WandaVision will be Marvel Studios’ opportunity to dig into Scarlet Witch’s powers. In the comics, Scarlet Witch’s abilities are a quagmire of continuity rewrites, sometimes being her natural mutant ability to instill lousy luck, and other times giving her next-level magical powers that can rewrite reality. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she’s been limited to simple psychic powers like telekinesis and telepathy. But it turns out those gifts may be the tip of the iceberg for the MCU’s Wanda Maxmoff. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige tells Empire Magazine — which features the streaming series on its latest covers — that the Infinity Saga didn’t fully defineWanda’s powers. WandaVision will be the next step in exploring her world.
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“If you look at the Infinity Saga, I don’t think any single person has gone through more pain and trauma than Wanda Maximoff. And no character seems to be as powerful as Wanda Maximoff. And no character has a power-set that is as ill-defined and unexplored as Wanda Maximoff,” Feige says. “So it seemed exploring that would be worthwhile post-Endgame. Who else is aware of that power? Where did it come from? Did the Mind Stone unlock it?”
Interestingly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is exploring Wanda at this angle ahead of her role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. As mentioned, the Scarlet Witch once rewrote reality in the comics, creating the House of M event’s universe, where mutants ruled supreme. Could she be headed down a similar path in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, soon requiring the assistance of the Sorcerer Supreme?
As for the show’s reverence for classic television, Feige says, “I loved TV, and watched far too much The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy and Bewitched and everything. We go up to the Modern Family and The Office style. The talk-to-the-camera, shaky-camera, documentary style.”
Elizabeth Olsen returns as Scarlet Witch in the series, reuniting with Paul Bettany as Wanda’s android love, Vision, who died in Avengers: Infinity War. In January, Bettany suggested WandaVision is unlike anything else Marvel Studios has produced.
“I am such an admirer of Kevin Feige, he has taken such a risk with the show, and the concept of this show,” Bettany told IMDb. “It’s beautifully written … and it is f-cking bonkers. I mean, it’s so out there and nuts, the choices that they are making. And fans will not have to wait that much longer … they’ll get much more of an insight, very, very, soon as to what it may look and feel like.”
WandaVision premieres on Disney+ on January 15th.
