After what feels like one of the longest waiting periods ever – possibly in part because 2020 feels like the longest year in recorded history – Marvel and Disney+ have finally announced the premiere date for the highly anticipated limited series WandaVision. While we were initially 90% certain that WandaVision would hit streaming audiences this year, it looks like fans will be waiting just a little longer for the mind-bending superhero drama, which is now confirmed to be debuting on Friday, January 15.
Marvel made the announcement via Twitter with this quick teaser for WandaVision that plays up its television-honoring aesthetic, for which the cast and crew even sought wisdom from Dick Van Dyke. Check it out!
While the video above doesn't appear to give us any major reveals about what to expect from WandaVision's six-episode season, it does continue to showcase the drama's approach to tackling various Classic TV Eras with each episode. Not only do the still frames change on the TV in the teaser, but so does the TV itself and the surrounding setting. Things start with the old school black-and-white set, complete with turn knobs and rabbit-ear antennae, and while most of it goes full-color after that, there's that glitch that keeps things from completely going away from the black-and-white motif.
I also love how they hit their late '80s and early '90s with the smaller TV set that features a jack-o-lantern bucket for trick-or-treating. It appears just as Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany's Vision are rocking their comic-specific costumes, so that in and of itself could be an interesting clue.
For all the possible clues that could be embedded in the teaser above, what's more important is the fact that Disney+ and Marvel went hard on gearing fans up for a 2020 release for WandaVision, only to pull the wool over everyone's eyes by announcing an early 2021 premiere date. It makes sense from a marketing perspective for the still growing streaming service, considering it will be pushing The Mandalorian Season 2 throughout the rest of the year, with the final episode of that series landing on December 18. Considering the only Friday after that is Christmas, which is more of a Star Wars holiday than a Marvel one, Disney+ execs clearly thought it was better to wait until holiday festivities were finished before dropping WandaVision on audiences.
It's very clear that Marvel fans are desperately waiting to see the MCU kick off Phase 4 on the small screen with WandaVision, to be followed by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan's The Falcon and The Winter Soldier at some point later in 2021, and then by Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye series whenever those two are finished filming. Fans viewed WandaVision's first big trailer millions of times after it was released, and while it's disappointing that we'll be waiting even longer to see it start up, at least it's happening in the first place, right?
So now we finally know that Disney+'s MCU TV era will kick off with WandaVision on Friday, January 15, at 3:01 a.m. ET. To see what other new and returning shows are also hitting the small screen around that time, head to our Winter and Spring 2021 premiere schedule.
