Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in "WandaVision" series -
Marvel Studios
After more than a year of absence from the cinema, Marvel begins its phase 4 on Disney + this Friday with the first two episodes of the
WandaVision
series
(the sequel will be broadcast on the platform at the rate of one episode per week).
New adventures for the couple formed by Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff and synthezoid Vision, which skillfully combines a tribute to the history of American family sitcoms, elements of the MCU, and a mystery, presumably linked to the upcoming
Doctor Strange in
movie.
the Multiverse of Madness
by Sam Raimi.
Set after the events of
Avengers: Endgame
, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their roles as superheroes of the saga.
"Wanda and Vision are truly fan favorites as a couple because their romance has been so tragic, but also really warm and intimate, as we have seen in those wonderful stolen moments from the MCU," says Jac Schaeffer, executive producer at the head of the writing of the series, during a virtual press conference to which
20 Minutes
was invited.
WandaVision is
inspired by the comics
The Vision & The Witch
published in the 1980s and
The Vision
of Tom King, published in 2016, in which the couple moved to the idealized American suburb of Westview, while hiding their identity.
“Wanda would describe WandaVision as a family sitcom about two people trying to fit in,” Elizabeth Olsen summed up at a virtual press conference.
"The key references are family sitcoms"
“The key references are family sitcoms,” says director Matt Shakman.
Those that are "timeless", he says.
The first episode, in black and white, which wonderfully revisits cult American sitcoms of the 1950s like
I Love Lucy
Led by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and
The Dick Van Dyke Show
, was shot live in front of an audience.
“We wanted to be as authentic as possible,” says director Matt Shakman.
" Oh my God !
This is the first thing we shot!
It was so nerve-racking, there was a lot of adrenaline, ”comments Elizabeth Olsen, who was delighted with the addition“ of the fourth wall for our second episode ”.
“Vision is Jarvis, part Ultron, part Tony Stark, and he's omnipotent, but he's also this kind of naive ingenuous.
I understood that I was just going to put a little Dick Van Dyke and a little Hugh Laurie in it, ”comments Paul Bettany.
Over the course of the episodes, WandaVision will explore the entire history of the American sitcom: "Fortunately, when it comes to the 1990s, they made me so ridiculous that I didn't really have to work so hard to make people laugh" , jokes Paul Bettany.
The second episode propels our heroes into the world of 1960s sitcoms like
My Beloved Witch
or
Jinny of My Dreams.
A new challenge for Elizabeth Olsen: “I can't move my nose, so we had to find something else.
The third episode is a pastiche of sitcoms from the 1970s. "We watched a ton of old series and had a lot of talk about how comedy evolved.
The approach to comedy is really different in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s, ”says Matt Shakman.
And Elizabeth Olsen added: “We also had to remember that we were not representing the reality of the 1960s or 1970s, but those of sitcoms governed by their own rules.
"
"From an 'I Love Lucy' to a sort of 'Twilight Zone'"
As Wanda and Vision mysteriously traverse the decades, the viewer is made to ask more and more questions about the strange world around them.
"When we're in our vintage sitcoms, something swings from
The Dick Van Dyke Show
or
I Love Lucy
to a kind of
Twilight Zone,
" says Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
Does the series also borrow elements from the
House of M
comics
, with a mentally unstable Wanda taking refuge in an alternate reality rather than facing the mourning of her brother and Vision?
"These projects on Disney + are as important as those underway in the cinema," promises Kevin Feige.
Over the three episodes that 20 Minutes was able to watch,
WandaVision
promises to be an atypical series, skillfully mixing genres and
allusions to
television history.
In short, a treat like
My Beloved Witch
trapped in the
Fourth Dimension
or a sort of
Desperate Housewives
mixed with
Twin Peaks
.
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