WandaVision: Wanda & Westview Citizens Initially Had Alternate Dispute
WandaVision almost had a creepier confrontation between Wanda and Westview residents, writer Jac Schaeffer revealed. Living the ideal suburbia life in the New Jersey town, Wanda and Vision attempted to blend in their neighborhood and hide the fact that they're super-powered beings. But eventually, WandaVision revealed that nothing was what it seemed in Westview and that Scarlet Witch had something to do with the oddities happening in the community.
The first few episodes of WandaVision tackled the titular character's life as a newlywed couple starting fresh in Westview. It took Marvel Studios a couple more episodes to reveal what's exactly happening in the series as it was constantly changing in order to fit the look and format of classic sitcoms. As it turns out, Scarlet Witch had taken over the whole town so she could live her fantasy life with Vision. The whole Maximoff Anomaly started accidentally as Wanda wallowed in her grief over the death of Vision. But as she lived the way she always wanted, she'd become very protective of the pocket reality she created, even if that meant holding Westview residents hostage.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, WandaVision writer, Jac Schaeffer, reveals that the final confrontation during Scarlet Witch and the Westview residents was going to be more of a zombie fight. Show creator, Matt Shakman, had elaborate boards for the scene but they needed to scrap it because of coronavirus. Read what Schaeffer said below:
In the episode, they kind of come at Wanda with their words, but initially there was a sequence where that was more of a fight. We moved away from that for Covid reasons, so I then had to write all that dialogue for them. And they’re all tremendous actors, so I think that was a win. Matt had these really amazing boards made where it was kind of like a zombie battle, and we were all enamored of that idea cinematically, but I think it ended up being more psychologically revelatory to hear them give voice to what their experience had been.
It's curious what this scene was going to look like, especially with Agatha Harkness also involved in the WandaVision final battle. There's a divisive response to how Marvel Studios handled this particular plot point as Wanda just got away scot-free from what she did to the residents of Westview, while most of them will have to deal with the psychological trauma of what they experienced. For what it's worth, however, the confrontation in the show effectively achieved what it set out to do — have Wanda realize the error of her ways. Without the massive fight sequence, it's quiet and subdued as the residents were unsure how to approach their tormentor; some of them were pleading like Dottie, while others were straight-up argumentative.
As for Wanda, Olsen previously revealed that there's immense guilt on her character's part for what she did to the Westview residents. This was partly the reason why she went into self-isolation as seen in the WandaVision post-credits scene. Whether or not Scarlet Witch will find herself face-to-face with her former neighbors is unknown, but there's a good chance that she won't be keen on returning to Westview anytime soon.
Source: Rolling Stone