This past month the release date for the highly anticipated WandaVision spin-off, Agatha All Along was finally unveiled. We also got a promising update on the show’s other spin-off Vision Quest.
All this excitement surround the return of the show’s characters has brought back both good and bad memories for the (now) three year old MCU entry. To be clear, I still think the show is great and is one of the MCU’s best projects. What I mean by “bad memories” is moreso the impact the show had on the fandom overall. I think it arguably created a problem that hasn’t gone away since unfortunately.
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When WandaVision first premiered in January 2021, not only was it the MCU’s first show on Disney+. It was the first project from the franchise following Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019. As a result of the pandemic, many things including the shows were delayed so fans were very excited for new content – and to see the beginning of a new era for the MCU. And the show didn’t disappoint. After its debut, it became an overnight sensation. The first few episodes received acclaim for their tributes to classic sitcoms, as well as it’s hints towards the larger storyline.
I don’t know if people even remember just how big the discussion surrounding this show was. Literally every week, there would immediately be theories posted online about what was going on. Some people pointed to this show as being the one to bring back the “water cooler discussion” for television, where people would go to work the next day eager to share their thoughts on the show. True story: I actually recall going to a doctor’s appointment during this time, and even my doctor even asked me whether or not I thought Mephisto was the one behind the story. It was a crazy time to be a Marvel fan.
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Speaking of Mephisto, that was the “bad” part of this era. People online started to get really wild with their theories regarding this show. I remember fake leaks put making the rounds, some going so far as to say Magneto was going to show up, or Reed Richards was going to show up, or that the X-Men from the Fox universe were going to appear. Those theories only got worse after Evan Peters, most known as Quicksilver from the Fox X-Men films, showed up. But the biggest theory was that the ultimate villain of the series was going to be Mephisto. That obviously did not happen.
There were some things that did come true though. For example, most people predicted that Agnes was really Agatha. They also predicted that the Vision in the show wasn’t the actual Vision that had died in Infinity War. But a lot of the more outlandish theories didn’t happen. And that led to a bit of a backlash when the finale aired. People got so invested in their own stories that they forgot what the show was actually about: Wanda and Vision. And if you understood that, than the show was especially successful.
But some people didn’t see it that way. They were mad the story didn’t go the way they wanted it to. And that’s a problem that didn’t end here. It has continued with every major project in the franchise since, and it still hasn’t gone away. Multiverse of Madness faced a similar reaction from people because it wasn’t chocked full of crazy cameos. But the reason why I personally have a sort of bittersweet feeling whenever I look back on the show is because I think WandaVision was the last time the discourse within the MCU was actually fun.
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As crazy as the theories got it was fun talking about them with people. It was nice to focus on things like the great performances and directing in the show. That’s mostly gone now. And the discussion surrounding the MCU has basically become the same as Star Wars. Modern discourse is often shrouded by negativity and pessimism. Everything’s about the reviews and the box office. While some of that does come from a lot of the pathetic grifters who ironically got big being negative about Star Wars (as well as being outright racist and sexist). But some of it also has to do with regular fans becoming more cynical towards everything.
Ms. Marvel‘s actress Iman Vellani recently touched on this. She pointed out how the entire point of these fandoms is supposed to be being able to enjoy the things you love with others. You can have constructive criticism on it, and there were people who had genuine criticisms of things like WandaVision. Some people didn’t like it because they thought it focused too much on action rather than the drama. That’s fair, and it makes more sense than being mad that Doctor Strange didn’t show up. But that’s not the main stuff that gets pushed to the forefront. What gets attention is people complaining that the MCU is doomed and just always being negative. It’s honestly exhausting, and it takes the fun out of everything. I hope one day we can recapture that feeling WandaVision initially gave. The feeling where everyone was just having a good time and was invested in the actual story and characters. Who knows? Maybe it’ll happen again with Agatha All Along. At least I hope it does.
