The cast of 'WandaVision' explains how the weirdest Marvel project came to be

WandaVision is perhaps Marvel's most ambitious project, a mash-up of Leave it to Beaver-esque sitcoms and Avengers superheroes Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany).

Olsen, Bettany and co-star Teyonah Parris recently spoke to Yahoo Enterainment about how this project, a television miniseries, is a departure from their usual roles.

"We also get to see aspects of them that we don't get to see in the Marvel movies," Olsen said.

"We're usually holding down this like emotional thread of love and sincerity," she said, referring to their roles in the Avengers films. But now, she said, they're excited for the opportunity to "be part of the humor and the jokes and the mystery, and we get to play so many different elements between the two of us."

Video Transcript

KEVIN POLOWY: You guys have to be the longest running current couple in the MCU now, right? Like do you take pride in that being the Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell [INAUDIBLE]?

[LAUGHTER]

PAUL BETTANY: Yes.

- You have absolutely no reason to be frightened.

[BANG]

- [SCREECHES]

- You were saying?

KEVIN POLOWY: Of all the directions Marvel could have gone with a Wanda Vision spin-off, I don't think anyone could have predicted a periodical history of American sitcoms. I don't think this was on anyone's bingo card. How did the each of you react when you first heard the idea?

ELIZABETH OLSEN: Knowing that it was going to be a TV story, and then Feige sharing that his idea was a vision in the suburbs, Wanda envision trying to be not found out in suburbia and trying to get on as simply as possible, their life happens to be an American sitcom with kind of Twilight Zoney element. And that just sounded really, really fun to me.

If you're going to do a Marvel TV show, you might as well make the format of television necessary for the storytelling. And so I just thought it was brilliant.

PAUL BETTANY: I felt relief because my contract was up. I just died in a movie. And I got a phone call from the boss saying come into the office. And you know what that means.

So I looked at my wife and went, I'm getting canned. So I went and I went, look, it's been a great run. Thank you so much. No hard feelings.

And they went, wait, are you quitting? And I went, no, aren't you firing me? And they went, no, we're going to pitch you a TV show. And so I didn't really listen to the pitch. I was just relieved that I still had a job.

TEYONAH PARRIS: Even when I got the audition, I was like, did y'all say this was for Marvel because I'm really confused? I don't understand.

And one of the notes that they had given for the actors when they were sending in their tape is, it's OK to be big. Too much is OK. It felt so antithetical to what you're used to and how you're used to being in relation to your fellow actors and to your space that that was a recurring theme.

[BANG]

- What was that?

[LAUGHTER]

KEVIN FEIGE: It's very directly from, as everything at Marvel Studios is, from the comics. The great storyline [INAUDIBLE] Wanda and Vision, together and apart, over the years, in particular the Tom King miniseries, The Visions, that wasn't about Wanda Envision. But it was about vision in an Android family in the suburban setting.

And I just loved the oddity of those covers. This Android family happily smiling in the doorway of a suburban house with a white picket fence and a mailbox. And that tapped into my own fascination and love with old television.

KEVIN POLOWY: Was that part of the intent to purposely make this one of the most ambitious, one of the most bonkers projects that you've taken on?

KEVIN FEIGE: The intention was to take what we love and what I grew up with on television and use it as a storytelling device, which led to us saying we didn't want to make fun of these old shows. We didn't want to parody or point out how goofy these shows were. We want to point out how moving these shows could be and how important they could be for people as they travel through their lives.

KEVIN POLOWY: Paul has said that this series has more effect shots than End Game.

PAUL BETTANY: There are more effect shots in our series than there were in "End Game." I mean, it gets epic.

KEVIN POLOWY: Is this true? Does it eventually get that epic in scale?

KEVIN FEIGE: I think it's probably close. I don't know exactly the shot count off the top of my head. I think it's probably close.

It's longer than "End Game 2" for as long as "End Game" is. They're nine episodes, "Wanda Vision." And every shot of vision is an effect shot. Keep in mind. So there's already a lot of effect shot you've seen those first three episodes.

KEVIN POLOWY: I don't know if it was just the pilot episode that they shot in front of a live studio audience. But did you get to experience that at all?

TEYONAH PARRIS: I did. I actually got to be in the live studio audience when they were filming that. So I got to watch Paul and Lizzie and Catherine up there. And that was so thrilling just with the audience.

- Are you using your night vision, vision?

- I assure you, my love. I see nothing amiss.

TEYONAH PARRIS: The audience came dressed up as well. Even our crew members were dressed in the style of the 50s. Everyone was really a part of it and really immersing themselves in this decade. It was really fun.

PAUL BETTANY: We were rehearsing. And we were doing all these big performances. But there was somewhere in the back of my head, at least, I was going, we're not really going to do it like that, are we? And then we did it in front of a live studio audience.

And you have to because there's an audience in the room. And you project past the camera to this audience. And at the end of it, I remember looking at Lizzie and Catherine and also Teyonah had come to watch in the audience. And I think we all just thought, well, I guess that's what the show is now.

And we've got to go for it. And I felt I haven't been so scared of doing that. I felt fearless after.

KEVIN POLOWY: Looking back on the first three phases now, were there any plotlines or moments from that first wave of movies, like the first three phases that you guys will freely admit that you were always confused by?

ELIZABETH OLSEN: I think you just name any of them and I might be confused, right? The only thing I know is this space I occupy.

PAUL BETTANY: My whole job when I'm watching-- when I'm at the Premier or Premier, as you say, is to not say out loud, oh, I get it now because I spent the whole movie going oh, that's what we were doing. You know, so yeah.