This article contains spoilers for “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, “Captain America:Civil War”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Avengers: Endgame”, and “WandaVision” 

The release of Marvel’s “WandaVision”, which premiered on Disney Plus on January 15th, has been a big success and one of Marvel’s most popular series. While there’s no plans for a season two, many fans are deeply captivated by and invested in the storyline, characters, and creativeness of the show. The show focuses on the life of Wanda Maximoff, also known as the Scarlet Witch, who first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Since then, Wanda has been through many traumatic events which ultimately break her character. WandaVision takes a deeper dive into Wanda’s character development and traumatic events of her past and creates a character who’s more human than superhero. 

Right off the bat, Wanda’s character is introduced with her twin brother Pietro in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s discovered that Wanda and Pietro are orphan’s, and their parents died to bombs that Tony Stark developed. HYDRA recruits and experiments on them successfully, and we learn that Pietro has superspeed and Wanda has telekinesis. However, when they realize Ultron’s motives are ultimately evil, they join the Avengers in the fight against Ultron. While battling, Pietro dies from saving Buckeye and a civilian child from Ultron. Grieving for the loss of her twin, we see a powerful burst of energy from Wanda, and she kills multiple of Ultron’s bogeys. 

In Captain America: Civil War, Wanda is seen again, basically trapped at the Avengers complex unable to leave because they fear that with her powers she is a danger to others. In this movie, we also see Vision grow fonder and comfort Wanda, seemingly the one who is closest with her. However, they are on opposing sides for the battle and don’t really have screen time for the rest of the movie. 

Finally, in Avengers: Infinity War, we see Wanda and Vision together in Scotland, living a normal life and not saving the world. However, Vision is made from one of the infinity stones, and two members of the Black Order come after him. Thankfully, they escape but Vision proposes in a scene later that the only way to beat Thanos and prevent him from getting the mind stone is for Wanda to destroy the stone, therefore killing Vision. After many failed attempts to prevent this fate, Wanda must go through with the plan and kill Vision herself. However, Thanos uses the time stone to go back and take the mind stone, causing Wanda to witness Vision’s death twice.

Wanda’s journey takes a turn for the worst and picks up with WandaVision, in which we see Wanda’s grief and trauma taking a great toll on her. Using her psionic powers, Wanda is able to manipulate and create a whole town/reality in which she and Vision are able to spend and grow a life together. The whole plot of the show is focused around the idea of grief and summed in a quote that Vision says to Wanda in Episode 8; “What is grief, if not love preserving”.  Wanda’s whole life is filled with grief and loss, and WandaVision did a successful job in portraying a superhero like Wanda preserving the inevitable challenges that come with  humanity. Everyone goes through some type of pain and loss, one way or another, and seeing Wanda struggle and persevere gives the audience a sense of comfort that they are not alone. “This is a story about love, it’s about loss, it’s about grief, it’s about how we move on from loss, something I think we all know too much about in general, but especially this year of the pandemic.” said director Matt Shakman. 

So WandaVision’s is not the superhero series it seems. It’s emotional depth and complexities of Wanda’s character is where its success really lies. Wanda is one of the most powerful characters in the MCU, but she’s repeatedly held back by her emotional instability and her human faults. You feel sorry for her, which makes you root and love her even more. While there is no season two, many are excited to see what is next in Wanda’s journey. Whether it’s a brighter, hopeful Wanda, which is highly unlikely, or a dark, tormented Wanda, she’ll be supported by thousands of fans.