Even though WandaVision starts off like any ordinary sitcom, it doesn't take long for a few cracks to start showing, and by the end of the premiere, it becomes abundantly clear that something is seriously off about Westview, the mysterious town that both Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and The Vision (Paul Bettany) find themselves currently living in.
Our first indicator that all was not what it seemed came about midway through episode one when Wanda and Vision are hosting the latter's boss Arthur Hart (Fred Melamed) and his wife (Debra Jo Rupp) for dinner. Things take a dark turn when Arthur starts choking mere moments after he begins questioning Wanda, while Mrs. Hart seemingly begs Wanda to "stop it." Wanda, of course, snaps out of it and Vision saves Arthur, but for viewers, Pandora's box has been opened and there's no going back now.
While it's easy to assume the two Marvel fan-favorites are trapped in some sort of an alternate reality, speaking with actress Debra Jo Rupp (That '70s Show; The Ranch) recently, she told us that everything we're seeing in WandaVision is very real and has very real consequences.
"Oh, I don't think - there's no playing, it's all very real. What you are seeing is very, very real. It's just that it's - here's the thing, the thing that I've discovered about Marvel is that there's something always behind something. Nothing is straight on, there's just layers of things and I got to play one of the first big "UH OH" moments, so that was really fun for me."
Well, that's certainly interesting to say the least. She doesn't elaborate on the plot point nor on which episodes we may see her in during the back-half of the series, but she did express how much she enjoyed working on the show and finally getting to play around in the vast world of Marvel superheroes.
"I kind of didn't know what I was doing (*laughs*), what I was stepping into. First, I thought it was a comic book, then a cartoon... and I was threatened by my great-nephew that if I did not do the job, I would lose him forever, so I took the job. I had no idea what I was walking into. The secrecy of the scripts, my mind was blown. The studio was a town, like a city, so it was like a little, tiny person walking into this great big world going 'Oh my God, oh my God."
The sitcom part was very easy for me, because I've done so much of it, so I think they let me just skip it (the sitcom boot camp) as I recall, so it was fun, it was good fun and you're right, superhero world is very new to me."
Jo Rupp, like many others before her, also found herself in complete awe of Marvel Studios and getting to see their magic at work, commending the level of detail and authenticity they bring to every project. She also shared an amazing behind-the-scenes detail about the standout kitchen scene from the premiere, which just goes to show how much of a different level Marvel is operating at compared to their contemporaries.
"It's very large, it's large, like even the ceilings are high. It's just very, very large, It's like a little town of big, huge superheroes with separate buildings for separate things. Ours is different because it's television, but the production values are insane, they're insane. I mean, everything was so authentic on the '50s set, what I would remember. I would look around and go, 'Oh, I remember that TV, I remember this.'
The thing that really surprised me is the fact that a lot of it is not automated like you think that it would be. All the kitchen stuff that's going on with the mixing of the - when she's cooking - those are men that are laying in kitchen cupboards, under tables, pulling invisible strings and everything timed. It's really amazing."
Check out our full video interview - which contains potential minor SPOILERS - with actress Debra Jo Rupp below!
Welcome to WandaVision. Coming soon to Disney+. Marvel Studios' captivating new series "WandaVision" stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, and marks the first series from Marvel Studios streaming exclusively on Disney+. The series is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.
WandaVision returns with a brand new episode on January 29, exclusively on Disney+