WandaVision Director Matt Shakman on Collaborating With Other Marvel Studios Filmmakers

01/14/2021 09:20 am EST

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has quickly become the largest collaborative storytelling project in the history of Hollywood, with dozens of movies by dozens of writers and directors, along with a host of TV tie-ins. The lion's share of the credit tends to go to Kevin Feige, the executive producer who has overseen the films and their continuity since 2008. The filmmakers themselves, though, deserve a lot of credit for keeping things straight, staying out of each other's way, and making some consistently great popcorn movies under some of the most severe scrutiny in the history of entertainment, and some really strange conditions.

Matt Shakman, who directed WandaVision, took time out during the press tour this week to shout out Marvel's collaborative environment and how gratifying it is to be a part of the machine. He said that everyone from other filmmakers all the way up to Feige are always supportive.

"Marvel is an incredibly collaborative place, and you asked earlier about, 'Can you put your own stamp on it?' and you absolutely can and that's one of the great things," Shakman told Comic Book Movie. "There's so much freedom as a filmmaker, but, at the same time, there's also tremendous support from everyone. Kevin Feige and his team are all working relentlessly to make this thing the best thing it can possibly be and that support is amazing, the guidance and wisdom we've had along the way from Kevin and his team have been amazing and that is part of the secret sauce that makes it work. Conversations with other filmmakers about how stories will continue or continuing stories that have happened or been introduced already has been part of my experience for sure."

Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany appear together in WandaVision, set to debut on Friday, January 15, with its first two episodes and then go weekly. The series, which looks to be a departure for Marvel, taking an unconventional tone and playing with TV conventions, is the first new content set in the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home. This will also be the first onscreen appearances of Scarlet Witch and The Vision since Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War, respectively, with The Vision's death at the end of Infinity War informing much of Scarlet Witch's personality in Endgame. A new generation of Marvel content is rolling out in 2021, with several TV series featuring cast and characters from the movies debuting on Disney+. Black Widow will debut in theaters in May.

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