2021 kicked off the MCU's new era of storytelling with WandaVision, the first new entry in Phase 4.
Coming as Marvel Studios' first attempt at long-form media after 23 theatrical movies, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprised their roles as Wanda and Vision in a wild story with numerous twists and turns. This all came within the established story Marvel Studios has told since 2008, continuing the couple's journey where it left off after Avengers: Endgame.
Due to this continuing narrative, the crew of WandaVision naturally had to work The Blip (Hulk's Infinity Stone snap in Avengers: Endgame) into the story somehow after half the universe came back to life in Phase 3's penultimate movie. The event played a role in both Disney+ shows to premiere this year, and this will likely continue to be the case through Phase 4.
While it was referenced explicitly in WandaVision, the show's head writer recently revealed a scrapped idea for its inclusion.
THE BLIP IN WANDAVISION
WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer spoke with Rolling Stone about her work developing the story the Disney+ series.
Schaeffer revealed that in "earlier drafts" of the series, Kat Dennings' Dr. Darcy Lewis had more of her story fleshed out before arriving to the Westview Hex. In the final cut, everything sort of centered in to keep "everything base-centric" as opposed to diverting too far away from New Jersey:
"In earlier drafts, there was more of Darcy before she gets to the hex. And as the project coalesced it made more sense to keep everything base-centric, except for S.W.O.R.D. headquarters. So we lost some of that other stuff. But it was really fun to write for Kat and to see a little bit more [of] what’s been going on with Darcy."
Part of the plot was set to include Darcy's grandmother blipping while Darcy remained alive, although Schaeffer admitted it "was too much of a detour." In the end, this writing "infused all the later writing for Darcy" so that it still ended up as part of her character:
"We had this idea that Darcy didn’t blip, but her grandmother did. And now her grandmother’s back and Darcy had pawned her old TV, so she has to go get the TV back. And when she plugs it in, Episode One pops up, and that’s how the broadcast is discovered. It was silly, it was too much of a detour. But that writing infused all the later writing for Darcy. We also jumped all over the opportunity to have her be a Ph.D. now. That was just delightful to write."
MORE OF DARCY IN EARLY DRAFTS
WandaVision first tackled Avengers: Endgame's Blip in Episode 4 by having Teyonah Parris' Monica Rambeau come back to life in the hospital, returning after five years to find out her mother had passed away three years prior. That same episode teased how the world had changed, mostly through SWORD's presence, and it was referenced a couple of times in the second half of the season as well.
While Darcy's first appearance came in Episode 4, she only touched lightly on those events as she got to Westview and set herself up for everything that was about to happen. Even though it may have added a new layer to the MCU veteran by adding Darcy's grandmother into the story, Schaeffer seems to feel it would've taken too much away from the show's central leads.
With Darcy now standing a doctor of astrophysics, she has the opportunity to contribute in a number of ways going forward. It's unclear when her next appearance will come, but it never hurts to have someone as resourceful as her standing in the wings.
All nine episodes of WandaVision are available to stream on Disney+.
