To "WandaVision" and Beyond: Commence Phase Four

Disney+ has released five episodes of their first installment of phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. WandaVision sees Wanda Maximoff and Vision living an idyllic life, sans the Thanos drama, throughout progressing eras of American sitcoms. Starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, who reprise their starring roles from MCU ensemble films, WandaVision is perhaps the most ambitious project of the MCU besides Infinity War and Endgame, due to the show's sheer outrageousness. WandaVision simultaneously uses television history to its storytelling advantage while also embarking television to a new level of cinematic prestige. With four episodes left to go in its first season, many of the questions audiences have should begin to be answered very soon. The mid-season cliffhanger-equivalent that is episode five, conveniently titled "On a very special episode..." should (should!) be the last of the cerebral, reality-questioning mysteries. From episode six and on, it would not be surprising for the screenwriters to have focused on exposition and payoff rather than posing entirely new questions. A few small bombshells could pop up in episode 6, but the endgame of season one is in sight. It is entirely possible that season one of WandaVision could end up being an entire season of insane exposition for a convoluted main plot of season two. That is if there even is a season two. Google searching “WandaVision” results in an auto-suggestion claiming the project is a miniseries. It is important to remember that Olson is confirmed to be shooting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Whatever happens at the end of season one could very, very likely directly impact the plot of Multiverse of Madness, causing Dr. Strange to interfere with whatever Wanda has up her sleeve. Upon further research, it seems that this connection was more than alluded to at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. There's always a reason in the MCU. There doesn't seem to be any word on if Bettany will be bringing Vision into the Doctor Strange sequel. If that's so, Kevin Fiege may go to great lengths to keep the knowledge contained. WandaVision is a great choice for the MCU to open phase four, especially in this pandemic-ridden world. It's different, bold, quirky, dramatic, and yes, feel-good all at the same time. The show also re-establishes different areas of the MCU that got thrown to the wayside amidst the Infinity Stones and Thanos debacles. Coming up, the MCU continues its utilization of Disney+ by bringing more big-screen Avengers to the small-screen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The show will star Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon, and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. The Winter Soldier. Daniel Brühl reprises his role as Helmut Zemo, the terrorist from Civil War, and Emily VanCamp returns as Sharon Carter. Combined, the Captain America story gets to go for another ride. With Steve Rogers pulling a multiverse Back To The Future and passing on the shield at the very end of Endgame, it seems that Bucky and Sam find themselves dealing with action-packed organized crime in the new series.

It is unlikely that the show will mention anything from WandaVision at all, but for the sake of fan service that is sorely needed in the world right now, it would be really gratifying to see Sam and Bucky acknowledge the events leading up to or at the end of WandaVision. Steve was a sort of an older-brother figure to Wanda, which was first seen in Civil War. Between training Wanda to be an Avenger, caring for her wellbeing during the events of Civil War, breaking Wanda and the others out of Avenger-prison, and then being internationally wanted criminals on the run for two years, it's really safe to say that Steve felt some kind of kinship and responsibility for Wanda. Could Sam (who was also on the run with Wanda!) and Bucky really just forget about her after Endgame? She lost her home many times over, her parents, her twin brother, the love of her life, her normal life sans infinity stone-induced powers, endured experimentation and torture, she is was dusted, and even lost Steve in a way, but yeah, she's probably just dandy. Of course, Loki will also be becoming to Disney+, bringing another MCU headliner to the small screen. As a reminder: Although Loki died thanks to Thanos, a multiverse reality was created by Loki in Endgame when Tony Stark and Scott Lang royally messed up their time travel infinity-stone extraction mission. They practically gave Loki the Tesseract way back in 2012 after the Battle of New York. Tom Hiddleston really made himself indispensable to the MCU, especially playing an inherent villain, thanks to his sheer classical talent and smooth charm. If anyone besides Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Strange can really mess around with the multiverse, it's Loki. It would be really suspect to have only The Falcon and The Winter Soldier be the only phase four project so far to not address the impending multiverse. Just saying. We know we have a whole lineup of other films including The Eternals, so perhaps not everything will tie into the multiverse, but it seems like Marvel is really pushing in that direction. Also, Black Widow was supposed to come out last Spring, and it still hasn't. The story is supposed to take place after the events of Civil War and before Infinity War, so the odds of including the multiverse in that film at all are slim. It's also kind of hard to contextualize Black Widow as a component of phase four when it feels, without having seen it, like an in-memoriam segment to Natasha Romanoff. As a caveat, it's been rumored that Florence Pugh's character Yelena Belova will have a larger token within the MCU after Black Widow, so who really knows what's going on? Fiege... Fiege knows all.

With actual Avengers taking to the small screen (sorry Peggy and Phil) the MCU is coming into phase 4 full speed ahead, and WandaVision is a very strategic and very entertaining jumping-off point for the rest that will be coming. WandaVision is actually a very binge-able show. It would not be hard to sit down and watch every episode back to back. However gratifying that would be, releasing episodes week by week makes the wait worth it. Better yet, it means everyone gets to theorize, scour the internet, and watch Erik Voss break it all down for seven days before the next episode. So much serotonin to be dumped.

WandaVision is rated TV-PG and is available for streaming on Disney+.