Disney+ has set a release date for WandaVision, its first streaming series from Marvel Studios. The show, which stars Avengers actors Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, will premiere Jan. 15, 2021.
Though WandaVision never had an official release date, the company previously had said the series would bow in December, but COVID-19 has upended release schedules throughout Hollywood. WandaVision takes inspiration from 1950s sitcoms, and finds Wanda (Olsen) and Vision (Bettany) living their ideal suburban lives, until they begin to suspect not everything is as it seems.
WandaVision launches a new era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as its streaming shows will directly impact its films for the first time ever. While there have been shows on Netflix and ABC that ostensibly were connected to the larger MCU, they were never truly integrated in the way that the Disney+ shows are expected to, with WandaVision leading into 2022’s big-screen feature Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and new characters such as the hero Ms. Marvel expected to appear on the big screen after toplining her own Disney+ show.
The WandaVision announcement comes on the first anniversary of Disney+, which shifted several high-profile series out of 2020 after COVID-19 delays. In addition to WandaVision, the streaming service had expected to have Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier for 2020, with it previously slated for August. The service is currently airing the second season of its breakout hit The Mandalorian, which was able to complete postproduction in the age of COVID.
WandaVision’s move to 2021 officially makes 2020 the first year without a Marvel Studios release since 2009, as big-screen features Black Widow and Eternals also exited the 2020 calendar amid COVID-19 theater closures.
Matt Shakman (Game of Thrones, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) directs WandaVision, and Jac Schaeffer (The Hustle) is head writer.
