So, were you disappointed by the finale of “WandaVision?” After weeks of hype and Paul Bettany trolling fans, Disney+ released the final episode of the Marvel Studios series on Friday and ended a fascinating story of trauma and grief using a synthezoid superhero and tons of sitcom TV tropes. Well, now that the show is done and people have absorbed the full story, director Matt Shakman is here to give a bit of a history of how the finale changed over the course of post-production on the show.
READ MORE: ‘WandaVision’ Season Finale: Love Perseveres, But Marvel Spectacle Persists [Review]
Speaking to Kevin Smith on his Fatman Beyond podcast, Shakman talked about his history in the film/TV industry and how he came to be the director of all 9 episodes of “WandaVision.” And apparently, his first meeting with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige led to a pitch on a project before his Disney+ series. But eventually, he landed on the first streaming series from Marvel Studios.
“I got a chance to meet with [Feige] and some of the other amazing leadership over there at Marvel,” said Shakman. “And then they brought me in on one project after that to pitch on before ‘WandaVision’ came around.”
Sadly, Smith didn’t follow up with a question about what project that might have been. So, we’ll never know what Shakman might have pitched before “WandaVision.” Alas, it all worked out for the director, as he helmed the entire season of the Disney+ series. But the pandemic, which delayed the series, also caused “WandaVision” to experience a bit of crunch time and led to some major changes on the series.
Perhaps the biggest structural change to the show is that the series was reduced from 10 episodes to 9 episodes. And the release schedule changed, where the series was originally supposed to release 3 episodes during its debut weekend and then go weekly after that. However, if they stuck to that schedule, the finale would have been delayed. Though, in hindsight, it might have been a better decision to release 3 episodes considering how the third episode ends with a reveal that all is not right in Westview.
“Well, yeah, things were constantly changing and getting rebroken. the story was changing, especially a lot of the real-world stuff and the finale,” said Shakman. “There was a lot of experimentation going on and sort of trying different things out. we also at one point had 10 episodes planned and we ended up collapsing a couple, you know just to make the rhythm feel a little bit better. but yeah, they constantly changed, and then of course, once we wrapped in Atlanta the pandemic hit and we ended up having months off so then further changes during that we were doing post-production and then ideas would come up and little changes would happen as a result.”
And if you watched the finale and thought that the supporting characters, such as Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), and Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), had their parts reduced from early episodes, you’re not wrong. Apparently, Shakman says that there was a whole subplot where the three of them would try to find the Darkhold in Agatha’s basement and discover that her rabbit, Scratchy, was actually a demon. But with the CGI taking a lot time and the show running out of time, things had to change and the story was altered.
Will we ever see those deleted scenes or will they be talked about part of the documentary that is airing on Friday? We’ll have to wait and see. For now, you can rewatch all 9 episodes of “WandaVision” on Disney+ now.
