While Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) are longtime Marvel mainstays, this Friday's WandaVision premiere will also introduce a whole host of new characters that have been living (trapped?) in Westview alongside the two Avengers; the most prominent of which will likely be their "nosy neighbor" Agnes, played by Kathryn Hahn (Parks and Recreation; Bad Moms).
Speaking with Hahn over the weekend, we touched on the research that went into preparing to bring this very unique character to life, and while she's been billed as an original character, she still did her due diligence and picked up a few Scarlet Witch comics - presumably Witches' Road, World of Witchcraft, and The Final Hex - to get a better understanding of the lead character, who she'll be tasked with looking out for throughout the course of the nine-episode miniseries.
"I'm a newbie to this whole world, my kids definitely had to walk me through a lot of it, but I did read a lot of the comics just for my own edification. I watched a lot of - I read a lot of the Scarlet Witch comics, which were like 'whoa,' so dark, so much darker than I anticipated. What a story.
We also did a sitcom boot camp, like walking into it, so I watched a lot of old episodes of Dick Van Dyke or Bewitched, Brady Bunch, which I'd already done many times in my past, but it was really fun to be able to dig into those again."
As for what initially attracted her to accept the role of "Agnes," she says the wholly unique challenge brought forth by playing the same character over multiple different eras of television was an offer she couldn't pass up. She also alludes to some of the season's later episodes, as the veil begins to drop and we get to explore Wanda's immense grief following the life-changing events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"The idea of holding onto somebody through all these different genres while the social rules change, while culturally things change, while what's funny changes. Trying to shift while holding onto the same person through all those genres was A) a real incredible acting challenge and B) I think it was, like you said before, because I knew that this was - after doing the little research I had done at the time about Wanda - a show ultimately so much about grief and loss and family and holding onto family and that combination, that tension between something that is so charming and with so much heart and so funny can also be a space to hold all those other deep, deep feelings was a no-brainer.
I also knew that it was going to be something unlike anything we had seen in the MCU before, so all of that together was - I couldn't have in a million years imagined as A) myself having joined the MCU and B) making my entrance into a 1950s sitcom. It's like crazy!"
Check out our full video interview - which contains potential minor SPOILERS - with actress Kathryn Hahn 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 premieres on January 15, exclusively on Disney+