"After the 2026 Golden Globes, Hamnet director Chloe Zhao was asked what message she wanted viewers to take away from her work. "What is grief, but love persevering?," she answered, while the cast nodded in agreement. It sounds like a beautiful maxim from Shakespeare itself, but it actually came from the Marvel Cinematic Universe - something Zhao would know, as she herself made an MCU movie. Its origin, Jac Schaeffer's show WandaVision, was the first MCU TV show to premiere on Disney+, and it set a high bar for the rest of the franchise - one that sparked a movie, two spinoff series, and countless comparisons to other shows."
"WandaVision was able to incoporate many meta references thanks to the Hex Wanda put on Westview. Marvel Studios WandaVision has a simple premise: forced to face the loss of her love, Vision (Paul Bettany), Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) instead dives deep into denial, using magic to create a nostalgic, black-and-white world where she can live the idyllic suburban life with Vision without any concern. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) investigate a weird anomaly in New Jersey."
"WandaVision begins as just a classic black-and-white sitcom in the vein of I Love Lucy, but episode by episode, the format of the show is updated to a send-up of 1970s Brady Bunch, to 1990s Full House, all the way up to modern sitcoms like Modern Family, complete with talking head interviews. In this TV fever dream, Wanda and Vision get married, start a family with their twin boys, Billy and Tommy, and get up to hijinks with their neighbor. But, as everyone was humming in 2021, the villain was their neighbor Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) all along."
The phrase "What is grief, but love persevering?" originates in the MCU series WandaVision. Wanda Maximoff faces Vision's death by conjuring a Hex that turns Westview into a nostalgic sitcom reality, living an idyllic suburban life with a recreated Vision. The show unfolds through successive television eras, from black-and-white I Love Lucy homages to modern mockumentary styles, and populates the mystery with investigators Jimmy Woo, Darcy Lewis, and Monica Rambeau probing a strange New Jersey anomaly. The series reveals Agatha Harkness as a hidden antagonist and culminates in a final episode that shifts back into conventional Marvel action while celebrating television history and layered Easter eggs.
Read at Inverse
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