WandaVision

The first instalment of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its twenty-fourth overall, WandaVision is the first of the MCU properties original to Disney+ to be released.

Set some months after Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision follows Wanda Maximoff, inexplicably living in a 1950s sitcom with Vision, since Back From the Dead, in a utopian 1950s neighbourhood. But Wanda's Happily Ever After is not to be as things in Westview quickly start unravelling and an organization named S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division), founded by Carol Danvers' best friend Maria Rambeau and now handled by Trevor Hayward, takes an interest in their activities, causing cracks to appear in the little slice of utopia...

A limited series, the show ran for nine episodes from January 15th 2021 to March 9th. It is connected to Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Tropes used in WandaVision include:

• A Glitch in the Matrix: Vision quickly picks up on them, such as no one knowing his job, no children in the city, people being immobile when they get far from his house. Because Wanda is putting the "background characters" on a loop.
• Accent Relapse: Wanda's native Sokovian accent has largely withered away but it resurfaces when she gets angry.
• Actually a Doombot: Vision is not the character who died in Avengers: Infinity War. He's a manifestation of Wanda's grief, recreated through her power.
• Actor Allusion: "On a Very Special Episode..." opens with a homage to Full House. Elizabeth Olsen's older sisters Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, famously played Michelle Tanner in that series.
• Adaptation Name Change: The "D" in S.W.O.R.D. now stands for "Division" rather than "Department".
• Advancing Wall of Doom: The Hex in "All-New Halloween Spooktacular".
• And I Must Scream: As Vision discovers, the citizens of Westview are fully aware of what's going on around them but they are powerless to influence their actions.
• And Your Little Dog, Too: To emphasize how evil Agatha is, she ends her Villain Song with "And I killed Sparky too!"
• Amplifier Artifact: According to Agatha, Wanda's natural undeveloped magic would have withered away to nothing if she hadn't come into contact with the Mind Stone.
• Angst Nuke: Essentially what the Hex is. Wanda's grief at losing her parents, brother and lover made made manifest.
• Back From the Dead: The series opens with Vision somehow back from what Thanos did to him. Episode 8 reveals that Vision is just a manifestation of Wanda's grief. But Project C.A.T.A.R.A.C.T. involves rebuilding Vision's corpse and reactivating him. Westview Vision later unlocks White Vision's full memories, seemingly invoking this trope fully.
  • Subverted with Pietro. The series hints that he's Come Back Wrong but "Pietro" turns out to be an imposter.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Using the Darkhold causes Wanda's fingers to begin rotting, though her face remains spotless.
• Berserk Button: Wanda's is revealed to be someone mentioning Ultron, the killer of her brother.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Hayward tries but he comes short next to Agatha Harkness.
• Bullying a Dragon: The entire show is pretty much kicked off by Hayward's inability to not be an utter dick to Wanda.
• Comic Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Averted. Wanda is outright referred to as "The Scarlet Witch" by Agnes/Agatha.
• Composite Character: Billy and Tommy are based off their Earth-616 selves as well as Viv and Vin Vision.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The first four episodes set in Westview get a lot of mileage out of mocking tropes that were perfectly acceptable in those days but wouldn't fly in a 2021 television show.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The first two episodes, as homages to the 1950s and 1960s. "Don't Touch That Dial" ends by turning everything technicolor as the series moves to The Seventies.
• Demoted to Extra: Downplayed. The show is, broadly, based off the 2015 comic The Vision which starred... well the Vision as the lead. Vision is still a key character but is ultimately the Deuteragonist compared to Wanda.
• Easily Forgiven: Pointedly averted. The people of Westview have nothing but hatred for Wanda when the Hex collapses.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even Agatha is disgusted by HYDRA.
• Everyone Has Standards: When Wanda starts to understand the Hex, she does ponder keeping it up but eventually collapses it, conscious that she can't in good conscience Mind Rape a whole town.
  • Though Vision is furious at what Wanda has done, he understands that she did not mean to and is emotionally damaged. He forgives her soon enough and assures her that he understands her motives.
• Evil All Along: Agnes is actually Agatha Harkness, hoping to steal Wanda's power for herself.
• Express Delivery: Wanda's pregnancy lasts a day. And it's an Instant Birth, Just Add Water situation.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Essentially what everyone says about Wanda. Her grief is understandable and Monica Rambeau even admits that she might do the same to get her beloved mother Maria back if she had Wanda's powers, but at the end of the day, she is holding an entire town hostage because she's sad and depressed over her losses. That's not a valid excuse.
  • In Episode 8, Agatha takes the piss out of Wanda's Dark and Troubled Past. Her parents were collateral damage in a civil war. Instead of say, targeting those who fired the bomb, she thought the logical next step was joining HYDRA?
  • Monica calls out Hayward about using the Despair Event Horizon that was the Blip to justify his Lack of Empathy. The people that Thanos snapped away didn't ask to be snapped, so he has no ground for using that against them for their supposed naiveté.
• Friend to All Living Things: Vision. In the Halloween Episode, his only concern is helping the people of Westview.
• Gone Horribly Right: Wanda's recreation of Vision. She got a simulacrum of her lost love alright. She just forgot that he's a Friend to All Living Things who will stand up to her and defy her will if it means the common good.
• Halloween Episode: "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" It wasn't released anytime near Halloween, In-Universe or out, but it's one of Wanda's many beloved sitcom tropes.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Wanda's Heel Face Turn is complete but she ends the show hated by all of Westview.
• In-Universe Camera: At the end of the first episode, it's revealed that someone is watching WandaVision. Episode 3 shows that it's Darcy Lewis who picked up on the frequency of Wanda's "broadcasts".
• Lighter and Softer: The series still has the themes of overcoming trauma and family present in The Vision but the blood and gore is gone and the kids don't witness their mother beat someone to death.
• Logic Bomb: Mixed in with Tomato in the Mirror. Vision defeats White Vision, whose directive is to destroy Vision, by convincing him that he is Vision. As White Vision was born from Vision's reanimated corpse, minus the Mind Stone, he has more claim to being Vision than anyone else, especially when his Past Life Memories are restored.
• Manipulative Editing: Hayward's footage of Wanda breaking into S.W.O.R.D. and stealing Vision's body. She was allowed to enter and ultimately left peacefully. The instances of her using her power were nothing more than petty power moves against the Obstructive Bureaucrats.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Agatha thinks that Wanda subconsciously cast a probability hex on the second Stark bomb that landed on her apartment, preventing it from detonating. Wanda think it was just a dud.
• Ms. Fanservice: Episodes 2 and 6 show off that Wanda has Curves in All the Right Places.
• Mundane Utility: Wanda and Vision, two of the most powerful Avengers, are frequently shown using their powers to make sitcom life even easier.
• Mythology Gag: In the Halloween Episode, Vision, Wanda and Pietro's Halloween costumes are their classic costumes.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Episode 8 and 9 are essentially Agatha telling Wanda what she needs to do to defeat her.
• Not So Different: Monica identifies as this towards Wanda. Also grieving a loved one, Monica couldn't say she wouldn't do the same as Wanda.
• OOC Is Serious Business: When Vision starts to discover the truth about the Hex, he's apoplectic with rage. Wanda is actually stunned for a moment.
• Poor Communication Kills: What kicks off the first episode. Wanda and Vision notice a heart on today's date on their calendar and can't remember what it's for. Wanda eventually concludes that it's a Forgotten Anniversary but it turns out to dinner with Vision's boss, Mr. Heart. Wanda furiously lampshades that they Could Have Avoided This Plot if Vision had just written that.
• Reality Warper: Wanda's power has increased to this level. Everything that falls into her Hex gets reworked into something of the time period she's homaging. Though at seems that Wanda cannot permanently create something from nothing. Anything created from scratch (like her house and family) can only survive in the Hex.
• Reforged Into a Minion: After Infinity War, S.W.O.R.D. took Vision's corpse and began working on reactivating him. Once they get some of Wanda's Mind Stone energy, White Vision comes online.
• Remember the New Guy?: Spider-Man: Far From Home hinted that S.W.O.R.D. was a post-Avengers: Endgame successor to S.H.I.E.L.D. This show establishes that it's been around since the time of Captain Marvel, despite being unmentioned during the Infinity Saga.
• Retcon: "Previously On" has two minor ones to Avengers: Age of Ultron and Wanda's past. AoU suggested that the Mind Stone had given Wanda her powers. This gets a mild retcon to say that she already had predisposition towards magic, which the Mind Stone enhanced. An even more minor one is that the Maximoffs are shown watching television when the bombs hit, rather than eating dinner as the twins told Ultron.
  • Likewise, the tie-in comics for Ultron had Wanda and Pietro unaware that they had really signed on to HYDRA until it was too late to disentangle themselves from it. Episode 8 makes clear that Wanda knew full well that they had joined HYDRA right from the start.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: In "On a Very Special Episode...", Billy and Tommy go from newborns to five years old in a moment. Wanda has to stop them from doing it again later in the episode.
• Stylistic Suck: "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience" has the deliberately cheesy effects of a 1950s sitcom.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Conspicuously so. Only the FBI and S.W.O.R.D. are shown to react to the Hex. Possibly justified as Hayward would no doubt not want the Avengers aware of what he did to Vision's corpse.
• Squishy Wizard: For all of Wanda's power, she is ultimately as durable as any bog standard human. If Vision hadn't arrived just in time, White Vision would have crushed Wanda's skull as easily as breaking an egg.
• Sympathetic POV: Wanda is framed as the "Gray" of a Black and Gray Morality.
• Too Dumb to Live: After seeing that there's a civil war happening right outside their window, Wanda's parents decide to... continue on with their family television night.
• Took a Level In Badass: Wanda goes from vague telepathy and telekinesis to a low-level Reality Warper.
• Unskilled but Strong: Wanda to an unprecedented degree among MCU magic users. For Agatha to do even small-scale transmutation took centuries of practice. Wanda did it to a whole town subconsciously and with no formal training, while giving off magical energy on a scale beyond Doctor Strange. By the end, Wanda is Strong and Skilled.
• What Exactly Is His Job?: The first hint that all is not right in Westview. No one at the company can tell Vision exactly what they do. They don't manufacture, they don't buy, they don't sell but Vision has increased productivity by 300%.
• Wishful Projection: Monica shows shades of this. By the time Monica is trying to get S.W.O.R.D. to not see Wanda as pure evil, she and Wanda haven't had an honest conversation but Monica latches onto her belief that the two of them are Not So Different and is largely making assumptions about Wanda based on that. Wanda lightly lampshades in "The Series Finale" that she isn't the person that Monica thinks her to be.
• World's Strongest Man: According to the Darkhold, the prophesied Scarlet Witch has enough raw magical energy to put the Sorcerer Supreme to shame.