WandaVision Showrunner On the Show’s Slow-Burn Mystery, Sitcom Aspects

WandaVision is keeping fans hung on its mystery and sitcom elements, and showrunner Jac Schaeffer discussed those aspects in a new interview. Schaeffer spoke with THR about developing and creatively guiding the MCU Disney+ series, which bows its fourth episode on Friday. You can check out highlights below:

On making the show a slow-burn mystery: “[The pacing] was always a question. It was mapped out pretty thoroughly early on. When I first got the job I reached out for advice, and a lot of the people that I spoke to were like, ‘The pilot is so important because you’re finding the voices and you’re finding the story,’ and that just does not apply to us. Because that’s not what that is. Obviously, these characters have existed, so much of the mythology exists, and it was all mapped out like a feature.”

On the show leaning hard into the sitcom aspect: “To [Kevin’s] credit – and it’s one of the reasons that I love working for him – he referred to it as ‘playing chicken with the audience’ (laughs). He really wanted to see how long we could hang onto it, and there was a lot of discussion about how long we could hang onto black-and-white because we knew we would go to color. That was always a piece that’s involved in the larger story. So it was really wonderful that he allowed us to really sink into the sitcom and to really delay the gratification.”

On the show’s big reveals being planned out: “When we were putting the show together, we knew sort of what a lot of the really big moments would be, and they’re mapped out. I wanted to start small. Kevin was 100% in for doling it out slowly. And I think he also has a lot of faith in the fans and the Marvel audience, that they’re so interested in paying attention and they know they’ll be rewarded, so we started out slow.”