Vision already had his moments prior to the show, mostly by finding himself Emotionally Tongue-Tied, but the series takes it higher by having him try to live a domestic life with Wanda as a human man, particularly in Episode 3 where he goes into full-on Bumbling Dad territory. Episode 7 brings Vision in contact with Darcy in a parody of Modern Family, including slapstick and deadpan humor in a mockumentary style.
Jimmy Woo is even moreso than in Ant-Man and the Wasp, with circumstances forcing him into the Audience Surrogate role of closely analyzing every single facet of the WandaVision sitcom for some clue to what's going on, until he's genuinely invested in the show itself.
Wanda herself, who in the earlier episodes is trying to be a typical sitcom wife, and thus finds herself getting into awkward situations with Vision's boss, struggling with a local talent show's magic act, tangling with a local Alpha Bitch type, etc.
Monica Rambeau's insistence on returning into the Hex and continued defense of Wanda despite the painful and horrific Mind Rape she went through within the Hex, and the danger it presents to her when she learns it has been rewriting her DNA, can be seen as similar to suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Monica spent several days under Wanda's complete power and control isolated from any outside contact. When Wanda expels her from the Hex, she insists Wanda showed her kindness in not being even more violent with her or outright killing her. She also seems to spend more time concerned with Wanda's mental state and safety than being concerned with the other civilians who were trapped within the Hex.
Is Agatha Harkness doing all this because she is a Card-Carrying Villain who is enjoying torturing Wanda and only wants her power, someone who genuinely believes Wanda is a danger to everyone around her, or could it be a mixture of both of them? She offers to leave Wanda and Westview alone in exchange for Wanda's powers so she could correct the flaws in the Hex, imprisoning thousands of people, but this turned out to be Blatant Lies (i.e. the Hex can't be fixed without tearing it down).
Considering the Vision we see for most of the show is a product of Wanda's powers, is it possible his desire to free the residents of Westview was actually the result of Wanda's doubts and sense of guilt being projected over him?
Are Billy and Tommy real children, or illusions? Like the Vision, they seem to have minds of their own, but still cannot exist outside the Hex. To Hayward, the twins are simply dangerous manifestations of Wanda's power that take on the appearance of children, and he has no qualms about trying to shoot them dead. But to Wanda, and simply based on their behavior in general, they seemed like functionally real people. When Wanda makes her choice at the end, is she simply letting go of her own selfish delusions, or did she have to erase two innocent kids from existence in order to release the town from her spell?
Acting Director Hayward is shown to be affable and friendly with Monica in her return to S.W.O.R.D. after the Blip. He was very apologetic about her having to be grounded (by protocols set forth by her mother), said she should have had a chance to name Maria's successor as head of S.W.O.R.D. (even if Monica agreed he was the only choice), and comforted her by pointing out that her mom fully believed she'd return one day. He sends men into Westview with the first priority of finding out what happened to Monica. He only starts becoming a real jerk-ass to her after she is expelled from the Hex. Hayward is shown to have a deep-seated suspicion of super-powered individuals, seemingly more keen on trusting mindless, obedient sentient weapons like Project Cataract AKA White Vision. Does he turn on Monica merely because she's advocating for Wanda... or because as Darcy later reveals, he has obtained her bloodwork, and sees that she has become a super-powered individual?
Anti-Climax Boss: Project Cataract AKA White Vision. While at first Westview Vision has a climatic and intense fight with him, they both realize they are too evenly matched physically which shifts their encounter to a mental confrontation where they discuss their identity and purpose, after which Westview Vision unlocks White Vision's memories causing him to claim that he is Vision and flies off... never to be seen again for the rest of the series.
The show is not subtle about the best way to deal with grief and trauma being both facing up to them and having compassion for others, best exemplified by Monica's speech to Wanda in episode seven, Hayward being a bull in a china shop, and how Wanda's fake reality has made her mental health even worse.
Likewise, the show pretty much hits you over the head with a moral about grieving alone is not healthy. The show emphasizes that you need other people to help you process these painful emotions. Wanda put on a brave face in front of the other Avengers but suffered a breakdown when going alone to retrieve her lover's body, learning she would have to fight tooth and nail to bury him. In contrast, Monica had "Aunt Carol" when finding out her mother died and despite her bitterness that Captain Marvel was gone for twenty years, was able to process the grief and anger.
Wanda herself. Fans of the character are sympathetic to all the pain and grief she’s gone through for much of her life and believe that she is deserving of the path of redemption she plans to go down after leaving Westview. Her detractors on the other hand see her as an insane, sociopathic Karma Houdini who should've been thrown in prison or received some kind of punishment for committing Mind Rape on an entire town instead of living a relatively peaceful life of solitude by the series’ end.
Director Tyler Hayward. While most viewers and the show itself paint him as being an arrogant jerkass who’s willing to abuse his own power and position to commit horrible crimes and pin the blame for them on others, quite a few people see him as a Reasonable Authority Figure whose actions against Wanda are wholly justified because of her past crimes and the actions she’s taking to keep her fantasy world in Westview intact. There are also others who simply found him a bland and forgettable antagonist, especially in comparison to the more entertaining Agatha.
Agatha Harkness herself. While she's received a large number of fans for her Laughably Evil performance by Kathryn Hahn and catchy Villain Song, she's had her share of detractors who felt her inclusion into the story felt like a cheap way to absolve Wanda of her actions by adding an antagonist for her to defeat.
Ralph Bohner. He’s either a nice tongue-in-cheek subversion of expectations or a repeat of the infamous Mandarin twist from Iron Man 3 whose reveal is just as abhorred.
Darcy Lewis. While this show has increased her popularity and even won over some viewers who were not a fan of the character in the Thor movies, there are many who find her just as, if not more, annoying as her previous appearances in the MCU. Especially given her significant involvement in the S.W.O.R.D. subplot.
Bizarro Episode: The show serves as one for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. It takes Wanda and a recreation of Vision and without immediate explanation, places them into a variety of sitcom eras where they act out the typical plots of these shows while a harsher reality seems to be breaking in.
Whether Wanda deserved to go free or if she was a Karma Houdini at the end. It's still an extremely heated topic in fandom.
The fanbase is also divided over which segment of the series is the better one. Some enjoy the first three episodes for giving a breath of fresh air and dislike the later episodes for falling back on familiar Marvel tropes. Others prefer the later episodes for being more drama-focused as well as cutting to the chase behind the mystery of Westview. Adding to this divide is whether you enjoy the sitcom elements or not.
Captain Obvious Reveal: The reveal that Agnes is actually Agatha Harkness, as well as being an antagonist was something most people familiar with the comics had already guessed once the character was announced even before the show started.
While the show does acknowledge that Wanda's Reality Warping powers are a serious concern, many fans believe that her powers have helped cause the space-time continuum to collapse and create alternate realities. All that is known is that many scientists believe that this is a serious concern and that it happened at Westview but so far, nothing has been stated that Wanda is responsible for multiple realities to appear or change. This belief could be chalked up to her next appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Contrary to what her Villain Song implies, it wasn't Agatha all along. While Agatha is the Final Boss of the show, she is more of a Plot-Irrelevant Villain who had little to do with the Hex, which was something that Wanda was responsible for. Agatha only infiltrated Westview so she could understand the secret of Wanda's powers.
Continuity Lockout: It can't be denied that WandaVision does indeed lean more on continuity in many ways than most of the MCU films before it. But, fortunately, a lot of this is mitigated by all of these films being on Disney+ like this show is. D+ also released a pair of LegendsClip Show shorts of Wanda's and Vision's MCU appearances so far in order to serve as a recap.
It's imperative that the viewer is familiar with the MCU movies, specifically what happened in Avengers: Infinity War, to fully understand just how weird things are and that Vision being alive is part of the greater mystery at play. On a similar note, the beginning of Episode 4 necessitates the knowledge of the Snap in this movie, and the Blip in Avengers: Endgame.
The third episode features references to Pietro Maximoff and his death at Ultron's hands, which viewers might not understand if they haven't watched Avengers: Age of Ultron.
In a cross-franchise way, a guy who appears claiming to be Wanda's dead brother might solely confuse viewers akin to Darcy saying "she recast Pietro?"... unless they were familiar with the X-Men Film Series, as that is the version of Pietro from those movies, making for a startlingmeta joke.
The casual sexism displayed in some of the ad breaks and occasionally from characters like Mr. Hart and Dr. Nielsen is a pinpoint skewering of what a lot of entertainment in the time periods being referenced was actually like, yet also provides some of the show’s biggest laughs.
The Lagos ad in Episode 5 turns the horrific inciting incident from Captain America: Civil War into a cheesy paper towel commercial, complete with Symbolic Blood and the tagline, "For when you make a mess you didn’t mean to".
The end of Episode 6 with Wanda expanding the barrier and taking the majority of S.W.O.R.D. agents and Darcy prisoner in Westview... Not funny. Her turning them into literal clowns and their weapons into circus equipment... Yeah, that's funny.
Episode 7 ends with the reveal that Agnes is actually Agatha Harkness who's been secretly pulling the strings this whole time. The reveal is unsettling, but immediately doing it through a musical montage with the melody of the theme from The Munsters, showing her causing mischief and manipulating everything, is so bouncy it crosses right back into being funny. Especially the punchline when she reveals she killed Sparky.
Director Tyler Hayward has many fans who paint him as a Designated Villain, their main argument being that Wanda took Westview hostage due to a mental breakdown and he's trying to stop her. They point out that, by monitoring the show, Hayward is aware that the twins are hex creations so his drone missile and pistol attack were not directed at any ‘real’ people beyond Wanda who he was trying to take down. This conveniently ignores that Hayward violated Vision's will (and according to Jimmy, the Sokovia Accords as well) and Wanda's wishes to rebuild him as Project Cataract. Furthermore, when he discovers he can use Wanda's residual energy from the attack drone to power Project Cataract, he is quite willing to ensure Wanda is killed so the world thinks she was the one who violated Vision's will and revived him.
Many fans have invested heavily in Agatha Harkness and think of her as an Anti-Hero that is trying to stop the Fallen Hero Wanda. This ignores the sadistic glee Agatha takes in tormenting Wanda and her own villainous acts, such as taking two children hostage, Mind Raping Ralph into playing the role of "Fake Pietro", and killing an adorable dog, all just to provoke Wanda.
Dottie Jones only has limited screentime, but due to a combination of being played by fan-favorite actress Emma Caulfield, being so entertainingly mean and featuring in a scene that managed to be funny and eerie all at once, she was quickly beloved by the viewers. This is best demonstrated by her actress's name shooting up to the #5 most searched name on IMDB after the first three episodes - the second highest out of all the cast while outranking the other lead actors with much more screentime and plot relevance than her like Paul Bettany, Teyonah Parris, and Kathryn Hahn. It's no wonder she was confirmed to appear in Agatha's solo series Coven of Chaos.
While he was moderately liked as a side character in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Jimmy Woo's popularity shot up immensely with this show, with many fans latching onto his dorky, yet still professional attitude in figuring out the weirdness of Westview. It also helps that he's much more competent at his job here (or at least as competent as one can be when dealing with a Reality Warper like Wanda), his goals are much more sympathetic than in the aforementioned film, and is capable of throwing down when necessary. The amount of attention Woo attracted was so great that it actually led to discussions of a spinoff series for the character based on The X-Files, with actor/director Stephen Ford writing a pitch for it.
After the reveal that both Wanda and Agatha's flowers match the color of their magic, some fans latched onto Dottie's yellow flowers as an indication that she's actually Arcanna from the Squadron Supreme. The final episode reveals she's simply a resident of Westview, with no abilities whatsoever.
A number of fans disappointed with Evan Peters' character (Fake Pietro) being revealed to be Ralph Bohner, Agnes'/Agatha's much mentioned but never seen husband, flooded the internet with more "acceptable" explanations. The two most prominent on Reddit is that he's either Jimmy Woo's missing federal witness mentioned in Episode 4, or the X-Men Pietro who was somehow transported to the MCU and was hiding in Westview by sheer coincidence. A deleted scene released in November 2023 (to promote the show being released on blu-ray) revealed that Ralph was intended to be the missing witness as he's seen cutting off an ankle monitor and running away from Jimmy Woo.
With a sequel to Captain Marvel and a Disney+-series based onSecret Invasion (2008) already announced at the time, a bunch of fans speculated that Hayward would be revealed to be a Skrull to set things up. While nothing in these regards is revealed (at least in the series itself), a Skrull does appear in the series finale.
When Monica mentions an aerospace engineer she knows, it lead to a lot of fan speculation who that could be. The two most popular ideas were Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four and fellow superhero Blue Marvel who Monica briefly dated in their common time at The Ultimates. Of course, all that theories got Jossed later in the series revealing that aerospace engineer was a military friend of Monica with no comic book roots. Some fans were outright upset about that reveal.
"Monica Rambeau" is a difficult name to remember how to write, so many people on the internet simply use the way it sounds and write "MonicaRambo" instead.
"Minimoff" or "The Minimoffs", either for Billy and Tommy or child Wanda and Pietro as they appear in the eighth episode.
Fanon: Though her choice of words and Monica's lack of reaction to her appearance suggest otherwise, there are fans who choose to believe the Skrull who approached Monica is Talos' daughter G'iah grown up.
While most fans of the X-Men Film Series movies are happy with the return of Evan Peters, it has caused some friction with some non-X-Men fans who would have preferred it if Aaron Taylor Johnson had returned instead. Ironically, these positions were reversed after Episode 9, when it was revealed that Peters' character was actually not the X-Men version of Quicksilver, with X-Men fans being disappointed and non-X-Men fans relieved that the show chose not to incorporate that character.
An odd case, but there was a rivalry with Spider-Man fans after the reveal that Evan Peters was not playing his character from the X-Men films and was instead a one-off boner joke. Several viewers who were unsympathetic to disappointed fans were still looking forward to a potential Spider-verse crossover in Spider-Man: No Way Home (which was merely a rumor at the time); while Quicksilver fans asked how they would like it if Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield appeared, only to end up playing side characters with laugh-inducing names.
Fandom-Specific Plot: After the end of Episode 5, there have been numerous fanfics on AO3 about how and why Peter Maximoff got sent into WandaVision, how he tries to figure out what's going on and how to get out of there. Bonus points if it leads to a crossover with the X-Men film series.
Fanon Welding: Some people like to believe that Ralph Bohner is actually Peter Maximoff from the Fox X-Men films in disguise, and is Jimmy Woo's missing person even though that person was said to be in the witness relocation program (WRP). Ralph is shown to be an aspiring actor and those in the WRP are forbidden from doing anything that would attract attention to themselves.
First Installment Wins: Out of all the Marvel shows made for Disney+, this is the show that's gotten the best critical reception (though Loki does come close to it), at least until Ms. Marvel came along. Ironically, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was originally meant to come first, and was met with a more mixed-to-positive reception.
Foe Yay Shipping: Agatha in Episode 1 seems more interested in Wanda than her (fake) husband, and ties her up in Episode 8, getting really into her personal space, addressing her with nicknames usually used as terms of endearment like "baby", "buttercup" and "toots", and being very... interested in how powerful she is. And when she first sees Wanda in her Scarlet Witch outfit after Wanda forces her back into the Agnes persona, she calls Wanda "hot stuff" and asks "Did I leave the oven on or is it just you?". Additionally, Agatha is shown gifting Wanda a pineapple in the first episode. Pineapples have become a symbol amongst swingers as a means to show others that they're interested in swinging with them. It also doesn't hurt that most of Agatha's machinations in the Hex were to cause problems in Wanda's and Vision's relationship so that she could have Wanda to herself for her own purposes.
With The Mandalorian, which WandaVision replaced as Disney+'s big-budget Friday release. This connection has grown since Episode 5 of WandaVision and Season 2, Episode 5 of The Mandalorian both featured the return of a surprise character: Quicksilver (albeit a "recast" version) for the former and Ahsoka Tano (played by Rosario Dawson) for the latter, as well as having an even bigger surprise in having Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill himself) appear in the season finale.
Also with the X-Men Film Series fanbase thanks to the return of Evan Peters as Quicksilver.
It's not hard to find fans of American Horror Story getting along with the WandaVision fandom since, aside from the horror aspect, both shows have Evan Peters play a role in it. The direction at the end of Episode 7 even changes to echo Murder House, complete with Evan Peters' character showing up out of nowhere to jumpscare someone!
Fans of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and WandaVision get along nicely since Kathryn Hahn plays a surprise villain in both, Dr. Olivia Octavius/Doc Ock in the former and Agatha Harkness in the latter.
With Happy Endings, thanks to the sitcom intro in "Breaking the Fourth Wall", which primarily homaged that show's own intro. What's worth noting here is that Happy Endings was infamously Screwed by the Network and largely relegated to Cult Classic status, so it was a big deal that it was being parodied alongside the likes of much more well-known sitcoms.
The series definitely has a large LGBT Fanbase (due in part to Wanda being a fan favorite character of queer people, saying nothing of one of her sons) so it's no surprise that many were watching WandaVision concurrently with the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK and comparing the viral success of "Agatha All Along" to RPDRUK's own novelty song "UK Hun?", which debuted within a week of one another.
With Frozen (2013), given that they both have a similar premise of an emotionally unstable young woman with immense magical powers who unwittingly put an entire town/kingdom in danger, and both projects had songs written by Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and composed by Christophe Beck.
With the indie game OMORI, in which their plot is similar where it featured the titular protagonists going on their own fantasy worlds, with their loved ones revived from that world while they're dead in real life. It also explores the dark uncontrollable forces inside of their worlds they can't manipulate into.
In the first episode, Vision's car has a license plate with the number "0102". In coding, that number is associated with an abnormal end of a program, or a computer crash — and is indicative that something's not right with this cozy reality that our odd couple find themselves in.
In the first episode, area code geeks probably figured out right away that Westview is in New Jersey because the phone number on the real estate sign for Wanda and Vision's house has a New Jersey area code.
The "Hydra Soak" commercial will feel familiar to some of the older fans in the audience... because it's a shot-for-shot remake of the infamous 1978 Calgon bath powder advert.
At the start of Episode 7, S.W.O.R.D. makes note that the broadcast signal of "the show" they've been using to monitor The Hex is now gone. Said episode parodies late 2000s shows like The Office (US) and Modern Family, which either debuted or hit their stride after the switch from Analog to Digital signals, which would make their older TV equipment useless.
In Episode 7 as the illusion of the Hex begins to bug out, the video game controllers that the twins are playing change from Nintendo Wii remotes to Nintendo GameCube controllers to Atari 2600 joysticks. All three, even the 2600, featured their owncordlesscontrollers,◊ although thanks to the rarity of the latter two, the props department chose to modify the normal controller to be cordless.
Episode 8's flashback opening to Salem in the 1600s features Agatha being tied to a stake for her execution, making it seem as if she's about to be burned alive. Historically, witches in America were never actually burnt at the stake during the trials, they were executed via drownings and hangings, making it clear that this isn't a typical witch trial and is instead a personal execution given to Agatha by her own coven.
In one scene of Episode 8, Tommy is seen wearing what appears to be a green Adidas jacket, but with only two stripes rather than the brand's iconic three stripes. The brand became popular in Russia when the USSR's team in the 1980 Olympics wore Adidas suits, but their suits were modified to only have two stripes to avoid using capitalist logos. Since Wanda is basing this reality off things she remembers from her childhood and Sokovia is supposed to be Eastern European, the jacket design could be a nod to her upbringing, and also to Pietro (who wore Adidas running shoes).
Growing the Beard: The early episodes were well-received for being fun and unique installments in the MCU, but it is generally agreed that the miniseries started to hit its stride with Episode 4 and the revelation of the context of all the sitcom shenanigans.
The amount of trauma and loss Wanda has suffered over the course of this series was already heartbreaking, but the extent of what little she has left is highlighted even more in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's third episode, where Helmut Zemo reveals that Sokovia was annexed into its adjacent Eastern-European nations sometime after the events of Age of Ultron. Thus, Wanda doesn't even have a home country to return to anymore.
In the fifth episode, Vision expresses his anger at Wanda trapping himself and the townsfolk of Westview in her sitcom fantasy world against their will. What If...? shows us a variant of Vision who lures people into what appears to be a safe place for survivors, only to feed them to a zombified Wanda, due to him loving her too much to kill her.
Monica sympathizes with Wanda due to having lost her own mother Maria during the Snap and still dealing with the emotional backlash of that, and tells Wanda none of the people in Westview will understand the sacrifice she made giving up her family. Come to that Doctor Strange film where a Darkhold-influenced Wanda remorselessly and brutally slaughters a variant of Maria who became Captain Marvel in pursuit of her children.
The scenes where Monica, Jimmy and Darcy defend Wanda against Hayward, and argue against his desire to kill her, also become this, as Wanda's mind becomes warped by the Darkhold and she goes on a killing spree, essentially suggesting that the lives could have been saved had Hayward been able to eliminate her.Word of God is that even Elizabeth Olsen was unaware of Wanda's role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness until the show was almost finished filming, so there was no time to adjust either story.
Agatha's words about how Wanda's power rivals the Sorcerer Supreme's and her subsequent horror of Wanda embracing her title as Scarlet Witch ring far more true now than ever before thanks to that film.
Agatha convinces Wanda to let go of the innocent Westview denizens by stating, "Heroes don't torture people", contributing to Wanda's Heel Realization. Sadly, Wanda while under the influence of the Darkhold completely ends up forgetting this lesson, torturing her Earth-838 counterpart to seize Billy and Tommy, torturing Wong's students to force him to take her to the Darkhold castle, and torturing Black Bolt by removing his mouth before mercilessly killing him.
The fact that Disney reportedly scanned all the background actors' bodies and faces to create digital replicas of the actors, for which none of them consented, know they were created in the first place or got any payment for it to fulfill its needs, in a show whose entire plot revolves around doing things to people without their consent to fulfill your own needs.
Not that their acting abilities were ever in doubt, but after mostly small roles in MCU films that had ensemble casts, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany get to be the leads, and show their flexibility in these roles by perfectly capturing the spirit of classic sitcom characters, changing their delivery style for each one to the point where you can absolutely buy that they would work in one of these shows decades ago. Perfectly playing sitcom characters only heightens their dramatic moments when the fantasy is broken.
Asif Ali, who plays Norm, didn't have much to do for the first two episodes other than being Vision's nice, slightly goofy co-worker who makes computer jokes. Yet come Episode 5 when Vision wakes him up and he stops being Norm, switching to Abilash Tandon (his real self) and he's utterly terrified, asking where his family is and showing how serious and scary the situation really is. Then, when Vision puts him back under again, he switches back to being Norm with complete ease. When he's released from the Hex's influence in the series finale, he manages to portray the same desperation seen earlier, and later gives Wanda a passing dirty glance as she walks by him and the other Westview citizens. That's a very big range of emotions for a stand-up comedian to be able to pull off.
Kathryn Hahn as Agnes / Agatha Harkness. At the end of Episode 6, when Vision finds her at the edge of Westview, she says only that she "got lost" before Vision wakes her up, and she immediately asks in terror if she's dead, because Vision is. She repeats this over and over until she becomes Laughing Mad that "all is lost". Then, as soon as Vision puts her back under, she immediately switches back to being Agnes' cheerful self. It's taken further at the end of Episode 7, where she reveals herself to be Evil All Along, complete with Munsters-style opening credits where Kathryn Hahn gets to show off her Card-Carrying Villain status.
He's Just Hiding: Few people believe that Billy and Tommy have been erased from existence permanently, especially given their older selves' prominence in the comics. This belief was only bolstered by The Stinger in the last episode, in which Wanda hears their voices while reading the Darkhold.
Ho Yay: Agatha Harkness in Episode 1 seems more interested in Wanda than her (fake) husband, and ties her up in Episode 8, getting really into her personal space, addressing her with nicknames usually used as terms of endearment like "baby", "buttercup" and "toots", and being very... interested in how powerful she is. And when she first sees Wanda in her Scarlet Witch outfit after Wanda forces her back into the Agnes persona, she calls Wanda "hot stuff" and asks "Did I leave the oven on or is it just you?"
Many fans correctly guessed that Evan Peters' character in the show would be Quicksilver recast, though maybe not the later twist.
Since her first appearance and Kathryn Hahn's role in the show being announced, many fans guessed Wanda's gal pal, Agnes, was really the Marvel comic witch, Agatha Harkness, in disguise, which was confirmed at the end of Episode 7.
As soon as it was confirmed that the Hex was rewriting Monica's DNA, many fans guessed a repeat visit would give her her powers from the comics. Sure enough, after breaching the Hex again in Episode 7, she gets powers.
After the white Vision was revealed, many had a feeling there would be some type of Fusion Dance between him and the Hex-Vision to bring him back to life. While not completely a fusion, the Hex-Vision unlocks White Vision’s memories of his original life through a Ship Of Theseus discussion. Though it still remains to be seen if this "resurrected" Vision yet.
Monica Rambeau. Being a victim of the Snap only to be brought back five years later to find much of her surroundings in complete and utter chaos, her mother having been diagnosed with cancer in the events between her last appearance and the present (and passing on three years before her daughter was brought back by the Blip), and being subjected to Wanda's Mind Rape while in the Hex, it's honestly a miracle she's well-adjusted given everything she's gone through.
Vision. The poor guy is recreated by Wanda with almost no memory of who he is and what life he had before Westview. He is pretty much Truman Burbank, as he's forced to live out a script that he increasingly realizes is nothing but fake, is forced to question the morality and earnestness of the one person he truly loves, on top of having to be a father to two rapidly-growing children. As he himself admits, he's scared by the fact he doesn't know anything outside of his life in Westview, yet when push comes to shove he does everything in his power to save the people in it, up to and including willingly tearing himself apart. And when he gets informed on what his wife has gone through in order for all this to happen, he immediately rushes back to her side despite the fact he himself at this point has arguably gone through just as much. When he fades away following the Hex's dissolution, he quietly accepts his fate as he bids farewell to his wife.
Jerkass Woobie: While Wanda's initial refusal to set the town free from her control is morally reprehensible and far from justifiable, it isn't difficult to understand her motivations given her parents, brother, and boyfriend dying, leaving her feeling completely alone.
Some fans mostly tuned in to the show for the nostalgia factor of the sitcom episodes.
Some fans that weren't interested in the show began watching it particularly for Evan Peters as the "recasted" Quicksilver returning in Episode 5.
Karmic Overkill: The villainous Agatha Harkness is brainwashed by Wanda into becoming the harmless sitcom neighbor, Agnes, that Harkness initially pretended to be. It's a convenient way to keep the character around for a possible return instead of the usual route of killing supervillains, and Agatha had no qualms about killing children and puppies. However, to some viewers, it comes off as an unnecessarily harsh Death of Personality, especially since earlier it was revealed those Wanda brainwashed were still fully aware inside and every night had to psychically witness her nightmares (though with the Hex down, Agnes may not have to endure the latter). Agatha even calls out how cruel it is to do that to her.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Darcy's status as this strikes again, with several fans adding Monica Rambeau and Jimmy Woo to the already-impressive list of characters she gets shipped with as a result of their interactions here.
LGBT Fanbase: With Wanda historically being a fan favorite among queer people, the inclusion of Billy as a supporting character, the incredibly elaborate costumes everyone wears during the sitcom segments inside the Hex and the high camp of Kathryn Hahn's performance, the series is quite popular within the LGBT fanbase.
Like You Would Really Do It: Absolutely no one believed that Billy and Tommy would be gone for good once Wanda took down the Hex, considering that the two are popular characters in the comics (especially Billy). Sure enough, the second post-credits scene of the final episode showed Wanda hearing their cries for help while studying her magic, indicating that the two will make a re-appearance at some point, especially if we consider the Minimoffs' origin in the comics.
Love to Hate: Agnes/Agatha Harkness was the one constantly making things difficult for Wanda, almost got Vision killed by manipulating him into leaving the Hex, and killed Sparky, yet the fans love her because of her being a Card-Carrying Villain, her catchy theme tune and how Kathryn Hahn is having a ball playing this character.
Magnificent Bastard: Agatha Harkness is a witch who desires Wanda Maximoff's Chaos Magic for her own purposes. Infiltrating Westview and Wanda's sitcom fantasies, Agatha plays the role of "Agnes", engineering scenarios such a dog dying or "Pietro's resurrection" to emotionally string Wanda and Vision away from each other. Capturing Wanda in her basement, Agatha examines her past before attacking Wanda and her loved ones to absorb the Chaos Magic. In a last ditch effort, Agatha frees the people of Westview from Wanda's spell, guilt tripping Wanda into lowering the Hex and emotionally wrecking her into almost making a deal to allow her, Vision, and her twins to live in a more perfect fantasy to keep that latter three existing.
Most Wonderful Sound: For many fans of the MCU, Michael Giacchino's opening fanfare greeting fans after a year and a half of waiting for the next MCU property.
The sitcom format may be silliness played very straight, but it's so sweet seeing Wanda and Vision as such a happy couple that clearly adore each other and a lot of the jokes are genuinely good.
The reveal of Agnes being an evil witch named Agatha Harkness was guessed by most of the comics fans, but it being followed up by a Villain Song intro for Agatha which explains how she was behind events that happened in previous episodes makes up for being an easily guessed reveal.
Obvious Judas: Many fans guessed that Agnes was going to be Agatha all along long even before the show started airing episodes.
Older Than They Think: Episode 8 finally establishes the Scarlet Witch name, which here is explained as being a mythic title belonging to legendary witches who were capable of immense feats like harnessing Chaos magic, rather than just a snappy name given to her because she wore red. This actually follows after James Robinson's Scarlet Witch run from the 2010s, which had to completely redevelop Wanda's backstory after her and Pietro were retconned to no longer be Magneto's children, and introduced the idea of 'Scarlet Witch' being the legacy title among the magic community belonging to heroic guardian sorceresses, the last owner of which being Wanda's biological mother.
Agatha Harkness is much younger here than her original comic book counterpart. However, earlier designs by Jack Kirby were younger-looking, like in this series.
Realism-Induced Horror: Beneath the completely-unreal situation of the Retraux sitcoms that change era on a dime, the reality-altering Hex that facilitates them and even the general weirdness of a superhero universe that's adjacent to all of it, the show demonstrates the dark reality of how loneliness, depression and unresolved grief can lead to reckless, dangerous and self-destructive behaviour. Wanda has become a Stepford Smiler who'd rather stay in the Hex than face a world without Vision, Monica has become almost reckless and short-sighted due to not being over her mother's death, and living through the aftermath of Thanos' Snap has turned Hayward into a ruthless, paranoid tyrant.
Rooting for the Empire: Hayward received a surprising amount of support from some fans, who felt he was making sound arguments for his actions.
There were many complaints about how ever since Pietro's death in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the movies treated him as a Forgotten Fallen Friend to Wanda, despite the fact that he was her twin brother and her only constant companion for a long time. This show firmly establishes that Pietro's death is something she still thinks about, but it brings up so many painful memories for her that she doesn't like to talk about it at all, and on closer analysis, her fellow Avengers respected her wishes. (Notice that in Civil War, Clint avoids directly mentioning Pietro by name in front of Wanda even though he's agreed to help partially to repay Pietro for saving his life, only referencing it circumspectly.) It's also shown that Wanda is actively trying to block out her pain and hurt from past installments here, as she becomes incredibly frosty and expels Monica from the Hex when she suddenly mentions what happened to him. Later episodes continue this trend by having her mention that Pietro's death makes her sad and how it affects her actions in the movies.
Avengers: Endgame did not have time to dwell on the social impact of people coming back from the Blip. Spider-Man: Far From Home started showing some of the broader ramifications in a few specific instances (i.e. students having to repeat school while their siblings and peers grew up in their absence, blipped people now being homeless, some people taking advantage to pull a Faking the Dead etc.). Episode 4 continues this exploration with a serious depiction of the absolute chaos in a hospital in the moments after Banner's reversal of the Snap, as well as Monica Rambeau being blipped only to learn that her mother died of cancer in the five years between the two events.
When watching Endgame, many viewers were confused that, despite all the effort put into protecting and saving him in Infinity War, no one had attempted to reactivate or repair Vision in the five years since the Snap; not even Stark or Professor Hulk. Episode 5 reveals the reason for this: Vision had made a will explicitly refusing these outcomes should he 'die', since he was afraid that someone would try to turn him into a weapon. Episode 7 reveals that Hayward was attempting exactly that with "Project Cataract" and succeeds thanks to Wanda's magic.
When Wanda was introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron, licensing restrictions on the character required a deviation from her comic book origins of being a mutant with an X-gene to having her powers come from HYDRA's experimentation on her with the Mind Stone. When Disney bought Fox in 2019, the character became an unrestricted Marvel property again and WandaVision has taken steps to realign Wanda with her comic-established origin. "Previously On" establishes that the Mind Stone only enhanced magic powers that Wanda already had from birth, presenting the opportunity that she's a mutant with an X-gene that was activated by the Mind Stone and, for the first time in the MCU, Agatha calls her by her comic book codename, the Scarlet Witch. The finale also features her donning a comics-accurate costume to complete her transformation into the role.
When Marvel Television was still around doing its own shows, one complaint the fans had was about how stuff from them never really crossed over to the films, despite being in the same universe; with the main exception being Edwin Jarvis from Agent Carter having a cameo in Avengers: Endgame. Episode 9 finally brings over something that first appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — the Darkhold, a Tome of Eldritch Lore albeit with a different design.
In Captain Marvel (2019), many fans complained the title character was too perfect and got too much Character Shilling from everyone, making her uninteresting. In WandaVision, it is shown that Monica resents Carol for having apparently abandoned her for 30 years amid the horror of the Snap and the death of her mother, both blemishing Carol's perfection and suggesting interesting conflict could be on the way for her in The Marvels (2023).
Two from the end of Episode 4: Monica being thrown out of Westview and Wanda momentarily seeing Vision dead.
The end of Episode 5 has Pietro coming back... but played by Evan Peters, the actor who played the character in the X-Men Film Series.
Episode 6 has another Jump Scare with "Pietro" looking like a bullet-riddled corpse.
Episode 8 reveals that HYDRA's experiments were never the source of Wanda's powers, she's had them since childhood, thus possibly paving the way for the reveal that she's been a mutant the whole time.
In the post-credits scene of Episode 9, Wanda's studying of the Darkhold is interrupted when she suddenly hears her sons calling to her for help despite them having supposedly disappeared with the Hex.
Slow-Paced Beginning: The show is clearly the product of a studio fully confident in its brand loyalty, with the first three episodes being almost entirely made up of old sitcom pastiches with only a handful of hints that there's anything else going on, fully trusting that by this point, the fans will be willing to sit through it all until the show is good and ready to reveal its hand. Fortunately, the consensus is largely that the old sitcom material is genuinely enjoyable on its own merits unless the viewer just hates that sort of thing.
Special Effect Failure: While the show's high budget, plus the use of minimal to no CGI in earlier episodes allowing for much higher quality VFX in later episodes, does prevent this from frequently happening, a few examples do exist:
In the finale, Wanda vs. Agatha is very obviously green-screened.
Also in the finale, Vision's costume appears washed out in broad daylight when at the Westview town square. Strange considering this was not an issue in Episode 7 or at other locations in the finale, where he is also in broad daylight.
The story is evocative of Alan Moore's classic Swamp Thing story My Blue Heaven: a superhero apparently recreates their lost lover and settles down with them in a simulacrum of a small American town.
Many argue that this is a better adaptation of The Dark Phoenix Saga than both of the live-action movies that have adapted this storyline, given its focus on a superheroine losing her sanity and doing terrible things because of it.
The main plot of the series, Wanda creating a new reality with a better life for her and Vision after a mental breakdown in the real world, drives some comparison to the basic plot of the comic book event House of M, where Wanda creates a new reality in which her fellow superheroes have (supposedly) more happy lifes. It's seen by some as a minimalistic, more character than action driven version of the comic, leaving completly out the New Avengers and Astonishing X-Men and replace them with SWORD.
The series is of course meant to be a Homage to sitcoms in general, but it has a lot of similarities to Bewitched especially, with an attractive young witch (who, like Samantha, is played by an actress with the first name Elizabeth) trying to live a normal life with her husband, catch up in magic related shenanigans and has to hide her true nature. This series as a whole feels sometimes like a Darker and Edgier-take on Bewitched.
Squick: In episode 5, Vision taking the twins' pacifiers and stuffing them into his own ears. We know he's a robot but eeww.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: While Agatha is generally well-regarded in the fandom, there are a numberof peoplewho feel that her introduction as a villain ultimately hurts the story; up until her reveal, WandaVision revolved around a concept a lot of MCU films (and superhero films in general) tend to gloss over — the outcome of a superpowered being struggling with a lifetime of trauma — and with Wanda's role as both the hero and the villain, many were interested in how Wanda would end the series. After Agatha is revealed with her somewhat generic motive to gain more power, Wanda now has a physical villain to fight which changes her motivation from internal to external, which in turn makes both Wanda's arc and the ending of the series much more predictable.
SDCC 2019 revealed a trio of rather unusual characters to appear in a Vision and Scarlet Witch adaptation: Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man and the Wasp, an adult Monica Rambeau from Captain Marvel (2019), and Darcy Lewis, of all people, from Thor and Thor: The Dark World. While the former two are merely unexpected due to their lack of a direct connection to those two characters (even though both are involved with major organizations in the pages of Marvel Comics that are speculated to play a role in the setting's future), Darcy Lewis was especially unexpected due to her lengthy absence, her lack of overall relevance to the MCU at large (or the comics, considering that she's a Canon Foreigner), and her status as a Base-Breaking Character among fans. Regarding Woo, even his actor, Randall Park, was surprised at his return given he thought the character was a one-off.
Occurs with Pietro Maximoff, a character explicitly shown to have died but is not played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson — instead, he's played by Evan Peters reprising the role ("Peter Maximoff") after Fox's X-Men Film Series, with Jac Schaeffer making it clear that it was meant as a gut punch for both Wanda and the audience as they know that it's supposed to be her brother, but also know that something is off.
On a non-Marvel level, Yo Gabba Gabba! characters making a cameo in Episode 7 as Wanda begins to notice things off in Agatha's house. That show is owned by Viacom, Disney's rival.
Episode 7 reveals Agatha Harkness has been manipulating Wanda and Vision all along, and is actually a witch. Pretty much everyone had guessed both those details from before the series started, so when it happens, it doesn't come off as much of a surprise. To their credit, they seem to recognize it, and so play The Reveal completely for laughs with a nifty Villain Song.
After Monica stated outright in Episode 4 that Wanda was the one responsible for the creation of the Westview anomaly, many fans suspected that this explanation was too simple and that it would be revealed that she had been manipulated by Mephisto or some other comics character into creating the Hex in the first place, an hypothesis that continued to grow in popularity after Wanda admitted that she didn't "know how any of this started" in Episode 5 and after The Reveal that Agnes was really Agatha Harkness and "it was Agatha all along" in Episode 7. Then Episode 8 revealed that Wanda really did create the Hex by herself, albeit in a burst of emotional trauma without conscious intent, with Agatha infiltrating the sitcom reality after it was already created and trying to nudge Wanda out of her pretend world in order to learn how she did it.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The series uses film-quality special effects, making it stand out among past MCU TV shows, which were comparatively more grounded. Special mention goes to Monica materializing from the reverse-snap in episode 4, which is shown in greater detail than even the films, and the reveal that Vision's entire head in synthezoid form was CGI rather than makeup, with Paul Bettany wearing face paint for lighting reference and dots for motion capture.
after the first three episodes - the second highest out of all the cast while outranking the other lead actors with much more screentime and plot relevance than her like Paul Bettany, Teyonah Parris, and Kathryn Hahn. It's no wonder she was confirmed to appear in Agatha's solo series Coven of Chaos.
