WandaVision: Bringing Back Randall Park and Kat Dennings Was Marvel Studios’ Idea

Randall Park and Kat Dennings return to their respective Marvel Cinematic Universe roles as Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis in Marvel Studios‘ first streaming television series, WandaVision on Disney+. It turns out that came as a suggestion from the studio. Woo is a law enforcement agent, and Darcy is a scientist, and it would have been easy enough for WandaVision‘s writers to create new characters to fill those roles. WandaVision creator Jac Schaefer explained this to The Hollywood Reporter‘s TV’s Top 5 podcast while discussing her working relationship with Disney’s Kevin Feige-led powerhouse superhero film and television studio as she crafted the show.

“Randall and Kat were suggestions that I was like, ‘100% yes is my answer to that suggestion.’ And that’s sort of what I’ve seen on the other properties at Marvel, they have ideas of where they can put different characters and different storylines,” Schaeffer says. “That doesn’t always work out. That’s not always how it is. I would say that most of the wonderful players in the MCU stable — if they get the call — they’re going to show up because they’re excited to. But yeah, it starts as a general idea, and then we see if we can make it work.

“I can’t think of a situation where something was presented to me on any of the properties I worked on where I was like, ‘Oh man, now I’m saddled with that.’ That isn’t a thing. I have found it sparks more ideas. The only sort of disappointments are when things have to get cut, for whatever reason. The sort of more of ‘try this out, try this out,’ or ‘can we see this working in?’ It’s great.”

Park debuted as former SHIELD agent turned FBI officer Jimmy Woo in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Woo was Scott Lang’s handler after Ant-Man brokered a deal for house arrest following the Avengers’ clash in Captain America: Civil War. WandaVision‘s trailers suggest he may now be working for SWORD.

Dennings played Darcy Lewis in Thor and Thor: The Dark World. Darcy was a student of Dr. Erik Selvig. WandaVision director Matt Shakman previously revealed that, since her last encounter with the Asgardian god, Darcy returned to school and graduated with her doctorate.

Wanda heard Woo’s voice via radio in WandaVision‘s second episode, but besides that, neither Woo nor Darcy has appeared. They’re likely to emerge as central characters in the part of the story taking place outside of Westview.

Disney + debuts new episodes of WandaVision on Fridays. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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