Stars of WandaVision promise ‘avant garde, weird and messed up’ series with a sitcom vibe

Just as we had hoped, Disney+ will not be afraid to get real weird and freaky with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. During an interview with MTV at last weekend's D23 Expo in Anaheim, the two main stars of WandaVision — Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) and Paul Bettany (Vision) — teased that their series will go where no MCU project has gone before, before veering back to a familiar vibe we all know and love.

"Through the genius of Marvel and Kevin Feige, there's an answer to that, but it's not one that I can give you," Bettany said, addressing the question of how Vision can come back when he was coldly murdered by Thanos (Josh Brolin) in last year's Avengers: Infinity War. "I don't think that myself or Lizzie have ever been more surprised when Kevin pitched the idea to us ... He pitched this idea for a sort of six-hour movie that I would never [have thought of] in a million years, which is why he is the one earning the really big bucks. It's so avant garde, and weird, and messed up, and then moves seamlessly into more familiar territory. But the place where it starts is so odd."

"I'm so excited," chimed in Olsen. "We get to play around with a totally different genre with these characters that we have based in reality, on this planet Earth where it could also be exploded by aliens or whatever — that reality. We've based it there, and now we get to morph them into a sitcom universe and get to be stylized, we get to play around as actors, [and] we get to play around with time period. It's just gonna be a wild ride, and then it's gonna morph back into the familiar world that we know of Marvel. It's gonna be a mashup."

The first teaser poster for the project was released at D23 and portrayed Wanda and Vision as a happy-go-lucky couple from mid-20th-century America; it's a sight that 1) would make Norman Rockwell proud and 2) gives credence to what Olsen said about the show playing around with different time periods.

“Well, there’s quite a few other comic books that we’re pulling from, and it’s gonna be Wanda and the Vision. … I think at the Disney+ launch/chat they showed a photo of us in the ‘50s, and I think that’s a good teaser. It’s gonna be really fun, I’m really excited," Olsen said back in April.

"In these situations, you always say 'We're really excited,' but I'm genuinely blown away," Bettany added during the MTV interview. "As the scripts come in, the work is just so extraordinary."

Shooting this fall, WandaVision will premiere in the spring of 2021, its story (and the character of Wanda Maximoff) tying into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which hits theaters everywhere May 7, 2021. Scott Derrickson is returning to direct the mystical sequel, which Olsen confirmed is currently being written. She didn't give a name of the screenwriter, but it's very possible that Derrickson has reprised scribe duties with the first movie's other credited writers, C. Robert Cargill and Jon Spaihts.

Both Kat Dennings and Randall Park are set to return as Thor's Darcy and Ant-Man and the Wasp's Agent Woo for WandaVision. Kathryn Hahn (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) will also co-star as an MCU newcomer, playing an inquisitive neighbor.