WandaVision is still one of my favorite shows ever released within the MCU, but now I’m kind of glad it wasn’t renewed for a second season. While the Defenders Saga, comprising such Netflix-based shows as Daredevil and Jessica Jones, has now been confirmed as MCU canon, WandaVision was the first series to be exclusively developed by Marvel Studios with its MCU canonicity baked in. I think it’s safe to say that the studio hit the ground running with WandaVision, which was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and became Disney+’s most-watched season premiere.
The impact of WandaVision on the wider MCU was pretty vast. It debuted a litany of new MCU heroes as well as the instantly likable MCU villain, Agatha Harkness. Agatha proved to be so popular, in fact, that Marvel Studios saw fit to bequeath the character with her own spinoff series in 2024’s Agatha All Along, with WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer back at the helm. As such, Agatha All Along would become the spiritual sequel to WandaVision, and it fell to one of its own beloved stars to clarify why WandaVision season 2 never happened.
Jac Schaeffer Asserted She Doesn’t Do Second Seasons
Patti LuPone portrays Lilia Calderu in Agatha All Along, the divination witch who stars in one of the best episodes of television that Marvel has ever created. Agatha All Along episode 7 ends with Lilia’s heartrending death in an epic moment of self-sacrifice. LuPone revealed in an interview with Andy Cohen on his Sirius XM podcast that Jac Schaeffer approached her to inform her of Lilia’s upcoming death, to which LuPone responded that she had hoped to work on a second season. Schaeffer replied “I don’t do second seasons,” before revealing she turned down WandaVision season 2.
“Jac Schaeffer, the creator, came into my trailer and she said, ‘Patti, I’m just here to tell you that Lilia’s going to die,’ and I went, ‘But I wanted a second season…’ [Schaeffer] said, ‘I don’t do second seasons. She said, ‘They wanted me to do a second season of Wanda Vision and I didn’t.’ She said, ‘There’s too much to write,’ so she does one-offs and I’m really hoping and praying that someday I get to work with her again because she’s magic.”
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Will Agatha All Along Season 2 Happen? Everything We Know
Questions surrounding whether Agatha All Along will get a season 2 have emerged since well before the Marvel Cinematic Universe show’s release.
I think Schaeffer makes a good point. The introduction of so many strong characters and the progress of the Multiverse Saga’s overarching narrative make focusing on just one character for multiple seasons practically impossible and difficult to justify. While Agatha All Along was initially met with an air of trepidation due to the relative obscurity of its stars, I think we can all agree that it turned out to be an exceptionally valuable addition to the MCU. WandaVision, meanwhile, was a perfectly rounded story for which a second season could only be justified with a particularly strong vision.
WandaVision Ending At Season 1 Had Benefits For 2 Other MCU Releases
WandaVision Spotlighted Two Excellent MCU Contributors
It is much easier to accept that WandaVision could only run for a single season knowing that it had such a positive impact on the wider MCU. After proving herself to be a valuable asset for her work on WandaVision, Jac Schaeffer would proceed to work her magic on Agatha All Along, to the benefit of MCU fans everywhere. Agatha All Along is now one of the best MCU shows and proved to be just as much of a vehicle for Wiccan, one of the foremost Young Avengers, as it was for Agatha.
Jac Schaeffer also worked on the stories for Captain Marvel and Black Widow, though is uncredited for the former.
WandaVision director, Matt Shackman, has also gone on to make huge contributions to the MCU. After cutting his teeth on WandaVision, Shackman returned to the MCU to direct The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is due to be released on July 25 this year. This has helped to boost my confidence in the highly anticipated Fantastic Four debut based on the proven quality of Shackman’s past work in WandaVision. There is immense pressure on Shackman to get this particular project right, but I think WandaVision is precisely why Marvel Studios considered him the right person for the job.
I’m Not Sure WandaVision Season 2 Could Have Ever Lived Up To The First Season
WandaVision Was A Self-Contained Story
There is something to be said for showing restraint when it comes to such lauded productions as WandaVision. Within just eight episodes, it debuted two Young Avengers-to-be, Billy and Tommy Maximoff, bestowed Monica Rambeau with her electromagnetic powers, brought Vision back in a new white-and-blue body, and turned Agatha Harkness into an unexpected MCU fan-favorite. With so much going on in just one season, all impacting the wider MCU so significantly, I find it hard to see how a second season could build upon that.
The heart-wrenching finale in which Wanda relinquishes the family she created out of desperation would have been significantly diminished with a second season that would presumably revisit the same themes.
It’s also hard to see how WandaVision could continue its television-themed throughline after the WandaVision season finale. The heart-wrenching finale in which Wanda relinquishes the family she created out of desperation would have been significantly diminished with a second season that would presumably revisit the same themes. Instead, I think the current structure of treating shows like Agatha All Along and Vision’s upcoming solo series as sequels is a far better way of progressing the stories of WandaVision‘s main characters.
WandaVision
- Release Date
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March 16, 2021
- Episode Number
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11
- Season
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Honest Trailers – Season 10
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Source: Sirius XM
