Marvel Studios spends each year entertaining its core audience through various cinematic releases on the big screen and streaming specials on the small screen. It's a common practice for the Marvel Cinematic Universe now and it showcases just how much the franchise's reach has grown over the past few years. That success on the silver screen has been a fixture of the entertainment industry since 2008 but the franchise's full-scale journey into television only began in 2021. And it all started with WandaVision.
What a time to be alive for Marvel fans that was! WandaVision had us all on the edges of our seats on a weekly basis, as we watched the MCU's Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) living oddly normal lives in the suburbs. But the idyllic sitcom-appeal of the series hid a deeper mystery as all was not what it seemed in Westview, and the theories ran wild each and every week as MCU fans around the world tried to find every answer they could until the Scarlet Witch's Hex came down.
The Disney Plus series had a definitive conclusion that drove the MCU's overarching arcs forward while also wrapping up this particular story. It set a precedent for what to expect from the franchise's new wave of miniseries. But it turns out that this wasn't always the case as - definitive conclusion or not - a second season was seemingly on the table at one point in time.
WandaVision showrunner Jac Schaeffer doesn't do second seasons
Although WandaVision wrapped up its storylines in a satisfactory and definitive way, there was more story to tell through other titles. But, once upon a time, there was seemingly the possibility that it could have returned for another run. But, according to Broadway legend Patti LuPone when she appeared on Andy Cohen Live!, showrunner Jac Schaeffer decided against it as she doesn't do second seasons.
The star, who appeared in WandaVision's spinoff Agatha All Along, revealed that Marvel offered Schaeffer the chance to do more episodes of the series but she declined. LuPone commented:
"[Schaeffer] said, ‘I don’t do second seasons... She said, ‘They wanted me to do a second season of WandaVision and I didn’t.’
This was quite the surprising development as WandaVision was the series that arguably fitted the studio's miniseries mold the best. It captivated audiences for weeks before providing a satisfying conclusion to its mysteries that also set the stage for each of the main characters' returns in the future. Although Marvel has since changed direction when it comes to television shows, producing each project as a TV series with the potential for multiple seasons, this was the first of the miniseries wave, and it understood the assignment so well that few of the studio's miniseries have come close to achieving these levels of success.
The story concluded as Wanda Maximoff brought the Hex down, restoring Westview to what it once was and losing Vision and her sons in the process. The story was complete, and any leftover story potential (of which there was plenty) was continued in future titles. And yet, it's curious to hear that a second season could have been on the table, especially as this wasn't supposed to be Marvel Studios' vision at the time.
It's hard to imagine what a second season of WandaVision could have looked like as it was such a specific moment in time. If the ongoing mystery had extended beyond the first season, there absolutely would have been scope to continue the story in a sophomore outing, but given that it wrapped up so well and that Wanda seemingly learned her lesson at the end of it all, the seemingly-planned season 2 would have likely had to be extremely creative in a very different kind of way.
That's actually really exciting to think about.
WandaVision season 2 may not have happened, but the story continues in multiple spinoffs
When Wanda Maximoff left Westview behind, it became pretty clear that WandaVision was over. But the stories of the show continued on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe through various other movies and TV shows. The end credits of the Disney Plus series didn't signify the end, for it was just the beginning of a brand new story.
The post-credits scene of the show teased the dark path that Wanda was going down and that led into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness when the Scarlet Witch returns with a dark, unorthodox plan to to reunite with her children (or, at least, a version of them). The Darkhold that she obtained from Agatha Harkness multiplied her already-immense power, giving her access to the darkest of magic imaginable.
Speaking of Agatha, Kathryn Hahn return to the MCU to headline WandaVision spinoff Agatha All Along in what has probably been the most direct sequel to the original Disney Plus series yet. The ancient witch is still living in Westview under the Agnes persona that Wanda trapped her in, when a mysterious character more important to the Marvel lore than it seems makes their presence felt to take her down, down, down The Witches' Road. Released in 2024, it received critical acclaim and is widely regarded as one of the MCU's best titles, while the reintroduction of Wanda's son Billy highlighted that the stories from WandaVision are far from over.
Agatha is also a part of what is being called "a WandaVision Trilogy", setting the stage for the next title Vison Quest. Released in 2026, this one brings back Paul Bettany as the White Vision who flew off into the sky after he had his memories restored by the Westview Vision, officially welcoming the original Vision back to the MCU franchise.
Meanwhile, Monica Rambeau, a.k.a. Photon, ended up going on to co-lead MCU film The Marvels alongside Brie Larson's Captain Marvel and Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel. There were rumors of the character getting her own spinoff too, but even if that doesn't happen, her arc continues to remain one of the most important in the Multiverse Saga due to the post-credits scene of The Marvels introducing variants of the X-Men.
So, even though WandaVision's second season didn't happen, the nine-episode show ended up providing the MCU with some of its richest arcs throughout the Multiverse Saga. And the most exciting aspect about all of it is that the story is still far from over.