5/5 stars
Spoilers Ahead
It has been one year since the award winning 'WandaVision' kicked off the streaming era for Marvel in an unexpected and timeless way.
Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff was originally a smaller character introduced back in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', but quickly became a fan favourite with her roles in 'Captain America: Civil War', 'Avengers: Infinity War' and 'Avengers: Endgame'. She is now a main player going into phase four of the Marvel universe. She is set to appear in the upcoming 'Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness' which will explore the vast depths of the multiverse.
Taking place after the events of 'Avengers: Endgame' and the five year blip, the nine part TV show deals with the seven different stages of grief, whilst exploring different sitcom styles from the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties and noughties.
To deal with her grief of losing Vision (Paul Bettany), Wanda goes to a town called Westview and creates "The Hex" - a false reality in which Vision is alive and the couple live out their happily married life. This is until S.W.O.R.D (Sentient Weapon Observation Response Department) learns of "The Hex" and attempts to breach it to get through to Wanda. Well that is Monica Rambeau's (Teyonah Parris) goal but the Director of S.W.O.R.D has another plan.
Stand out episodes had to be episode six "All-New Halloween Spooktacular" which draws inspiration from the nineties. The episode is Halloween themed and viewers get to see rather cringey comic accurate costumes for both Wanda and Vision.
Episode seven "Breaking the Fourth Wall" is another great episode which draws inspiration from sitcoms from the 2000s including "The Office" and "Modern Family". This is where we see Wanda start to lose control of "The Hex" after expanding its boundaries in the previous episode.
Of course the final episode is the icing on top of the cake with Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) and Wanda having a full blown magical fight above Westview. It ends with a beautifully sentimental scene between Wanda and Vision where she has to let him go, thus accepting his death and allowing herself to move on.
Post credit scenes set up Monica's appearance in the upcoming sequel to Captain Marvel "The Marvels" as a FBI agent reveals them self to be a skrull before inviting her to space. The second scene shows Wanda on the step of a cabin in the middle of nowhere. The camera then moves through the cabin to the bedroom where she is using astral projection to read through the "Darkhold".
Surprise cameos include Evan Peters playing the role of Pietro Maximoff, Wanda's brother (formerly played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Avengers: Age of Ultron). Peters previously played the role of Quicksilver in Fox's X-Men films including "X-Men Apocalypse" and "X-Men Dark Phoenix". Marvel gained the movie rights to X-Men in 2019 after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox.
Kathryn Hahn's "Agnes" plays the role of the nosey neighbour until she is revealed to Agatha Harkness, a witch from Salem who takes "power from the undeserving". She is the one who reveals that Wanda is in fact the Scarlet Witch, "the harbinger of chaos", and user of chaos magic. The character even had a small musical number with "It was Agatha All Along" which became a hit with fans as it became number one on the iTunes top 100. Kathryn Hahn is set to reprise her role in her own spin off show "Agatha: House of Harkness".
Audiences are also introduced to Wanda's children that she creates in her false reality. Comic book fans will recognise the names Billy Maximoff (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy Maximoff (Jett Klyne) and although their origins are slightly different to the comics, it is known that they grow up to become 'Wiccan' and 'Speed' - members of the Young Avengers. The second post credit scene shows that these characters have a future in the MCU as Wanda hears their screams as she is reading the "Darkhold".
More characters from the Young Avengers have been popping up in recent marvel projects with a future project for the teenage super team rumoured to be in development. Elijah Bradley (Patriot) appeared in "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier", Kid Loki in "Loki" and Kate Bishop (Hawkeye). In future projects we will meet America Chavez (Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness), Cassie Lang (Stature) will appear in "Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania" and Kamala Khan (Ms Marvel) in her self titled TV show.
The show won numerous accolades including four MTV Movie and TV Awards, two Hollywood Critics Association TV awards and three Emmy Awards; amongst many others.
WandaVision is available to stream on Disney +. Subscription required.
Also watch ASSEMBLED: The making of WandaVision, also available on Disney +.
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