Paul Bettany claims WandaVison has more VFX than Endgame; teases 'intense' twists to come

Six episodes of WandaVision remain, and if Paul Bettany is to be believed, the latter half of the season is going to top the MCU's epic, 10-year culmination that was Avengers: Endgame. "I don't want to give too much away about the future episodes, but I will tell you this: there were more special effects requirements for our TV show than there were for Endgame," the actor said on the Lights Camera Barstool podcast. "There are some difficult and expensive things...and some exhausting things."

That's a pretty big statement to make, but given the show's penchant for switching between genres and cinematic formats, it's easy to see that the special effects team certainly had their hands full in recreating retro eras of television. Moreover, Disney (much like John Hammond) spared no expense in giving WandaVision the same cinematic quality seen in MCU projects that play on the big screen. This meant that nine, half-hour episodes of a big budget, genre-bending TV series were going to be just as expensive (if not more) as a massive summer tentpole.

Bettany also promised "more conflict" between Wanda's faux reality and the real world. We got a small taste of that at the end of Episode 3 when Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) was forcibly ejected from the '70s-inspired sitcom universe after mentioning Pietro's death to Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).

"It's really bonkers," Bettany continued, teasing that Episode 4 (premiering this Friday) will absolutely blow viewers' minds. "As you can see, more and more things are starting to encroach into this reality that they're all living in. Wanda gets bothered by those things; she's really disturbed by them and Vision is starting to suspect that there is some need for some sort of investigation into exactly what on Earth is going on in this town ... Episode 3 is very definitive, the end of it, where you really understand that the other world is right outside this world and they're very aware that something is wrong in this place."

Fans are speculating that Aaron Taylor-Johnson will reprise the role of Quicksilver in upcoming episodes and showrunner Jac Schaeffer seemed to give at least some credence to that theory during an interview with The Wrap. “The show is about Wanda and Vision and it’s an opportunity to dig deeper into who they are. And that has to do with where they come from," she said. "We’re all a product of our experiences and our trauma and our relationships. And so we will be exploring all of those details of their pasts as we move forward."

Credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+

Speaking with Deadline, Schaeffer said that “the show will continue to push the boundaries of television and continue to be surprising and subvert expectations," but refused to give any specific details about what lies ahead, aside from the confirmed '80s - modern day sitcom genres.

“The obsessions with sitcoms are mine, [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige’s and [director] Matt Shakman’s” she explained, “Sitcoms are a place of comfort and safety for us as a community and culture. The superhero movies exist in these enormous stakes environments; more than life or death, it’s the fate of the galaxy. In a sitcom everything is going to be fine, no matter what. I think we were fascinated between the intersection of those two things.”

 "It's not an arbitrary reason that we're in all of these sitcoms," Bettany said on the aforementioned podcast. "There's a big payoff where you go, 'Ohhh, ok. Now I get it.' It's a satisfying thing ... I think they're gonna be massively surprised by the end of this show ... They're gonna look at the MCU in a whole new light and also, have a much deeper understanding about what direction it's moving in. I would also say that so many things get leaked and people find out about certain things, but there's this thing that's been keep completely under wraps that happens and I have worked with this actor that I have always wanted to work with. We have fireworks together, the scenes are great, and I think people will be really excited. I've always wanted to work with this guy and the scenes are pretty intense."

The first three episodes of WandaVision are currently available to stream on Disney+.