2020 is off to a great start in terms of MCU-related news. Disney+ tweeted a video on January 1st, announcing all of the content coming to their streaming service in the new year. Much to the surprise of Marvel fans, this video announced that WandaVision, the much-anticipated Disney+ series, will premiere in 2020 rather than its initial Spring 2021 release.
An exact release date is still unknown.
Is this not what 2020 vision means? From #ToyStory 4 and Aladdin to #LizzieMcGuire and WandaVision, here’s a look into our future at the blockbusters and Originals coming to #DisneyPlus this year. pic.twitter.com/QHGMHat89n
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) January 1, 2020
As the excitement around the series builds, I want to break down Andy Park’s concept art that was released at D23 Expo 2019 and give you some of my WandaVision theories.
A quick glance at this image will let anyone know it is not set in the present day. This photo screams the 1950s, which leads me to believe the show will be taking some influence from Tom King’s 2015 “The Vision” run for Marvel Comics since it deals with similar themes.
If that’s the case, then WandaVision could explore how Wanda and Vision will exist in a world that may not look too kindly towards their relationship, and the life they lead. Vision may continue to try and find his place in a society that continually points out his android-based differences.
The show has so many options of so many rich stories to tell. For example, if the show is similar to a 1950s’ sitcom, then it can examine gender roles and norms like the revolutionary series I Love Lucy.
Beyond the 1950s of it all, I do know the show will finally focus on Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch, because Elizabeth Olsen said so at San Diego Comic Con last year. This likely means that fans and Wanda herself will get to know her powers. She yields reality-warping powers in the comics. This leads directly into a better understanding of the 1950s set up. Maybe Wanda, even if by accident, created a version of reality where thinks she can live at peace with Vision. Maybe that reality just so happens to be in the 1950s.
Her brother Pietro, better known as his superhero alias Quicksilver, is rumored to make an appearance in WandaVision too. This would further play into the utopia Wanda would create for herself. Of course it would include the brother and best friend she lost all too soon. I am incredibly eager to see Aaron Taylor Johnson as Pietro Maximoff again. Give the people what they want, Marvel.
The new release date made me wonder about the future of Phase 4 of the MCU. If we get The Falcon and the Winter Solider and WandaVision this year, then what will take WandaVision’s original slot? Social media seems to agree with my speculations that the highly anticipated series Loki, based on the character of the same name, will take the Spring 2021 slot.
Comics fans will know this makes perfect sense, especially with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness slated to premiere in May of 2021. Stephen Strange, Wanda Maximoff, and Loki have had quite a few epic run-ins and team-ups in the comics.
Since Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced at SDCC 2019 that Wanda would also appear in the Doctor Strange sequel, who’s to say some version of Loki won’t appear in it too? If Wanda uses her time on WandaVision to learn and understand the magnitude of her powers, anything is possible.
This would also help with the time gap between the releases of WandaVision and the Doctor Strange sequel. I was initially concerned that the break between the two would cause problems for fans since there is so much to stream in so little time. Fans of Netflix’s original programming are no strangers to the memory lapse that comes with waiting a year or longer for a new season of their favorite show.
The Loki tie-in could be the perfect bridge between WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It could remind viewers of WandaVision what took place during the series that began streaming a year prior to Loki’s release. It may even encourage new viewers or rewatches of WandaVision as a lead-up to Loki and/or the Doctor Strange sequel.
I am a bit bummed that we didn’t get a proper announcement when WandaVision began production, like we did with TFATWS. I would have loved to see Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany take over Marvel Studios’ Instagram account. Someone please let them do that in the future. Maybe they could do a takeover to announce the premiere of the first promo.
What do you think of the WandaVision news and theories? Are you excited to stream the series on Disney+? Let us know in the comments below!
