Sometimes “The Making Of…” documentaries can be ho-hum. Very straight forward and technical. I was surprised by The Making of WandaVision, the first installment of Marvel Studios Assembled. But surprises are par for the course with this show. I think anyone who enjoyed WandaVision, especially the Marvel fans, will be entertained.
At the beginning we are told how the producers had a luncheon with Dick Van Dyke before going into pre-production. He told them about The Dick Van Dyke Show and how it was shot in front of a studio audience, live on stage and shot from beginning to end like a play. So producers Matt Shakman and Jac Shaeffer knew they wanted a live audience for the sitcom part of the series. This was all new territory for an MCU production. They have never done a sitcom much less in front of an audience.
The actors loved having an audience to play off of. Anyone who has done theater knows there’s a certain synergistic energy that happens between the actors and the audience.
The show also got into some of the special effects wizardry but not quite as much as you’d expect. We all know that wires are used from moving objects around to the exhilarating flying sequences. But one thing I did not realize was they didn’t use prosthetics on Vision’s face. He is put in blue make up with some dots on his face and everything else is put in through CGI.
We also get to hear from the songwriting duo who crafted the awesome title sequences, moving from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90’s and the aughts and still keeping the same tune…dah dah dah dah (Wan-da-Viz-shun).
Seeing and hearing the actors talk about how much they enjoyed being in the MCU was great. Teyonah Parris was already an enormous fan and she was extremely excited when she found out she would be playing Monica Rambeau.
Assumedly we’ll get another episode of Assembled for Falcon and The Winter Soldier when it concludes. I haven’t seen any word on whether they will be going back and making episodes on the films of the MCU but it would seem appropriate if only to keep the series going between the mini-series.