If you're Marvel Studios, what do you do after releasing one of the most successful films of all time, leaving an impact on popular culture so large people are still talking about it and having your longitudinal plans scuppered by a global Pandemic not seen for 100 years? Well, you put together a television series that is somehow true to tone, explores deeper content than you ever have before and encapsulates the global mood brought upon by that same pandemic. Fuck Marvel Studios knows their shit. After the events of Endgame, Wanda finds herself living in a, literally, sitcom-perfect small New Jersey town with Vision and they move through the decades of broadcast television, even raising a family; but something is off. The first half of Wandavision, inspired by David Lynch and possessing an altogether stranger and darker tone than many Marvel Studios productions, is something to behold, and whilst I can understand the disappointment some felt that the programme reverted to standard MCU fare by the end, I still believe the complete product to be excellent.
Marvel Studios are easily the best in the business when it comes to fan management, which Wandavision handily demonstrates at both ends of the fandom spectrum. Quite a few fans picked Agnes as Agatha Harkness before the first episode aired, but rather than scramble and make a last-minute change, Marvel trusted in the strength of their narrative and delivered a compelling antagonist that people really responded to. The YouTube 'response and speculation' industry found clues in Wandavision for everything from Squadron Supreme to the High Evolutionary, but the studio kept to their guns of keeping the MCU oddly grounded for a setting which includes magic, aliens and robots. That is, at least, as things stood at the time; staring down the barrel of Avengers Doomsday certainly puts things in a different light.
No comments:
Post a Comment