Previously On
"Previously On" | |
---|---|
WandaVision episode | |
Episode no. | Episode 8 |
Directed by | Matt Shakman |
Written by | Laura Donney |
Produced by | Jac Schaeffer |
Cinematography by | Jess Hall |
Editing by | Nona Khodai |
Original release date | February 26, 2021 |
Running time | 46 minutes |
Cast | |
| |
"Previously On" is the eighth episode of the American television
"Previously On" was released on the streaming service
Plot
In
In the present day, Harkness interrogates
In the next memory, Maximoff watches as she is experimented on by
After Vision's death, Maximoff visited
After reliving these memories, Maximoff hears her children
Production
Development
By October 2018,
Writing
Part of healing from trauma is sometimes having to go places in your soul and heart and mind that are hard and painful and that you'd rather not look at. We had Wanda literally visit these places [with magic in the episode].
—Writer Laura Donney on the episode's approach to exploring Wanda Maximoff's grief and trauma[13]
Schaeffer described "Previously On" as a "therapy episode" that explores Maximoff's grief.
The episode begins with a flashback showing the backstory of Harkness, which went through a lot of iterations to balance the needs of Marvel in establishing Harkness in the MCU with the needs of the writers in exploring her character and explaining why she is who she is in the present day. It was Schaeffer's initial idea that the flashback depict a witch trial, but the specifics of the scene such as who was on trial and who was carrying out the trial changed throughout the iterations of the script. At one point, a younger version of Harkness would have appeared in the scene to create symmetry with the younger version of Maximoff seen later in the episode, but this idea was abandoned to keep the scene simple for the audience and to allow Hahn to portray the past version of the character. Despite this, Donney felt writing a child version of the character helped her develop the emotions of the scene since the experience of Harkness's mother trying to kill her would have a similar effect regardless of Harkness's age at the time. Donney noted that the scene contrasts Harkness's trauma and her mother's death with Maximoff's own parents' deaths later in the episode as a way to show how different trauma can affect people differently. The writers compared the sequence to the opening of the earlier episode "We Interrupt This Program" since it throws the audience into a new location and tone for the series.[16]: 28:45–33:44
One of the most intimidating scenes of the episode for Donney was the early scene in Harkness's basement where she introduces herself and her abilities to Maximoff and the audience, before beginning the episode's journey through Maximoff's memories. The specifics of this scene's exposition changed a lot during development, and Donney struggled with finding a clear way to explain the new magical concepts that it introduces. Schaeffer suggested that Harkness demonstrate magical spells on a cicada, which Donney found to be an effective device.[13] The first memory that they visit reveals that Wanda's father sold bootleg DVDs of American sitcoms when she was a child. This helped form Maximoff's love of them, as was seen throughout earlier episodes of WandaVision.[17][18] Sitcoms shown or referenced in the episode include The Dick Van Dyke Show and its episode "It May Look Like a Walnut", I Love Lucy, The Addams Family, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Who's the Boss?, The Brady Bunch and its episode "Kitty Karry-all Is Missing", and Malcolm in the Middle and its episode "Health Insurance".[17] A later scene shows a memory of Maximoff and Vision discussing grief, which Shakman felt was the "center point" of WandaVision.[12]
Ahead of the series' premiere, Feige said Maximoff's powers were never fully defined during the
Casting
The episode stars Paul Bettany as Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff,
Filming and editing
Soundstage filming occurred at
Visual effects
Tara DeMarco served as the visual effects supervisor for WandaVision, with the episode's visual effects created by SSVFX, Framestore, Mr. X,
DeMarco used Vision's introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron as the definitive version of the character when approaching the visual effects for him in WandaVision. Bettany wore a bald cap and face makeup on set to match Vision's color, as well as tracking markers for the visual effects teams to reference.[34] Complex 3D and digital makeup techniques were then used to create the character, with sections of Bettany's face replaced with CGI on a shot-by-shot basis; the actor's eyes, nose, and mouth were usually the only elements retained.[34] SSVFX was the primary vendor for Vision in this episode, including the sequence where Maximoff sees his disassembled body. The scene was filmed with several mannequin body parts as well as Bettany lying on a table. SSVFX were tasked with designing the character's look for the sequence, needing to make the different pieces look like they belonged to Vision while also creating a design for his insides. They took the mixture of technology and lights that were briefly shown in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) when Thanos rips the Mind Stone from Vision's head and used that as the basis of the approach, designing and building the character from the ground up with skeletal, circulatory, respiratory, nervous, and muscular systems. SSVFX effects supervisor Ed Bruce described the digital model that they created as "quite an asset with lots and lots of feet of fibre-optic cables".[45] The reveal of White Vision at the end of the episode was handled by Digital Domain, who developed the model and approach for that character for the final episode.[46]
DeMarco listed Maximoff's creation of Vision in the episode as one of the most challenging visual effects of the series.
Music
A soundtrack album for the episode was released digitally by
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Salem" | 1:40 |
2. | "Witchnapped" | 4:49 |
3. | "Sokovia" | 2:10 |
4. | "War Zone" | 4:30 |
5. | "The Mind Stone" | 2:29 |
6. | "What Is Grief" | 3:53 |
7. | "Some Assembly Required" | 2:41 |
8. | "Genesis" | 6:07 |
9. | "Ready for Launch" | 1:24 |
10. | "Wanda and Vision (Love Theme from WandaVision)" | 2:32 |
Total length: | 32:15 |
Marketing
After the episode's release, Marvel announced merchandise inspired by the episode as part of its weekly "Marvel Must Haves" promotion for each episode of the series, including apparel,
Release
"Previously On" was released on the streaming service Disney+ on February 26, 2021.[54] The episode, along with the rest of WandaVision, was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray on November 28, 2023.[55]
Reception
Audience viewership
Nielsen Media Research, which measures the number of minutes watched by United States audiences on television sets, listed WandaVision as the second most-watched original streaming series for the week of February 22 to 28, 2021. 732 million minutes were viewed across the available eight episodes, the highest for the series at that point.[56]
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 95% approval rating with an average score of 8.10/10 based on 22 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kathryn Hahn looms large and seriously in charge of her craft in 'Previously On'—thankfully Elizabeth Olsen proves more than up to the challenge with her own magnetic performance."[57]
After being more critical of earlier episodes, Abraham Riesman at
Reviewing the episode for The A.V. Club, Stephen Robinson gave it a "B" and said a character-driven episode before the finale could have been a "momentum killer" but was glad the series could explore Maximoff's motivations and answer some questions raised since her introduction in Age of Ultron. He positively compared the series' small details and symbolism to The Prisoner.[24] Matt Purslow of IGN, however, criticized the episode for looking backwards rather than ramping up to the finale. Though he found some scenes to have emotional merit, for the most part he saw the episode as a recap of events that fans already knew. Purslow gave the episode a 6 out of 10.[21] Paul Bradshaw at NME and Christian Holub at Entertainment Weekly both felt "Previously On" left too many questions unanswered despite being focused on answering the series' questions.[22][60] Holub's colleague Chancellor Agard wished the creatives found a more interesting way to present the flashbacks than a "memory palace with many doors", which he felt was conventional, but this did not detract from the emotions for him.[22] In contrast, Den of Geek's Rosie Knight praised the skill of the creative team in how they moved between the different "worlds, moments, and atmosphere seamlessly" for the flashback sequences.[23] Alan Sepinwall at Rolling Stone felt this sequence took advantage of the series' place within a shared universe by bringing together ideas from different films that were not necessarily originally meant to match each other.[17]
Olsen received praise for her performance,[11][17][21][22][58] with Knight explaining that Olsen sold "every tear, lip tremble, and horrified gasp" throughout the episode and helped to depict Maximoff as a more nuanced character than in the previous MCU films.[23] Sepinwall likened Olsen's performance to her role in the Facebook Watch series Sorry for Your Loss, calling it "incredibly moving" and agreeing that the episode allowed her to explore the character in ways that the MCU films never did. He said the episode was effective because it took the pain of its characters seriously, and he believed that if Maximoff was to become a villain in the future of the MCU then she would be a "much more well-rounded villain, and one who feels far more complex than she's been allowed to be through her" previous appearances.[17] Shepherd and Bradshaw both also noted how the series was developing Maximoff further than the previous films had time for,[59][60] and Shepherd felt this episode "seal[ed] the deal" on Olsen's Emmy nomination after her already praised work recreating performances from different sitcom eras in earlier episodes.[59] Hahn and Bettany also received praise for their performances in the episode.[11][22][23][24][59]
Knight and Bradshaw both said the reveal of the "Scarlet Witch" title at the end of the episode was a big way for it to end,[23][60] as did Riesman who loved the moment but felt it may be "slightly baffling" to viewers who were not aware of the character's comic book history.[58] Purslow agreed, calling it an interesting ending but one that relied on prior knowledge of the comics that not all viewers would have.[21] Holub was more critical, calling the ending "pretty weak" since "we all know [Maximoff's] superhero name!"[22]
Accolades
Olsen was named TVLine's "Performer of the Week" for the week of February 22, 2021, for her performance in this episode, along with Lydia West for It's a Sin. The site admitted that Olsen had been worthy of their "Performer of the Week" for the entire series, and for "Previously On" they said her performance was "no less compelling, if tonally different, than her many weeks spent as a TV housewife". Olsen was able to portray her sadness in the episodes without saying many words, and her visit to Vision's corpse left an "indelible impression" on the site by proving that Olsen could "shatter us with her voice barely above a whisper" with her line "I can't feel you".[61]
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | September 11 – September 12, 2021 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score)
|
Christophe Beck | Nominated | [62] |
Primetime Emmy Awards | September 19, 2021 | Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
|
Laura Donney | Nominated | [63] |
Hollywood Professional Association Awards | November 18, 2021 | Outstanding Color Grading – Episodic or Non-theatrical Feature
|
Matt Watson | Won | [64] |
Cinema Audio Society Awards | March 19, 2022 | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Movie or Limited Series | Christopher Giles, Danielle Dupre, Casey Stone, Doc Kane and Frank Rinella | Nominated | [65] |
Notes
- ^ This style is how the series' first episode, "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience", is presented.[2]
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