Marvel Studios hasn’t been shy about its first Disney+ series, WandaVision, drawing inspiration from classic television. Thanks to TV Guide, we now know one example. Star Elizabeth Olsen confirmed that WandaVision will include “a big montage” recreating the classic The Brady Bunch opening sequence. Classic television fans know the iconic opening, in which headshots of the entire Brady family appear together in a three-by-three grid and appear to notice one another. This scene won’t be the only influence that The Brady Bunch has on WandaVision. At one point, the series will imitate the kind of 1970s sitcoms that The Brady Bunch typified. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has spoken previously about how WandaVision will survey television history.
“I loved TV, and watched far too much The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy and Bewitched and everything,” Feige told Empire Magazine. “We go up to the Modern Family and The Office style. The talk-to-the-camera, shaky-camera, documentary style.”
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This approach is part of what makes WandaVision stand out from Marvel Studios’ other releases, aside from being a series rather than a movie. Paul Bettany returns as the android Avenger called Vision, who died by Thanos’ hand in Avengers: Infinity War. Bettany has said that WandaVision is unlike anything Marvel Studios has done before.
“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.”
Randall Park, who reprises his role as Jimmy Woo, said something to the same effect in 2019. “It is an out-there show,” Park said during a BUILD Series interview. “I’m reprising my role as Jimmy Woo that I played in Ant-Man and the Wasp. I’m going to Atlanta tomorrow to do a table read with some of the cast. I can’t say too much, but it is an amazing show and it’s very different.”
Elizabeth Olsen reprises her role as Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a the Scarlet Witch, leading the series opposite Bettany. Feige says WandaVision will further explore Wanda’s mysterious powers.
“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 said in his Empire interview. “So it seemed to 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?”
WandaVision will debut on Disney+ on January 15th.
