Marvel Studios: Assembled (2021) s01e01 Episode Script

1
MATT SHAKMAN: Welcome
to what is a strange event.
The first live sitcom taping
in Marvel Studios history.
(ALL CHEERING)
I didn't know that I was gonna
be able to do anything like this,
so it just feels like
an incredible gift.
Moving through to the
'60s and the '70s now,
and, as we dove into the
'80s and '90s, is really fun.
And then, ending up in a big Marvel,
full widescreen format is the best.
We were first really terrified,
and now I think we're just so excited.
The first time I heard
about the concept,
I thought it was brilliant.
We're putting together so many
different genres of television,
and we are putting our own spin on it.
That is something special, baby.
I just think it's gonna be
so shocking, and confusing, and exciting
for our fans to dissect
what we're doing and why,
and for them to try and
get steps ahead of us.
And that's just very cool
and it's very satisfying.
This is for us.
So let me handle it.
What is outside of Westview?
I got a call from Kevin to
come see him in his office.
When I went, "Oh, I'm getting canned".
And I went in, and, much to my surprise,
they pitched this bonkers
idea for a show.
And I was immediately in, of course.
And the show has only grown
more bonkers. (CHUCKLES)
You're the new clown?
At least you're already in makeup.
JARVIS: Welcome home, sir.
It's so nice to see you finally
coming out of your shell.
- BETTANY: It's been a crazy ride.
- That was a good one.
Jon Favreau rung me up and
We had made a movie together
called Wimbledon.
He rung me up and he said,
"I'm making this movie with
Robert Downey, and he's Iron Man.
And I need sort of a really
boring, personality-less voice
for the computer that runs his world.
(CHUCKLING) And I immediately
thought of you, Paul".
Rendering periodic table, sir.
How do you say no when
you're asked so nicely?
(LAUGHS)
Anyway, and it was a great gig.
They'd shot everything and whatever
still needed clarification,
you could always just have JARVIS
say, "The baddies are coming!"
JARVIS: Sir, it appears
that this suit can fly.
Duly noted. Take me to maximum altitude.
BETTANY: And then, I don't
know how the next bit happened.
I guess Joss Whedon had
seen me in some movie,
and figured out a way for me
to actually work for a living,
- if you can call it work.
- (LAUGHS)
So, then that happened.
That was Age of Ultron.
(GLASS BREAKS)
OLSEN: Starting with Ultron,
Marvel really was so excited
to bring Wanda into the MCU.
And was only really teeing
me up for possibilities
that we didn't know if we would actually
fulfill those possibilities or not.
I looked in your head,
and I saw annihilation.
Look again.
So, we would place Easter
eggs in certain places,
whether it's just a glance
too long with Vision or just
We were trying to play around
with that in Age of Ultron.
I feel like the hand-off
to different directors
have been completely
different experiences
for this character specifically.
I think the Russo Brothers
were very honest about,
"You know, I really want this
to be something that you shepherd
and that you take full ownership of".
And I was like, "Okay". (LAUGHS)
So, I had to choreograph with
this choreographer, Jenny White,
who we brought on in Age of Ultron.
Bring in that energy
and throw it back out.
We just had to figure out our
own place at the same time
while Wanda was trying
to figure out her own place
in the Avengers compound
and finding solace in Vision.
Tell me what you feel.
I just feel you.
OLSEN: And I think Paul and
I, we both really believed,
as much as it's fun
to be part of the humor
and the playfulness of the Avengers,
we've always my
character specifically,
has also always, in our
relationship together,
we've kind of just created
just an emotional foundation
that doesn't play around
with irony, really.
Which is kind of odd in these movies
when so much is ironic
and funny and fun to watch.
But it's also kind of lovely
that it's told through
their strange love story.
We are out of time.
I can't.
VISION: Yes, you can.
It shouldn't be you, but it is.
(BREATHES SHAKILY)
(SIGHS)
I love you.
(SCREAMS)
Hey.
- (CHUCKLES)
- (KISSES)
Now we can begin. Wanda, you pick.
OLSEN: And then moving on to the show
with Mary Livanos, our producer,
and Jac Schaeffer, our creator,
they really honed in on all these
things that were in my head,
and all these inner
monologues and threads
and arcs that I kind of just created.
And they just really took
it in such a deep way
and created such beautiful arcs.
Morning, wife! Morning, sons!
Morning, unfamiliar wet animal.
Who's this?
BETTANY: It's such a homage to
the sort of American sitcoms
throughout the 20th century.
What kind of housewife would I be
if I didn't have a gourmet meal
for four just lying about the place?
BETTANY: Jac Schaeffer
has done such a great job.
It's such a little beautiful puzzle box.
SCHAEFFER: I was lucky enough to
be invited to look at the materials
and sort of digest
it and think about it.
And there was so much
that was already there.
This is Kevin Feige's baby.
He loves the show and had some
really distinct ideas and visuals
and things that they
all wanted to achieve.
MARY LIVANOS: Matt Shakman
is just the person to direct
a complicated Rubik's
cube of a show like this.
He runs the Geffen Playhouse back in LA.
He's worked on Game of Thrones.
He's worked on countless sitcoms
and, in fact, starred,
back when he was younger,
in sitcoms as a child actor,
and he is just the Swiss
Army knife of a human
that we need for a show like this.
Hart goes back in. Door slams.
- He goes to the phone!
- (DOOR SLAMS)
We pause here. All right.
And let's continue on
with our ladies over here.
It blew my mind when they pitched
me the concept for the show.
More than just because the idea
is outrageously fun and new,
but also because it felt like
it hit all the parts of my life.
I grew up being on shows from the '80s
like Facts of Life,
and Diff'rent Strokes,
Growing Pains, et cetera.
But I've also directed a lot
of large-scale spectacle.
And so, the idea that
there existed a project
in the Marvel Universe,
which I'm also an enormous fan of
and dressed up like superheroes
from the Marvel comic
books when I was a kid
until they told me I had to stop,
the idea that I could combine
all these things that I've always loved
into one crazy project was
almost too hard to believe.
It's too good to be true.
All right, ready, Janell?
- Yeah.
- All right, let's do it.
And action!
SCHAEFFER: We're starting in the 1950s,
so it was always our dream that if
we did a true multi-camera show,
we would have a live audience.
And we knew it was a risk, we
knew it would be an expense,
almost an indulgence,
but for the actors, for the
energy, and for the crew,
it will be really exciting.
- I've been playing to the audience, so
- (LAUGHS)
You tell me where the camera is,
and I'll start playing to the camera.
SHAKMAN: So you're on our sitcom
stage for the first episode.
Over there is Vision's
office, where he works,
and he works for a guy named Mr. Hart.
Mr. Hart and his dear lady
wife, Mrs. Hart. (HUFFS)
That's what I just said.
What's wrong with you, son?
- Have you got a screw loose?
- Oh, no, sir, screws all tight, sir.
And then over here, right to your right,
is the house where
Wanda and Vision live.
This is their kitchen,
over here to the right,
this beautiful blue kitchen.
But when you see it on the actual show,
it's gonna be in black and white,
so you won't actually get
to see the color of it.
And then over here is their living room.
So what's a single gal like you
doing rattling around this big house?
Behind you is our live audience seating.
We wanted it to feel period,
so that's why we have
the old wooden chairs
and we've matched the
railings and how it all looks,
because so much of it is about
the audience's experience.
Kevin Feige and I had a lovely
lunch with Dick Van Dyke
shortly before we started
pre-production on the show,
so we could really get in
touch with how they did it
and to be as authentic as we could,
not just in how it would look and feel,
but in how it was put together,
the style, the way they rehearsed,
the way they approached
blocking and shooting.
SCHAEFFER: Wanda would
technically go to a quick change.
She's not gonna do it now.
We'll get the living room
dressed. It's happening.
And then we would light the
candles right at the very end,
and we would go.
The Dick Van Dyke Show
really was theater.
They put it up.
They shot it once in
front of the audience,
like a play, all the way through.
You can feel it when
you watch that show.
The audience is in it, like
when they're in the theater.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
The adrenaline, the audience, and
the actors feed off of each other.
And that creates something
that you can't imitate.
That's why we're going
to these great lengths.
And our actors have been wonderful.
I'm a little anxious
about the whole live
I haven't been in front of
a live audience since 1884.
- Oh, is that right? Oh.
- Yeah.
So, I'm a little anxious
about the whole thing.
Yeah, I would be too.
Still, I just, you know
Hundred-plus years ago.
- Hundred-plus years ago.
- That's a long time.
MAN: Welcome to WandaVision.
Thank you so much, guys.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
We're so excited to have you guys.
We've been working hard
the last two weeks
on making this happen for you all.
If you guys can give us all the laughter
and all the natural reactions you have
to what we're doing, we
would be most grateful.
And then you will probably
hear yourself,
especially if you're one
of those loud laughers
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
when you actually
watch the show later on.
Now, I would love to introduce you
to the characters you're
gonna meet today.
- David Lengel.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
Asif Ali.
Debra Jo Rupp.
Fred Melamed.
Kathryn Hahn.
The Vision himself, Paul Bettany.
And, as Wanda Maximoff, Elizabeth Olsen!
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
OLSEN: I mean, I've done theater before,
but shooting a TV show in
front of a live audience
was like a strange meta
experience for me
because I grew up on the Full House set
watching these live tapings on Fridays,
never thinking that that would
ever be a form of reality for me.
Guess who?
Oh. (CHUCKLES)
Is that my host behind me?
- It certainly is!
- (SIGHS)
- Lovely to make your acquaintance.
- Yes! (CHUCKLES)
OLSEN: Doing sitcom gave
me so much joy every day.
I think it gave all of
us so much actual joy.
It's really different.
- High-octane.
- It's very authentic,
you know, late '50s sitcom,
and it feels very different.
You have to swing for the
fences and hope that you
OLSEN: We're playing for an audience.
And I feel like in the Marvel films,
it's a cinematic universe,
and this we're playing for laughs.
I've never been allowed to be funny.
This is my first time getting
to be funny as Wanda.
What a gas.
I'm very funny.
- She is enormously funny.
- I'm very funny.
I think I have another idea.
- SHAKMAN: And
- And then I change.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
BETTANY: Every member of the
crew was dressed in costumes.
Everybody got into the spirit of it.
And then the audience came
in, and we just went for it.
It was nerve-racking, but I think
it was so rewarding and so funny.
Us running backstage,
bumping into me, bumping
into Kathryn Hahn,
and making her drop
her props or whatever.
Everybody's getting ready
behind doors to come out.
And it was so much fun.
- (OBJECTS CLATTERING)
- Oh, my!
HAHN: That was just a dream.
The costumes are so fabulous.
Mayes, the designer, is such a genius.
That dress!
Yes, the dress! It's It's so
It's Sokovian, is what it is! Yes!
It is my favorite period for clothes
because it shows off a
waist if you have a waist.
I have a waist. I have no limbs.
I'm very short, but I have a waist,
so I really like the '50s.
So, that was great.
I kind of like the hair and
I have a magnificent hat.
They had a little table
with a whole bunch of hats,
and I just went,
"Could I have that hat, please?"
And it was perfect.
But the '50s undergarments are
not the most comfortable things,
but they help with your posture.
Yeah, I got my Spanx
on. My lifts in my heels.
I've got my Spanx on.
I've got my flats on.
- Ready to go.
- But I'm ready emotionally.
You wanna talk about your butt?
Yeah, I did want to talk
about my butt, for a second.
I wanna talk about my dress first.
Um, it makes me have better posture.
And it makes me wanna
walk like this and
I have exactly the same
thing, but with my fake butt.
- With your fake butt.
- Yeah,
it makes me stand properly,
and makes me wanna do this too.
- This?
- Yeah.
We knew that when we started this show,
the way that we were going to
sell it authentically to an audience
would be with every level of recreation.
So, that includes the camera lenses,
that includes the set decoration,
era-accurate lighting.
SHAKMAN: Jess Hall,
who's a brilliant DP,
looked at old original prints
of these television shows,
and he was able to try to match
how closely as we could possibly
get to what it looked like then.
(LAUGHS)
You truly are a pioneer!
SHAKMAN: Action!
Freeze! Swap!
Action!
(GASPS) Oh, no, too much!
We wanted to make sure we approached it
with authenticity and not parody,
and to that end, we wanted to
shoot it the way they shot it.
That means visual effects
that would have been
done as special effects.
Luckily, Dan Sudick, who's our
special effects coordinator,
when I first had my call
with him, when I started this
and I laid out this idea,
I didn't know if he was
going to like the idea
or he's gonna be like, "What're you
talking about? I blow things up!"
He actually loved it.
He started laughing.
He said, "I came up under the
guys who did Bewitched.
They were my mentors.
And so, I started my career
doing things on wires.
I know how to do it. It's a lot of fun".
And so, we have him and his team
doing really complicated puppeteering
gags with wires and rods,
and they're spending just as much time
on that as they are blowing things up.
How can I be of assistance?
Well, the chicken is
no longer a chicken,
and the lobsters just flew the coop
so the steak is the last man standing.
OLSEN: I went to theater school.
You study screwball comedies.
You study film noir style of acting,
you feel so stupid when
you're in college. You're like,
"When am I ever gonna do this?
No one makes this anymore".
And so, getting to use all those tools
that you have somewhere in you.
(EXCLAIMS)
Something that I don't really get to do.
- Now, that's romantic.
- (BOTH LAUGH)
OLSEN: I think the '50s was the hardest
for me because it was like a warm up.
Once it clicked, it was a blast.
Down in one! Down in one!
Please eat before it gets cold.
BETTANY: I think what it did was it
made me think I've wasted my life.
I should've been on a
sitcom all these years.
I (LAUGHS) I just loved it.
I should have prefaced,
I'm a very shallow person,
so I really rely on people
(CHUCKLES) people applauding.
- Yes!
- Thank you very much!
- Thank you!
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDS AND CHEERS)
Thank you!
MAN: All right!
Part of the challenge in
producing a show like this
is that we really are making one
giant movie in the way that we shoot.
Each day, each week, we're shooting
pivotal moments of the series,
we have to make sure that
the larger story, as
a whole, is seamless.
OLSEN: We really created all of these
different characters in the town.
And we have our core cast.
Raspberry or cheese-filled?
Oh, neither for me, thank
you. I don't eat food.
OLSEN: We got the Davids.
We have Asif. We have Emma.
MRS. HART: What brought you here?
How long have you been married?
And why don't you have children yet?
So grateful we have Debra Jo,
who is sitcom-gold
and gets to be a part in our wacky show.
My, um, great nephew basically said
if I did not take the job,
he would never visit me again,
so, I Well, here I am.
She loved getting to film
some of the more Marvel-y
stuff that we did in the finale.
She just thought it
was fabulous. (LAUGHS)
I got to do this thing.
Oh, my God! I got to do
this thing where you
I don't know what it's called.
It's a body scan, okay?
And so you stand
I took pictures. It's amazing.
But I won't show them to anyone, Marvel.
Kathryn Hahn.
(CACKLES)
I don't know how I went so
long never working with her.
I've had the greatest time.
You're, like, a monologue
early, Kathryn.
I was feeling left out.
OLSEN: The journey with her
consistently throughout the decades
and how the Nosy Neighbor
is so prominent.
Spoiler alert!
OLSEN: She nailed all of the layers
that were required of her
and then went beyond.
- SHAKMAN: Cut!
- One more!
- SHAKMAN: One more! Still rolling.
- Ready?
This character is like
a blooming onion to me.
I mean, the fact that I was
able to start on the outside
and kind of move into the center
as the episodes go on was,
like, such an actor's dream.
I keep saying it was
like a Tracey Ullman
Like a Tracey Ullman special.
Well, I was just on my way to Jazzercise
when I heard your brand-new bundles
of joy were on a sleep strike.
HAHN: And the fact that her true center
was this fantastical,
incredible witch, was like
Who gets to do that? I remember
when it was pitched to me
And it's so exciting to be able to
say this out loud to somebody
'cause I have not been able
to say it to anybody. Um
But when it was pitched
to me, I was like
I could not imagine a part
in the Marvel Universe
that I would have wanted to play more.
(CACKLING)
(CONTINUES CACKLING)
- Oh, good times!
- (LAUGHTER)
- Good times!
- SHAKMAN: And cut!
- Did you hear that?
- No.
It was like a a
chattering sound, like
Oh! Like a
(MIMICS MACHINE WHIRRING)
Yeah.
That's my new ice maker,
built right into the fridge.
- Oh!
- (CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY)
You're fancy.
I have wanted to be in the
MCU since the MCU debuted.
I didn't even know what
I was auditioning for.
We all know Marvel is very top secret.
And I was just sent some sides.
I think it was the '70s episode.
So, I was very confused.
It didn't say it was
'70s, but it's high farce.
And I was like, "What do I
do with this? I'm not sure".
Because it's not Marvel
as my mind can process.
And so they sent notes like,
"Just overact. It's
okay, just go for it.
We don't care that you
don't feel that it's grounded.
That's not what we're looking for".
So, I was like, "Okay".
And I did some very great overacting.
Oh, sugar.
He hired me!
Oh! (CHUCKLES)
Wanda! I landed a promotion.
And now that I've gone all corporate,
I need some office supplies.
I just didn't know,
and I was like, "Okay".
And I let it go for, like, two weeks
because you can't hold these
things too close to your heart
'cause you will get heartbroken
so many times.
But this time, there was no heartbreak.
They called, and they were
like, "Hey, you got the part".
And I'm like, (GASPS) "What
part? What's the part?"
(LAUGHS) I went, "What is
it?" But it's Marvel. Okay.
Before they even told me what it was,
I said to my agent, I was like,
"Oh, my gosh, what if
it's Monica Rambeau?
What if it's Monica Rambeau?"
And then it was Monica
Rambeau, and I lost it.
And I practically tried
to jump off a set of stairs
'cause I thought I could
fly. I was so excited.
So, when we leave Captain
Marvel, Monica is a young girl.
She's got her whole life ahead of her.
- You have to go!
- Monica!
You've a chance to fly the coolest
mission in the history of missions.
And you're gonna give
it up to sit on the couch
and watch Fresh Prince with me?
I just think you should consider
what kind of example you're
setting for your daughter.
PARRIS: And when we pick up
with her in WandaVision,
we find out she now works for
S.W.O.R.D., as a astronaut,
and I feel like we've gotten to a really
great origin story for Monica.
Having the opportunity to play
Monica Rambeau is truly an honor,
and to have a Black female superhero
be on a screen is monumental.
(ALL GRUNTING)
Why didn't anyone tell me the plan?
It's been so amazing
to bring Darcy back,
especially in kind of an unexpected way.
You know, the last time
we saw Darcy, she was
still Jane Foster's intern
and kind of her friend.
We weren't really sure
what's going on with her.
Apparently, she's just been going
to college this whole time.
And now she's an astrophysicist.
My equipment registered an extremely
high level of CMBR. That's
Relic Radiation dating
back to the Big Bang.
Yeah, entwined was
a broadcast frequency.
So I had your goons pick
me up a sweet vintage TV.
And when I plug this bad boy in,
the cathode ray tube inside
plucked the signal out of the air
and decoded it just
like in the olden times.
Voilà, sound and picture.
DENNINGS: Randall Park,
obviously, is Jimmy Woo,
and it's been really fun to kind
of have us together in scenes.
They kind of have us
with Teyonah Parris.
There's a lot of dark, serious drama,
and it's fun to kind of
have that little break.
You can't go back into the Hex.
Worst case scenario,
Wanda removes my free will and
puts me in ultra-low-rise jeans.
I feel like it's like a family.
It's like a big family.
Just to be a member of
the family, it's really cool.
I mean, when I did Ant-man and the Wasp,
I was just happy to be there.
I thought it was gonna be a one-off.
Your school has rules, right?
Like, you can't draw on the walls.
Well, your daddy went to Germany
and drew on the walls
with Captain America.
And that was a violation of Article 16,
paragraph 3 of the Sokovia Accords.
Just to have Jimmy come
back is such a thrill for me
because I just love
the character so much.
And to have so much of the character
we established in Ant-man and the Wasp
with the magic and the tendency
to want to connect with people
and tell stories about his life,
even when it's not
necessarily asked for.
Like all those little
things, little seeds
that we planted in Ant-man and the Wasp,
they all kind of get to
blossom in WandaVision.
This isn't a missing person's case,
Captain Rambeau, it's a missing town.
Population 3,892.
Why haven't you gone
inside to investigate?
'Cause it doesn't want me to.
Tonally, WandaVision runs the gamut.
I can't even keep up myself
sometimes. (CHUCKLES)
I'm like, "Which world are we in now?"
OLSEN: For the first episode,
it's the '50s, and it's silly humor,
but it was like really
great physical comedy,
and that bleeds into the '60s,
the second episode, which is Bewitched.
Just mind your P's and Q's
and you're gonna do just fine.
OLSEN: The tone doesn't change too much.
Darling! Oh!
I think we still allow her
to just become more modern of a woman
instead of trying to play the housewife.
Well, thank you for giving me
the strength and the courage.
OLSEN: The thing that we loved
so much in the '50s and in the '60s,
between the marriages in those shows,
is that they were like really
funny and really honest,
and, like, lovely and
beautiful and felt in love.
- Should we put our heads together?
- SHAKMAN: Very cute.
OLSEN: And then we get into the'70s
and it just becomes
this, like, Brady Bunch
kinda creepily, like,
not grounded anymore.
Strangest thing just
happened outside with
Whoa, Nelly!
BETTANY: It's a surprise
initially that she got pregnant.
We didn't know that that was possible.
It's a magical moment
because she's, sort of,
suddenly six months pregnant.
SHAKMAN: If you could
lean in as much as
I have a belly in front of me.
Her pregnancy is progressing
at an alarming speed. (LAUGHS)
You're at about four
months now. Is that right?
OLSEN: I was so excited
to have an episode
where I went through every single stage
of my pregnancy in one day.
That was fabulous. (LAUGHS)
It was so perfect and funny.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
Vis
Yes, dear?
I think my water just broke.
We're doing this bit where I'm
trying to hide that I'm pregnant.
And so Monica is over, Teyonah's over.
And I'm switching all these coats
on and off, like, magically.
And I'm in the kitchen and
everything's kind of going
bonkers in the kitchen.
I'm trying to hide my belly from her.
And so, I keep magically
changing all of my coats.
So, we'd have to freeze.
And then someone would
come on and put on my coat,
then I'd have to freeze again,
then I'd have a contraction.
And there's a moment where
I had to do a double take
and I kept making it like a triple take,
and a quadruple take. (CHUCKLING)
I just kept, like,
amping it up each time.
And it was the moment when
Matt came up to me and he said,
"Okay, let's try and keep it
I think we're doing too much now,
let's try and keep it to a double take".
And it was the thing that
Matt keeps saying, like,
"Go further, go further!"
And I think that was
when I laughed so hard
because he was telling me to stop.
Vision ran to get the doctor.
He'll be back soon.
BETTANY: Baby's born, and I miss it.
But I'm there for the second baby,
and then, "Oh, my God, they're twins!"
So, yeah, we have twins, and,
uh, they're confusing, too,
because they're born babies, but
very quickly, they're toddlers.
Where are the twins?
- Mommy?
- Daddy?
Wha Did y
And then, very quickly, they are,
you know, sort of ten years old.
We don't think you'll be old enough
to properly care for an animal
until you're at least
(WHISPERS) Ten.
Ten years old. (CHUCKLES)
SHAKMAN: Look at each other.
- Well, now, hang on there a minute
- Wait, no, no, no.
- VISION: you young whippersnappers.
- WANDA: No, no, no!
- (AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
- (GASPS)
Let's just hope this dog
stays the same size.
This is the '80s, yeah. So
we designed one basic layout,
and then we've just changed
it through the decades.
So, this is still the Dick Van Dyke set,
inspired by Dick Van Dyke kitchen,
but now this is the '80s
inspired by Full House
and Family Ties
Growing Pains, all the shows
that we loved from the '80s.
- (BABIES CRYING)
- Now, I know
parents aren't supposed
to take shortcuts,
but I think this situation
calls for one, don't you?
SHAKMAN: It's funny now
when you look back at it,
it's a beloved generation and it's
also a self-parodying era as well
because you look at the hair and
the clothes and we all wonder,
"We really thought that was cool?
"How did we ever go
outside looking that way?"
It's almost like we're on a date.
- Almost.
- (CHUCKLES)
With two really cranky chaperones.
(BOTH LAUGH)
My memories of the
'80s, as a '90s child,
is that I still got to wear
these beautiful vests
and things like this
and had lots of beautiful hats
with big flowers on them.
I just missed it,
but the '80s were a horrible
time of style and hair.
But I really actually am partial
to this wig, I have to say.
- I'm
- MAN: It's fabulous.
I feel like I'm filled with secrets.
OLSEN: At the end of
the episode in the '80s,
to Wanda's surprise,
she gets a knock at the door.
It was not something
that she consciously did.
And so she's very confused by it.
And the knock on the door
is her brother, Pietro.
But he looks different because
it's Evan Peters. (CHUCKLES)
- TOMMY: No! Ow!
- Get over here!
OLSEN: And the character he
plays is like Uncle Jesse.
- Come on!
- (LAUGHTER)
OLSEN: Like, the cool uncle,
who's coming in to stir things up.
Right on, little dude!
Chip off the old Maximoff block.
You've got super speed!
- TOMMY: I do?
- Yeah!
OLSEN: And that's the trope he uses
as part of his relationship
to the sitcom land.
I can't believe what a
bad influence you are.
Who beefed in your borscht?
I'm just trying to do my part. Okay?
Come to town unexpectedly, create
tension with the brother-in-law,
stir up trouble with the rugrats,
and ultimately give you grief.
I mean, that's what
you wanted, isn't it?
What happened to your accent?
What happened to yours?
I'm thrilled. I'm such a huge
fan of the Marvel Universe.
So, I'm, like I'm
just excited to be here.
It's, like, the character
is so funny and meta,
and an interesting way to do it.
When Kevin was telling
me about it, I was like,
"Oh, that sounds awesome,
and hilarious, and so weird".
Long lost bro get to squeeze his
stinkin' sister to death or what?
(TV AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
She recast Pietro?
SCHAEFFER: For the '80s,
we're doing Family Ties,
Growing Pains, Who's the Boss.
Who's the popsicle?
And, yeah, that's my era,
so I am very excited for that.
And then also, we're having
our theme songs composed by
Bobby and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
You wander the world with a vision ♪
Of what life could be ♪
But then the years
come and teach you ♪
To just wait and see ♪
Matt's actually a friend of mine
from school, from college.
He called and just said,
"Okay, so you know Wanda and
Vision from the Avengers.
"This is a crazy idea.
It's like sitcoms,
and we go from the '50s, we do the '60s,
and every single episode
is a different style
and a different theme song".
- And we were like
- "Sign us up".
"Sign us up. You had us at
'Hello', man. That is amazing".
Oh ♪
A newlywed couple just moved to town ♪
A regular husband and wife ♪
Who left the big city
to find a quiet life ♪
WandaVision! ♪
But we decided, since
everything was so disparate,
there's gonna be a '50s
song and a '60s song,
and they would all have the
word "WandaVision" in them
WandaVision! ♪
WandaVision! ♪
LOPEZ: that we decided
to make a WandaVision motif
that would be able to be
used in a different way.
I played them through for Kristen,
but the first one was this.
(PLAYS TUNE ON KEYBOARD)
She was like, "That's the one".
- "That's it".
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)
LOPEZ: It could be the
'50s, where it's like
(PLAYING TUNE ON KEYBOARD)
Or, um, you know, the
'60s one, which is, um
(PLAYING PEPPY TUNE)
And the '80s one, which is
(PLAYS SLOWER TUNE)
The fun became finding a way
to hide that musical signature
somewhere in each song.
WandaVision! ♪
You look at the period, the
influences of the period,
and the instrumentation of the period,
and the language of the period.
LOPEZ: We talked a lot with Matt
and Jac about our favorites.
The things that we were all drawn to
became the things that we
tried to emulate the most.
We often talked to them
before we hit each decade,
at least for a half hour.
So, you know, we would
Maybe we did the '50s and
the '60s on the same call,
and said, "Well, we
know what the '50s is.
"'60s, let's talk about it". Um
And, you know, all agreed
that Bewitched in particular,
um, was a big thing.
But we also looked at James Bond movies,
we looked at Burt Bacharach
- We looked at, um
- Mahna Mahna.
what was going on in
the pop culture of that time,
and made sure that we
were really referencing
sort of that bebop jazz,
the cool jazz that was there.
(CHUCKLES) And also, just that
Swinging Sixties culture of the time.
WandaVision Wa-WandaVision ♪
WandaVision ♪
- (POP MUSIC PLAYS)
- (MALE SINGER SCATTING)
WandaVision ♪
ANDERSON-LOPEZ: The '70s
has a touch of tambourine.
LOPEZ: Oh, for sure.
Because we were referencing
The Brady Bunch and
The Partridge Family,
and any family jam band that
dresses up in fringe outfits
and travels in a groovy
van to their next gig.
But it's groovy and fun ♪
It's me and it's you ♪
Kristen and I have always
loved songs that go
(SCATTING)
(MALE SINGER SCATTING)
WandaVision ♪
(MALE SINGER SCATTING)
WandaVision ♪
One plus one is family ♪
WandaVision ♪
LOPEZ: The '80s I mean,
in particular, the '80s
is where we're all from,
where we grew up in.
After school, that's where we'd go home
and watch Diff'rent Strokes
and Punky Brewster, and
Right. I mean, our whole family life
was scheduled around Family Ties
coming on, or Growing Pains.
The one that they've done for
the '80s is by far my favorite.
I sing it all the time.
Crossing our fingers, singing a song ♪
We're making it up as we go along ♪
Oh, and then, with the aughts.
Wanda Wanda Vision ♪
ANDERSON-LOPEZ: We got to have
this wonderful collaboration
with the original riot grrrl
LOPEZ: Kathleen Hanna, the
lead singer of Bikini Kill.
And just gives it this wonderful
authenticity, punk authenticity.
Easy come and easy go ♪
But if it's all illusion ♪
Sit back, and enjoy the show ♪
We got to play in a totally
different kind of playground,
with a completely new set of references,
and show off other
things that we could do.
And we got to write things
that really didn't have to
carry a whole lot of story
weight, just had to set tone.
ANDERSON-LOPEZ: I think it's a
tone unlike anything I've ever seen.
It's fun, it's funny,
it's nostalgic, and it's creepy.
OLSEN: To jump off the genre blending,
even in the '50s and '60s episodes,
we have moments of Twilight Zone.
And instead of it being
moments of today's horror,
we take camera tricks from Twilight Zone
to make you feel off-kilter.
So, in order to get to
that cinematic feeling
or sense of something
being off in each
'Cause something has to go wrong
in order to advance to the next decade,
or else why are you changing
the scenario or the given circumstances?
And so we used Twilight
Zone tropes for that.
And then, for something like once
we get to the Halloween episode,
we're in this idyllic
town, it's Halloween,
it's like the perfect type of Halloween.
Truly the most charming costumes
I've seen on extras ever.
It was very, very cute.
And kids are wreaking havoc,
and it's just perfect.
Somebody better be
bleeding, broken, or on fire.
It was so fun to get to be
in these old costumes of the characters.
Why do you look different?
OLSEN: In Age of Ultron,
everyone referenced
certain comic books for me to focus on,
and told me, "Don't pay attention
to what she's wearing.
You're not gonna be in a leotard, tights
and a crown on your head. I swear".
And I was like, "Oh, thank God".
And now, the way we incorporated
the retro costume of the
Scarlet Witch on Halloween,
it gave me so much joy.
Like, if you were to ask me
seven years ago to wear that,
even if it were ironically,
I would be like, "Oh, really?"
But now that I've so much
love for the fandom
and so much love for the comics,
it's so fun to be in that costume.
I love you. I'm sorry.
(ALL LAUGHING)
And seeing Paul dressed like a wrestler,
he, it's just the whole It's
just he's It's so funny.
Thank you for humoring me and
wearing this ridiculous get-up, honey.
There were no other
clothes in my closet, so
I get to disguise myself as the Vision,
but the Vision from the comic books.
And it was my favorite costume
'cause it was so humiliating and funny
and I had a pair of shorts pulled
very high up around my waist,
and yellow Converse
to be my super-shoes.
When Vision goes out further
to where we call "Ellis Avenue",
um, I always told the kids
BOTH: Don't go past Ellis Avenue.
We know, Mom. We know.
OLSEN: That's the end of the Hex.
And so, the closer you
get to the end of the Hex,
the less control Wanda
has of the actual town,
and people are just
doing things by rote.
BETTANY: People are having
these repetitive things,
or hanging up Halloween decorations,
and taking it down, and doing it again.
And characters that you realize
are just less well drawn by Wanda.
And then he gets further out,
and he finds children trick-or-treating,
but they're just
absolutely frozen still.
Are those your children?
Are you waiting for something?
BETTANY: And that leads to the
denouement of the whole show.
It's so much fun to have gone through
all of these multi-camera sitcom stuff.
You're shooting in a
very familiar way, right?
Very static cameras.
And then suddenly, when you cut to
an angle that shouldn't be there
or a camera move that would never
It really, you really feel it
when you're watching it,
so it's a great storytelling
tool. And then, of course,
in the end, everything kind
of breaks down and becomes,
"We're in the real world, in an
MCU version of the real world".
(GASPS)
- Am I dead?
- No.
- Why would you think that?
- Because you are.
We are standing at the very front
of what we call "the pop-up base",
which is our military base
set up by S.W.O.R.D.
to investigate the anomaly
that Wanda has set up here in Westview.
So that's what this building is about,
a temporary structure
from which to observe and
deal with this problem.
We're in the Marvel world,
so in many ways, you'd expect we would
start with something a bit more stylized
and, sort of, you know, sci-fi.
But we wanted to make it
a little more realistic,
so we started with ideas
of what kind of military response
is there to a disaster, for example,
if it were a chemical attack,
or nuclear attack, or
something like that.
And they actually have these
response teams called CBRNs,
which go out and deal with
chemical, biological,
radiological and nuclear threats.
So it's sort of inspired by that.
Now, that said, the building behind me
is a complete hybrid, it isn't
Nothing exists like this in the
air force, in the army, or marines.
So, we made up our own version of it
to make it a little more Marvel-like.
What do we have up?
Radar, lidar, sodar, infrared.
Cycle through.
We're inside the pop-up base
monitoring the Hex,
which is what Darcy calls
the magical Wanda-world Westview area.
So, this is all different
kinds of military
and space-science people,
and then, there's my
little desk back there.
They gave her like
her own little corner,
um, where she's basically
cracked the "the magic".
So, you're saying the universe created
a sitcom starring two Avengers?
It's a working theory.
Darcy discovers that there's
basically an old television
signal emanating from the Hex,
from the anomaly.
And she goes, and she grabs an old TV
with a piece of rabbit ears on it,
and she picks up the TV show
that Wanda's broadcasting
out from the Hex.
So, what we do is, in each period
that Wanda iterates within the Hex,
we bring in those period TVs.
So you see late '50s,
'60s, '70s, and so on.
Everything might look fake in the TV,
but everything in there is real.
WORTHINGTON: What's fun
is just the contrast.
We started in this very,
sort of, light sitcom world,
which I had never designed
before, so that was fun.
But then, to then dive
right into, sort of,
straight-ahead MCU style,
visual style, acting style,
script, and all that,
just is delightful after
all of that, in a way,
just because, you know, "Is this
all in the same movie?" It is.
Which is great, but just
the design challenges
of having to go from that
to this, that's really fun.
We're at the town square
which is in Hollywood,
so basically, we see that in
six periods pretty extensively.
So much of it is a design challenge
to get all of that right,
to, sort of, express the period,
it's sort of unprecedented.
(APPLAUSE)
Part of the challenge is that we
don't have a shooting schedule
that allows us to shoot for
two days, go away for two days,
turn it around, repaint, come back.
We're literally doing
overnight changeovers.
Which means that we
have to basically define
all of the design changes,
all the pieces you're gonna bring in,
design them, build them, paint
them, prefit them probably,
so you know exactly what you're doing,
and everything comes in almost
like LEGO in a certain way.
All these parts come in
and go up very quickly,
'cause you've only got, maybe, 12 hours
to complete this turnaround.
ALL: "For the children!"
(GRUNTS)
(LAUGHTER)
(LAUGHTER STOPS)
(WHOOSHING)
OLSEN: The experience
of doing the finale
when Wanda, she has to
run through town square,
and she's looking for Agnes, or Agatha,
and all of the people in
the town start to wake up,
and surround her, and crowd her almost,
like, begging her to let them go.
- I can't take this anymore, Wanda, please.
- (VOICES OVERLAPPING)
Please!
(CLAMORING)
(SCREAMS)
(WAILS)
It was a very long sequence.
It had quite a climax.
AGNES: I mean, who is
the boss here, Wanda?
Heroes don't torture people.
OLSEN: Getting to do a wide like that,
it feels like a piece of theater.
It felt really satisfying
to do emotionally, I think.
And it just felt epic, like the
There's some moments when these movies
just feel like so cinematic on the day,
and that just felt really grand.
(WANDA GRUNTS)
- WANDA: Go, now, all of you. Go!
- (MAN SHOUTS)
- (PEOPLE SCREAMING)
- MAN: Run!
What's so special about this script
is that you don't actually know
what is coming from where,
and who is actually the bad person,
and when someone has ulterior motives,
and what's actually happening.
So, sometimes you feel like,
"Well, Wanda is the
bad She's the villain.
She has turned all of these
people's lives upside down.
She's the villain".
Then, you find out that, well,
Agnes is pretty terrible. (CHUCKLES)
She's got her own thing that she's
been brewing the entire time,
and kinda counteracting,
counter-magicking Wanda.
And then you have, um, Hayward,
he's pretty not a very
good person. (CHUCKLES)
And he's got his own
agenda that's throwing
Everyone has their own agenda,
and what's great is that at some point,
you see it all clash and blow up
into an epic superhero fight,
might I say. (CHUCKLES)
Last one to town square is
a walking pair of mom jeans.
- burden!
- (GRUNTS)
(GRUNTS)
Usually, I'm like one of
the only flyers. (LAUGHS)
Like, I'm the only one on wires often.
That is something I do
a lot in these films.
(LAUGHTER)
I mean, it looks like a blast.
OLSEN: And so, I feel
like it's the first time
Marvel has had to accommodate
for so many flying sequences.
And it was a real challenge
I mean, Kathryn's in
a ridiculous costume
that is very uncomfortable
to harness and fly in.
But we all just, like,
we're always harnessed
(LAUGHS) like, for the last six weeks.
We've been harnessed quite
a bit, and it was so fun.
It was I love flying.
I love doing all the flying work,
I really, truly enjoy it so much.
But we I think it's the first time
I think Marvel's really had to create
a full fight sequence in the air.
(GRUNTS)
(CACKLING)
I think my most gratifying was
when I finally put on Agatha's hero look
and was able to be raised up in
those wires for the first time.
- OLSEN: You look amazing.
- You look amazing.
HAHN: And feel those huge fans on me,
even though it was like a hundred
and something degrees outside.
It was like crazy just to feel
all the work of all these people
that had gone into collaborating,
into helping make her.
You're supposed to be a myth.
A being capable of spontaneous creation,
and here you are, using it
to make breakfast for dinner!
To play the good and the bad,
to play the wicked and the playful,
and to play a villain that's also funny,
it's the best.
There's more. I want it all.
OLSEN: When you're on these big films,
and you get all those pieces moving
that are in the world's control,
it feels really special.
Thanks for the lesson
but I don't need you
to tell me who I am.
The features, as you know, set
a very high bar for the look,
and for the effects to
supplement the story,
not overwhelm the story.
That same mandate for the features
was absolutely what they were wanting
to achieve for the streaming service.
Vision himself, he's
a digital prosthetic.
Poor Paul, we paint him purple,
and he has to go through
the day like that.
But otherwise, all the rest
of that is a digital effect.
Every time Vision's synthezoid,
that he's got a CG face,
(CHUCKLES) so we would
go back to Matt and say,
"Do you know, for this beat,
does he really need to be synthezoid?
Could he be human?"
And Matt and Jac would
often come back with,
"Well, he's his true self.
You know, when he's in his home,
we want specific beats to be synthezoid
even though they're visual effect shots,
just because it's who he is
when he's at home with Wanda".
So, we let the story determine
when we'd use the visual effects.
So when we translated Red
Vision into black and white,
he didn't really look like Vision.
We did tests using footage
from the previous films
as my first week on the job.
We knocked on a colorist's
door and said,
"Can we come and see
what he looks like?"
And we quickly realized
he would have to be blue.
UNDERDAHL: During the '50s and '60s,
actresses would actually
use blue makeup,
blue lipstick so their
lips would appear red.
And lo and behold, we
did the same with Paul,
found the right, uh, shade of
blue during some camera tests,
did a little additional
tweaking in the DI
and found a really good target.
What we got to was a place where
we really keep the performance.
Paul is Vision,
and so what we end up doing is
kind of painting out his ears,
and augmenting and
tracking CG onto his body,
but that's him.
UNDERDAHL: Wanda's
world is her safe haven,
so when the Hex takes
over the military base,
it turns into a happy thing, into a
a kind of absurd thing almost,
which is the circus, which is fun.
For visual effects, it wasn't
necessarily a complicated thing.
You shoot the A side, then
you shoot the B side,
and then you augment each.
We knew that the Hex
had to be a boundary
that kept the townspeople in,
but that was mysterious to
the people on the outside.
We decided early that it
would be more mysterious
if it was an invisible Hex.
And so it helped build tension
and we got to make it look quite cool.
We looked at all different manners
of film boundaries in the past
and decided that we wanted our Hex
to have the language of television.
So, we studied how magnets were
drawn on old CRT televisions
and the magnetization you
would get across the screen,
the pixelization you would get
when you zoomed way into an old TV.
The cathodic lines or those
skinny lines that you would see
in NTSC old, square TVs.
And so we went to photography,
and we found our favorite images
for what this boundary could be,
using the language of television.
Westview was meant to
be Wanda's idyllic town,
so that was a touchstone.
Everything about Wanda's home inside,
outside, and the town they live in,
came from this concept that she
recreated the reality she wanted
from her childhood, from
those television shows.
Really, it's executing a vision
to the standard that
Wanda would have wanted.
As far as TV goes,
there is an argument that
Avengers and the Marvel MCU
is the largest episodic
experiment ever, right?
Because it's like these shows
that then have spin-offs
that are interconnected
and then different
Until we culminate.
Spirits lifted.
BETTANY: It has always
been episodic storytelling,
so that didn't feel
that different for me.
What feels different is the
focus on Wanda and Vision,
which is really nice
after all this time.
OLSEN: I think the beauty
of what Jac Schaeffer,
and Mary Livanos, Matt,
and Feige put together
was a story that can only be
told in the medium of television.
And the way we're telling
it is a complete conversation
of American sitcom
hitting against the Marvel
Cinematic Universe.
For Marvel to take the opportunity
to do a television show,
and for the first show to come
out to be an actual love song
to American sitcoms,
is so perfect, and it's so perfect
for Wanda's character.
Dick Van Dyke again? Always
"sitcom, sitcom, sitcom"
The thing that I really loved
at the end of the journey
is, I think it's the first time
Wanda has really accepted who she is
and actually puts to bed so much pain.
And we find her finally
having peace and being okay.
I can't feel you.
I'm so excited now that we've
cracked open this other part of her,
so that there hopefully could
be more stories to tell.
It's been such a gift,
and so I really loved doing
this show. (CHUCKLES)
Cut.
MAN: That is a wrap on Lizzy.
VISION: I've never experienced loss
because I've never had
a loved one to lose.
But what is grief
if not love persevering?