Is Marvel planning a ‘WandaVision’ spinoff?
It’s been said a hundred times in the past thirteen years, but what Marvel & Disney did in collaboration with each other was truly unprecedented. The two powerhouses came together to create a collective of big-budget films telling a singular story arc from the perspective of different characters to build a shared universe. What the studios accomplished changed cinema forever.
Spanning throughout twenty movies beginning with Iron Man in 2008 and culminating with Spiderman: Far From Home in 2019, Marvel & Disney told the story of the Infinity Saga, the quest of a tyrannical & powerful otherworldly being to collect the Infinity Stones and wipe out half of the universe’s population.
The collection of Marvel’s heroes, including Iron Man & Captain America, stopped his exploits by coming together to form the legendary Marvel team, The Avengers. It was a well-configured & delightful movie experience that captivated audiences of all ages the world over. However, the question remained, what’s next? With the pandemic still going, they turned to the Disney+ streaming service with WandaVision.
WandaVision kicks off a new phase
After the fall of Thanos, audiences were simultaneously concerned and excited for what would come next. How were they going to top the devastating stakes The Mad Titan brought? And how would they move forward after the series staples Iron Man & Captain America saw their storylines end cleanly? Their answer was a collection of limited series to chronicle the fallout of “The Snap” to be released on Disney+.
The idea worked precisely as intended. WandaVision was the first in a set of five announced, followed by The Falcon and The Winter Soldier & Loki. The other two announced were Hawkeye & She-Hulk, which are still in production. Each one dealt with the main characters facing a threat and dealing with the aftermath of all that happened.
While The Falcon and The Winter Soldier & Loki focused more on finding their new place in an altered world while seeing new threats rise, WandaVision focused more on the grief of loss. Wanda Maximoff, after losing the love of her life, Vision, in the fight against Thanos, sets herself up in a quiet & peaceful town. The appearance of Vision as a main character confused audiences & Vision himself.
What followed was a deep dive into the depths of despair felt by the one person who had the power to change the world around her. In an attempt to recapture the happiness she lost, Maximoff took the entire town hostage by controlling their minds. Everyone in her reach lived the life of a sitcom through the ages.
Agatha Harkness
Kathryn Hahn appeared in the first episode as Maximoff’s version of Betty Rubble. She plays the unassuming neighbor to the main character. Throughout the series, more & more comes to light about her character, proving she is more than just another resident in the town of Westview under Maximoff’s spell. She is eventually revealed as the villain, Agatha Harkness.
In the comics, Harkness is old enough to remember 500 years before the fall of the Roman Empire (believed to be 18,000 BC). She was the coven leader, hunted down and burned at the stake in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Harkness created the Daughters of Liberty after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War and fought against evils against the Frightful Four & Hilda Von Hate.
The villain came to odds with Scarlet Witch when she believed her children with Vision were fragments of the soul of Mephisto. Instead of trying to fight to free the children from Mephisto once he reabsorbed his soul, she instead wiped Maximoff’s memory of them. She was later killed when Scarlet Witch confronted her about her children.
Spinoff?
Per Variety, a new spinoff that would see Kathryn Hahn reprise her role as the mischievous villain is in the works over at Disney+. It’s been described as a dark comedy, and with the success of Loki, a dark comedy about the exploits of a beloved villain makes sense. Hahn’s Harkness portrayal was by far the bright spot in WandaVision’s experiment to move the MCU to streaming.
The question is, will she be a villain? Where will they take her story?
At the end of WandaVision, she was trapped in a mental prison of Maximoff’s making. Showrunner Jac Schaeffer claims that Harkness served as a mentor for Maximoff (much like she did in the comics). Since she was meddling in Maximoff’s affairs mostly to tap into her limitless power . . .was she simply misunderstood?
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There’ll be a wait before we find out more juicy details, as Marvel has yet to confirm the spinoff. Do you want to see Hahn return? Since Mephisto has been rumored over and over, will Harkness & Maximoff reunite to defeat the villain? Or do you think the studio will explore her roots in the Salem Witch Trials more?
