Disney's Safe(r) Habits and the Safe(r) Narratives of WandaVision

It is safe to talk about WandaVision, right?

Well, just in case: SPOILER ALERT

And just to make it harder for those to see the spoilers, we’re going back in time just a bit before getting to the discussion of WandaVision.

The Walt Disney Company is a money-printing behemoth because not only do they absorb IPs old and new and spin them into success stories, but also because the company has a very good handle on when to take risks, how to take risks, and figure a way to make them profitable in the end of the day. Through Disney, Pixar was allowed to hit its spectacular peak run from 2004-2010 because they took spectacular cinematic and narrative risks and the end result was not only profitable, but was art that has stood the test of time. You may not see it now, but The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, and even to an extent Up were very risky films because of subject matter and/or difficulty of marketing. Other cinematic gambles from this millennium that doesn’t feel like gambles today includes Curse of the Black Pearl, Guardians of the Galaxy, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Zootopia (taking on systemic racism, classism, prejudice, AND sexism in an animated film?!!?) and Thor: Ragnarok.

A company like Disney can afford to take risks, and whenever a gamble fails (The Lone Ranger), they can toss it straight to the trash, cut their losses, and move on. Not everyone in Hollywood is entitled to these sorts of advantages. Some directors and even actors are always one major faulty risk away from losing momentum and losing everything they had built. Jackie Chan literally had to wait a decade after his first couple American films flopped before making a second attempt to being a success story on this cinematic side of the world (Rumble in the Bronx). Ben Affleck was a punchline after Gigli with Jennifer Lopez for years before his eventual comeback. Disney on the other hand is way too big to fail, and they can spin twelve successes for every failure, which does ultimately allow them to take fun risks, allows them to think outside the box.

This is why Disney is curbstomping Warner Brothers in the comic book cinema battle.

DC and Warner Brothers has outrageously failed in taking proper risks. They also didn’t spend an entire decade trying to build up their IPs through smaller, introductory films (not having a Batman film before Batman vs. Superman was stupid to the 11th degree). They didn’t try a new spin or take on Batman (you wanted older Batman? Where’s my Batman Beyond then?), they didn’t give Wonder Woman her own film before her first official appearance, they didn’t give Cyborg or Harley Quinn their own movies before the ensemble films. DC never played the long game, they never messed around with their comic book characters or learn from past mistakes and great decisions made in media of the past.

This is why The Avengers is so so much better than Justice League (SO SO MUCH better). This is why the previously-unknown Guardians of the Galaxy ended up being leagues above Suicide Squad. And just as recently, this is why WandaVision and its interpretation of grief was so much better than Wonder Woman 1984. Marvel and Disney spends the money, does the research, hires the right people, and knows when to take the risks and not ever be one-note in its output. But Disney’s level of risk never crosses too far, and for that some of their material ends up being great, but not spectacular. Entertaining, but not legendary. Not a disappointment, but a definite example of what it could have been.

Take Infinity War for example. From start to finish, this was a ballsy effort because it was actually a hero’s journey of an antagonist. The film was actually about Thanos’ quest to fulfill his desires, and all the heroes and side characters we have gotten to know over the years had their moments to shine, but they also felt like secondary and even underpowered characters to what was looking more and more like an inevitable conclusion coming in the form of half of all things life disappearing in an instant. We were led to believe that Disney could never allow for a storyline to actually finish up this way, right? I mean, right? There’s no way?

But it happened.

Thanos won by the end, surviving a deadly blow and ultimately snapping his fingers, leading to a slew of characters we have grown to love literally disappearing in the final moments of the movie. If Disney really wanted to deliver a groundbreaking experience, these characters would have remained “disappeared” and the Avengers/Marvel universe moving forward would have to deal with all these departures for the rest of their lives. Disney/Marvel would have had their release schedule as a bait-and-switch to suddenly throw us off when Thanos’ snap happened.

But Endgame, as great as it was, un-did what could have been the riskiest and most jaw-dropping storyline in the history of blockbuster film. If Thanos had remained victorious, even if the sequel would eventually lead to the manhunt and his death, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: “Endgame” would have been the greatest comic book films in the history of the medium, easily. This one-two punch of subverted expectations would have changed cinema forever, would have allowed a wild open slate of storylines to occur. Possibilities would have been endless with the narrative results of Infinity War. Thor and Iron Man would have pursued Thanos, Hulk could have disappeared from Earth in shame, Wakanda would have had a power struggle with T’challa being gone, we could have seen a new Spider-Man, etc.

Disney had other plans however, as Disney believes in the power of storytelling, but prefers the power of money through extended sequels and ongoing storylines. So through a wild elongated sequence of events involving time-travel, undoing death, undoing Thanos’ destruction half a decade later, the fandom nonetheless got what truly felt like the closing chapter of an entire decade of Marvel films, allowing us to properly say goodbye to certain characters while loudly cheering for the return of others. Disney chose the most-profitable course of action as opposed to the riskiest. Disney DOES take risks, stronger and better risks than their competitors, but with Marvel they’ve never really crossed into territory to that of your groundbreaking efforts like Psycho, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Jaws, Jurassic Park, anything by James Cameron, even Disney’s own Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

So…where does WandaVision fit in all this risk talk?

WandaVision’s biggest weaknesses can be strongly attached to the fact that Disney wasn’t willing to make Wanda, Scarlet Witch, the primary and only antagonist in the show’s entire run.

In the narrative of this mini-series, you ultimately had multiple villains going up against an eventual protagonist who was behaving in an extremely antagonistic manner while dealing with her overwhelming grief and anxiety of moving on after what occurred in Infinity War and Endgame. This decision to include Sword, to include a surprise villain within the fictional universe Scarlet Witch had created was not necessarily a poor decision, because it was primarily made in order to enhance our sympathy towards the lead character as through her grief she mind-controlled an entire town to being a perfect community---while also poisoning their thoughts with her depression and anxiety and constant thoughts of death. This show was also used to set up the future of Marvel with hints of more Captain Marvel, more Doctor Strange, and maybe more Sword-related adventures.

But WandaVision’s setup was the perfect allegory, as Wanda’s pain and misery was affecting others, much like how sometimes when we grieve we affect strangers, neighbors, and especially our friends and family. This also coincidentally has fallen during a time in which the entire world is witnessing and experiencing so much death that we haven’t even had the opportunity to grieve over our fallen loved ones. The pandemic is still going, people are still getting sick and passing away, and countries like Brazil continues to fight its worst mutations and darkest moments in recent history. WandaVision honestly came at a perfect moment, which was strange because so did Wonder Woman 1984 but that movie was such a mess nobody felt anything besides disappointment by the time the credits rolled.

What made the first few episodes so intriguing is that we all deep down knew what was happening was not reality, and was clearly a cover of darkness that was being felt by Wanda herself. The sitcom structure was a perfect way to hide and put a bow on misery, by creating silly storylines in environments that seemed without any problems. We the audience can sympathize with that, using media as a way to shut ourselves away from the realities of what is going on.

Can’t be a coincidence that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is about to sell 30 MILLION copies in a single year as we needed ways to remain positive and entertained during a deadly pandemic. Can’t also be a coincidence that those TV ratings of sporting events dropped like a rock as the “real world” and the “sports world” was colliding like never before. Its impossible to not think about the pandemic as we see empty stadiums and arenas. Its impossible not to think about Black Lives Matter’s battle for acceptance as the minorities across all sports were feeling unbearable pain about the extreme rise in racism throughout the country under uncertain times and supremacist-laden government.

Underneath the canned laughter and the silliness was this mystery behind when the other shoe was going to drop and what exactly was causing us to see our heroes in a way never before seen. As the show progressed, we were sensing darker undertones emerging within the sitcom setting, like the death of their dog and Wanda having to explain grief to her kids.

Then came that fourth episode. The one with results of The Blip, the appearance of Sword, the return of Monica, the light Captain Marvel reference, the eternally underused Kat Dennings as Darcy, and pointless new villain Tyler Hayward.

If Disney really wanted to go down this narrative hole with the outer forces trying to resurrect Vision, kill Wanda, and even left field it up and bring a new villain from the Salem Witch Trials days, why not wait until a few episodes more to deliver the twists and the giant reveal? Similar to that infamous risky show Lost, the show mismanaged when to deliver the answers to questions, didn’t allow the mysteries to fester a proper amount of time.

Lost took too long, WandaVision was too quick to give answers.

The infamous fourth episode with Monica, Darcy, and Jimmy should have happened on around the 6th-7th episode mark to give us more time to ponder theories while seeing the alternate reality Wanda was maintaining. On top of that, truth be told, the events outside Westview really weren’t that interesting, and we didn’t have enough time to spend with those minor characters to grow any attachment. But Wanda and Vision on the other hand, we had previous films, a budding relationship to rely on, and THAT is why I felt like Disney’s inability to truly be risky enough to actually push the envelope.

Disney’s reluctance to make sure anyone in the Marvel universe actually stays dead (Gamora, Loki, Vision, Phil Coulson, all the snap victims, even Baymax) and their reluctance to present anything by Marvel without an actual antagonist prevented WandaVision from being a spectacular character study of grief. This could have been a reversal of sorts as Wanda is the main character as well as the actual main antagonist, and the show easily could have spent its entire run in this fictional environment as Vision slowly realizes the dark truth and through his wisdom can show Wanda the errors of her ways. It could have been interesting to see Wanda slowly work her way through the pain and try to snap out of her immense depression on her own, with the help of a version of Vision that actually wasn’t real.

Then we have the ending in which its revealed that Scarlet Witch can still reunite with Vision, which sort of negates the themes that had been presented throughout the show all along. I get it, profits must be made, IPs must be always available to drum up continuing interest in the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe. But man, we had some wasted opportunities here. And….was Vision THAT popular a character to want to keep around for the future…?

I’m not completely picking on WandaVision completely, not at all. WandaVision has to still be praised for a variety of reasons; for its uniqueness, its dark humor, the excellent production value, the top-notch acting performances of Elizabeth Olsen (marry me, please) and Paul Bettany (special shout out to Kathryn Hahn, who is a spectacular character actress), and a very interesting narrative that touches upon the subjects of death, grief, love, and life after loss in ways DC and most of Hollywood can only WISH they could pull off. Hollywood has become safer than ever before, long-gone are the days of creative directors consistently getting expensive budgets to create unique cinematic experiences. Even Christopher Nolan after the Tenet fiasco may lose access to larger budgets in the near future.

On top of that, this show under the wrong hands and even the wrong company could have stumbled completely, but instead we have one of the biggest streaming success stories in the history of the Streaming Wars. However, the familiar structure of the MCU still seeped its way into a show idea that deserved to truly go all-out and ignore all the usual Disney/Marvel tropes that we’re used to seeing. Like Infinity War/Endgame, Disney chose profit and fan service above pushing the envelope off the table despite having the ability and the budget to pull it off and still potentially satisfy the fans (and stockholders). I personally wanted a WandaVision that maintained its TV tropey ways throughout the mini-series as we see Vision slowly un-do Wanda’s damage and simultaneously help her out of a horrible mental situation of grieving. As a character Wanda had gone through hellfire and worse (she’s literally lost everyone she ever loved), and she deserved a show truly and fully dedicated to her as she ponders her future and questions who she is and who she should become.

In a world of extremely competitive streaming and a flavor-less Hollywood that chooses remakes, re-dos, strong IPs, and sequels above unique storytelling and trying to evolve the art of storytelling and filmmaking, we have to give props to Disney for at least taking fun risks and leading the charge of presenting familiar characters under a different light. With The Mandalorian and WandaVision, Disney has emerged at Netflix’s top competitor with quality and unique content. In a perfect world, WandaVision goes further and becomes a strongly-analyzed program instead of a successful stepping stone for the next phase of Marvel films and shows. It feels contradictory to be appreciative of Disney’s efforts while criticizing their methodology behind the content they produce, but WandaVision was ultimately a good show with wasted opportunities.

But it could always be worse, much much worse. Marvel under Disney could have been a DC scenario of mismanaging their properties on a yearly basis. Just wait until everyone becomes wildly disappointed by the upcoming Snyder Cut. At the end of the day, we could be suffering more as watching movies and television has become much more expensive, and we are ending up having to choose between watching certain content while missing out on other great shows and movies. Fargo’s first season is some of the best television this century, but you have to get Hulu to enjoy it, as the age of reruns on cable television and easily catching prior episodes is diminishing as the IPs, channels, and content is being split across far too many platforms. For the first time since Netflix, we have a streaming service that is actually truly committed to delivering good varied content (you’re not there yet, HBO Max).  

However….Wanda and WandaVision still deserved better.