioned stylistic choices, though, the first official concept art/poster for the WandaVision series is blatantly dated: and both lead actress Elizabeth Olsen and Marvel president Kevin Feige have said as much. The show is said to have a retro, 1950’s sitcom style – at first, this seemed like it might have just been a creative reference for the showrunners to draw on, but this art suggests that the entire series will, in fact, look and feel like I Love Lucy, combined with idealized, bright and sunny ads ripped from the pages of an old Sears catalog.
mcucosmic.com
It’s an even more peculiar stylistic choice than that on the previous poster, because neither Wanda Maximoff nor her (currently deceased) partner Vision have any real connection to the 1950’s. Yet here they are, dressed in period-appropriate fashion and sporting upper-class bemused smiles, surrounded by the accouterments of a typical “nuclear family”.
Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, has some untapped potential in the MCU that could explain this perplexing choice – in the comics, she has the ability to warp reality and create entire “pocket dimensions” that exist alongside our own. In such a faux reality, Wanda could presumably resurrect her dead lover and create a perfect, cheery little family for herself in a quaint little suburb: according to reports from D23, Wanda and Vision will have a nosy next-door neighbor, played by Kathryn Hahn, and a bunch of other comedic castmates – including the Thor franchise’s underdog Darcy, and Agent Jimmy Woo. Another sign that Scarlet Witch will use more comics-accurate powers in the new series is a hint, in this poster, of her more comics-accurate costume: Wanda’s shadow, in the top left-hand corner, sports her traditional crescent-moon tiara, something that hasn’t appeared in the MCU as of yet. Fans have been dying to see it on Elizabeth Olsen’s brow, and this poster gives me hope that we will.
Don’t expect WandaVision to be all canned laughter and sunshine, though – the series is rumored to head into dark, even macabre or paranormal territory, which makes sense, considering that it will always lead directly into the events of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, which is being hyped up as Marvel’s first horror film.
What do you think of the new concept art? Does it look cool, or outdated? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Do I even have time to talk about anything that’s not Marvel on this blog? Probably not. Probably never. Certainly not with the amount of Marvel content that’s just been announced for Disney’s new Disney+ streaming service.
(Don’t worry: I will certainly talk about some of the other Disney+ reveals that were dropped at tonight’s D23 panel in California, possibly even that AWESOME trailer for The World According To Jeff Goldblum; but basically, it’s Jeff Goldblum being himself, and that’s all you need to know).
So let’s break down all the Marvel content you’ll be seeing on Disney+ in coming years, starting with The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which should air in fall 2020. The main cast, including Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp and Daniel Brühl, were all confirmed, as well as one surprising addition: Wyatt Russell will be joining the show as the probable antagonist John Walker, a US agent who, in comics lore, is genetically modified to become a super-soldier of comparable strength to Captain America – Walker is an extremist/basically terrorist who is endorsed by the United States government, leading to a confrontation between him and Falcon. There will certainly be a lot of ruminations on what it means to bear the mantle and shield of the iconic hero in the upcoming series, as both characters fight for the honor of being the one true Captain America.
Next up was Loki, about which we learned almost nothing new. It will be six episodes long, air in spring of 2021, and link the events of Avengers: Endgame and the upcoming film Thor: Love And Thunder, by exploring what happened to the god of mischief after he vanished into an alternate timeline with the Tesseract. No cast has been officially confirmed, though I’ve been seeing rumors that Idris Elba’s Heimdall will be returning for the series, as well as a new character played by legendary actor Ian McKellen (another clear indicator, if true, that Marvel will be ignoring Fox X-Men continuity). Michael Waldron will helm the series.
WandaVision was also confirmed at the panel for a summer 2021 release date: one of the weirdest upcoming Marvel projects, the show does not yet have a director attached, but it does have a screenwriter in Jac Schaeffer (who is also writing Marvel’s Black Widow), and a large and surprising cast: alongside Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, and Paul Bettany’s Vision, the following have been confirmed: Teyonah Parris will play a grown-up version of Captain Marvel‘s Monica Rambeau; Kat Dennings will return to the role of Darcy, a fan-favorite last seen in Thor: The Dark World; Randall Parks will reprise the role of Agent Jimmy Woo, a lovable and humorous cop; and Kathryn Hahn will play an unnamed “nosy neighbor”, in what was described by Marvel president Kevin Feige as a mix between an epic MCU adventure and old episodes of 50’s sitcoms. Honestly, that sounds amazing: the show will apparently also include some horror elements, and will be absolutely bizarre.
For some reason, absolutely nothing was said about the Hawkeye show. That can’t have been an accidental omission, but it’s surprising nonetheless.
The What If? animated series planned for summer 2021 teased a series of 23 episodes for each existing Marvel movie; episodes in which there will be drastic changes to current MCU canon, resulting in alternate realities. Almost all of the main Marvel cast will be lending their voices to the series: Hayley Atwell has been receiving the most attention, however, since she gets to portray a version of Peggy Carter who took the super-soldier serum during World War II and became Captain Britain. Variations on Captain America and Star Lord were also shown.
Following that were three of the night’s most startling and crowd-pleasing reveals. A Ms. Marvel series documenting the origins of Kamala Khan, one of Marvel’s only Muslim superheroines was already widely rumored, and actress Mindy Kaling had supposedly approached the studio with ideas for the show: the rumors were officially confirmed today, and it looks like Khan will not only be the star of a Disney+ series, but will also make appearances in MCU movies going forward (probably Captain Marvel films, since the teenage heroine from Jersey City is known for being a Captain Marvel fangirl). Comedian Bisha K. Ali will produce the show.
Next, a Moon Knight series was confirmed, and received probably the best Disney+ title logo so far. Marc Spector, the Moon Knight, is a very complex character who some thought might have been better suited for a Hulu series, where he could have been darker, grittier, and more risque. Well, we’ll see. I have faith in the series, if only because its logo is actually awesome. No director or cast is attached.
Finally, She-Hulk, a.k.a. Jennifer Walters, is confirmed for a series: one of Marvel Comics’ most beloved heroines, the quick-witted lawyer retains her human personality when she transforms into a female equivalent of Bruce Banner’s Hulk, meaning she’s “the brains and the brawn” right from the get-go, whereas Banner had to progress through several films before reaching that point in his transformation. No director or cast is attached, but fans are already rallying for the series to be a superhero action/courtroom drama crossover.
So…what do you think of Marvel’s upcoming slate of shows? Personally, each and every one sounds awesome, and I can’t wait for a chance to sit down and try to figure out more about them: expect many more theories and predictions in the days ahead!
Until then, go watch the trailer for Jeff Goldblum’s new show. You’ll thank me.
