Elizabeth Olsen Dancing GIF Disney+
GiphySince WandaVision’s series finale on March 5th, the only content more pervasive throughout the fandom than plot hole debates is speculation over a second season.
Curiosity over a show’s renewal status is common, despite studios usually greenlighting additional season(s) publicly before the prior ends. When such an announcement doesn’t come, you can expect plenty of internet speculation and clickbait fueled by the desperate hope of mourning fans. Will Fleabag come back for a third season? The End Of The F***ing World was too good not to keep going, right?
What makes WandaVision Season 2 speculation unique is that it exists in spite of the show itself — with episode names, themes, timelines, and character set-ups spelling out the fact that it’s completely finished. The most obvious example of this is, of course, the final episode: “Episode 9: The Series Finale.”
It’s as if audiences, after weeks of trying to unravel the mysteries of WandaVision and the fictional town of WestView, have become conditioned to distrust appearances. Surely the title of the final episode was a meta ploy by Marvel, hinting that we’re all under Wanda’s spell to believe she closed the hex and the series is finished. Or maybe it’s Agatha’s spell! She’s too powerful to have been trapped by Wanda in the sunken place (New Jersey).
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To be fair, there are examples of studios and shows reversing officially stated plans for future seasons. Recently, renewals for shows like The Society were canceled due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, which also impacted WandaVision production.
Adding to the sense of possibility seems to be MCU producer/god Kevin Feige, who has been making statements that some (wrongly) claim could confirm a second season of WandaVision.
“I’ve been at Marvel for too long to say a definite no or definite yes to anything in regards to your question about another season of WandaVision,” Feige told SciFiNow+ on March 10th.
Kevin Feige U.S. film producer Kevin Feige attends a premiere of his movie “Dr. Strange” in Hong KongKin Cheung/AP/Shutterstock
“We are developing all of these shows the way we’re developing our movies… when we start with a movie, we hope there’s a part two; we hope there’s a part three. But we aren’t factoring that into part one. We are trying to make something that hooks people enough and that people enjoy enough and want to revisit enough, that they want to see the story continue. So that is the way we’re proceeding on television as well.”
Besides the obvious disclaimer that this is how all studio executives answer questions about future plans for their franchises, it’s also important to include parts of the interview that some publications covering the story leave out. Namely: “We’ve already said that Lizzie Olsen will go from WandaVision into the new Dr. Strange film.”
In other words, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Magic (tentatively slated for release on March 25, 2022) is the closest thing we will get to a WandaVision Season 2.
Further discussing the connection between these two MCU properties, WandaVision director and showrunner Jac Schaeffer told Variety: “From where I’m sitting, it’s been very organic. The acceptance arc was the point of WandaVision, but the falling action evolved. It’s a lovely way to do a handoff.”
In that same interview, Elizabeth Olsen was pressed on the subject of a possible season 2: “Oh gosh. I’ll just steal what Feige said, which is that’s not in the plan.”
Why would it be? WandaVision was all about Wanda and Vision (duh) — their relationship and her journey of grief and accepting his death. The show’s main conceit, a simulated reality of sitcom recreations via magic, was to allow these characters to reunite and finally say goodbye properly. And they did exactly that!
What would Season 2 be about if they aren’t doing the sitcom reality? If it’s not about Wanda and Vision moving on? It would be an entirely different show. If anything, the obvious next step for an extremely meta series built from repurposed sitcom tropes would be a spinoff. So until we see the Doctor Strange sequel, let’s stop talking about WandaVision’s renewal and start speculating about White Vision’s adventures in his upcoming spinoff, Vision’s Vacation (just kidding: As Head Writer Jac Schaeffer said, we’re just not supposed to care about that guy).
