Jac Schaeffer opens up about fan theories, cut scenes, and love persevering.
Warning: This article contains spoilers forWandaVisionepisode 9, “The Series Finale.”
Here, Schaeffer breaks downWandaVision’smoving finale and opens up about fan theories, cut scenes, and love persevering.
Elizabeth Olsen in ‘WandaVision’.Marvel Studios
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you ever entertain any other possible endings for Wanda and Vision’s story?
JAC SCHAEFFER:The emotional arc of it was always what it was.
Those scenes were written very early and stayed pretty much as is.
Almost everything else shifted.
Did filming during the pandemic affect story in any way?
Not in a big way.
So there were staging issues.
So we didn’t take huge hits on stories.
It was just really challenging to shoot with the restrictions.
One thing that’s interesting about the finale is the moral ambiguity.
What we wanted was for her to be a fully realized human.
That was always the goal.
And thank you for speaking on that because it is tricky.
She’s done some really awful things, and she’s acted selfishly.
We had a lot of concerns about: Will the audience hate her?
Will they be with her?
The gray areas of all the characters, but especially Agatha and Wanda.
Grief also plays a big rolein Monica’s journey, too.
Did you always want to construct her story so that it ran parallel to Wanda’s?
That was always the goal, the grief thread of it.
base, and we talked about that, like, do we play that sincerely?
How will that affect pacing?
But as far as her power origin story, that shifted considerably as we moved forward.
It was really a question of, how far can we go?
What can we do?
[Director] Matt [Shakman] was really inclined to take it as far as we could.
One thing I loved about Monica getting her powers is that she makes that choice.
She’s notcaught up in some accident and inadvertently exposed to some terrible power source.
We really loved the idea that her power origin story is actually tied to her processing her own grief.
We have to talk aboutEvan Petersand the Ralph Bohner reveal.
From the beginning, was that always your plan to introduce him and have him be this Fake Pietro?
The thematics that were in play, we always wanted to illuminate how memory plays with grief.
There are studies about people misremembering people’s faces or blocking people’s faces as a protective measure.
It was always the dream to have Evan do this role, for sure.
Matt Shakmanspoke aboutreading all the fan theories and immersing himself in all the memes and discussions after every episode.
What was that like for you week to week, watching everyone speculate and theorize about X-Men and Mephisto?
[Laughs] It was so much more than I anticipated.
The theorizing just got bigger and bigger and bigger.
That was a little dizzying and disorienting, but by and large, it was incredible.
People were so invested, and their passion was so evident.
And people are so creative!
The fan art, the memes, the TikToks…
It’s a way of feeling a bizarre togetherness while we’re so isolated.
Has the reaction to the show surprised you in any way, given the environment it was released into?
Yeah, I think the depth of the response is greater than I anticipated.
It’s really, really beautiful, and it’s not something that I take lightly.
It’s something that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.
Were you surprised that it resonated with so many people?
I’m surprised that it became a meme!
You never think that [about] a line of dialogue.
I do remember the sensation of knowing it was right.
I’vetold this storywith Laura Donney’s blessing of how the line came to be.
It was a real collaboration.
I remember that sensation, and I remember Paul performing it.
That scene was about, retrospectively, Vision giving the Wanda the tools she needed to complete this journey.
Agatha’s not lying when she says the only way forward is back.
We’re all so much stronger than we realize.
[Laughs]I am interested in these characters.
Just as a fan, I want to know what happens next.
I’m very invested in them, and I love them and I love these performers as well.
