Marvel Studios is on a roll with new ventures on Disney+, nearing completion on its second MCU show with the finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier . Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes' solo adventure is bringing new twists and turns with every passing episode, a recent trend after Phase 4 kicked off with WandaVision .
While the show currently running expanding on the real world in a post- Endgame adventure , WandaVision was one of the MCU's biggest risks by bringing a weird and wacky story to the small screen through Vision and Scarlet Witch. Much of this had to do with six of the first seven episodes being set in different eras of TV sitcom history as the super duo tried to live their best life in suburbia.
Even for as many times as this storytelling method has been discussed, it came up once again a recent interview with the show's star.
ELIZABETH OLSEN TALKS WANDAVISION DARKNESS
In a recent interview with Glamour , WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen took a look back at some of the crazier moments she had while filming the MCU's first Disney+ series.
Olsen described herself as "a very emotional person" when reflecting on her character. She mentioned that the best part of tapping into Wanda was "finding the humour in the absurdity and darkness:"
“I’m someone who wears my heart on my sleeve, but I desperately understand Wanda just wanting to keep things together and this obsessive control thing... It was a lot of exploration. I am a very emotional person, so it felt fine, but the best part was finding the humour in the absurdity and darkness.”
Olsen touched on revisiting anxiety attacks that she used to have on set as well:
“It’s sometimes too hard to tell a story about mental health without adding levity."
Additionally, Olsen revisited the '70s-based Episode 3, in which Wanda Maximoff experienced her entire pregnancy in the span of half an hour.
Particularly, she talked about the scene where the sprinklers open over her and Paul Bettany, mentioning it as "one of (her) favorite moments" when they were filming. The water turned out to be "freezing cold" as she broke into laughter remembering how funny it was to shoot:
“One of my favourite moments is when we were filming the third episode, the ’70s episode. I’m very pregnant and I go through the entire pregnancy in 30 minutes. My waters were supposed to break and then water inside the house was supposed to pour down on Paul and I. We were told it was going to be hot water, and we could only do it one take… It was freezing cold! I don’t know what happened, but it was so funny. And I just felt like that the whole show – we had to work so quickly and get so much done in a day that all we could do is laugh our way through it.”
ALL LAUGHS BEHIND THE SCENES OF WANDAVISION
For all the humor and fun that shone through on camera in WandaVision , it's clear that it was just as much fun bringing the story to life for the leading stars.
The scene with Wanda's water breaking was one of the highlight funny moments in Episode 3 , drenching both of the leading heroes as they played the moment completely deadpan and seized the opportunity for laughs. With that particular entry tackling Wanda's pregnancy from beginning to end, there were plenty of chances to bring the studio audience-induced chuckles for which WandaVision was so popular in the first few weeks.
As for the "darkness," WandaVision found a way to progressively integrate that dynamic with each passing episode. As Wanda lost control of the Hex and everything in it, her emotions took over after going through so much trauma, especially with having to revisit it through Agatha Harkness and Ralph Bohner/Fake Pietro .
While all the drama certainly put Wanda in some tough situations in this series, it pushed forward as she made her full transformation into the mythical Scarlet Witch .
Now that Olsen's Disney+ show has come to an end, fans are waiting for more Scarlet Witch action in next year's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness . While it may not bring the same kind of laughs as her tribute to sitcom history , she and Benedict Cumberbatch should make for quite the duo in likely the wildest MCU movie to date.
The Doctor Strange sequel will debut in theaters on March 25, 2022.
