"Previously On" is the eighth episode of the American television miniseries WandaVision, based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision. It follows Maximoff and Agatha Harkness as they explore Maximoff's past to see what led her to create an idyllic suburban life in the town of Westview, New Jersey. The episode is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. It was written by Laura Donney and directed by Matt Shakman.
Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen reprise their respective roles as Vision and Wanda Maximoff from the film series, with Debra Jo Rupp and Kathryn Hahn (Harkness) also starring. Development began by October 2018, and Shakman joined in August 2019. The episode explores Maximoff's history of grief to explain the events of earlier episodes, and also retcons the source of her abilities from the films. The episode is the first time in the MCU that Maximoff is referred to by her comic book alias "Scarlet Witch". Filming took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Atlanta, Georgia, including at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, and in Los Angeles. Visual effects were required for sequences such as the backstory of Harkness, the disassembled body of Vision, and Maximoff's creation of the series' sitcom reality and new version of Vision.
"Previously On" was released on the streaming service Disney+ on February 26, 2021. Critics highlighted the performances of Hahn, Olsen, and Bettany, particularly a scene between Olsen and Bettany discussing grief, as well as the backstory and the reveal of the "Scarlet Witch" title. It received several accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Plot In Salem, 1693, Agatha Harkness is put on trial by a coven of witches led by her mother Evanora for practicing dark magic. As they attempt to kill Agatha, she absorbs their magic and drains the life from them.
In the present day, Harkness interrogates Wanda Maximoff, demanding to know how she is controlling Westview. Harkness forces Wanda to relive key moments in her life, including when she and her brother Pietro were trapped in the rubble next to an unexploded bomb the day their parents died. In this memory, Harkness deduces that Maximoff was born a witch who engaged in basic hex magic as a child as seen when Wanda inadvertently uses a simple probability hex to prevent the bomb from going off.
In the next memory, Maximoff watches as she is experimented on by Hydra using the Mind Stone. When she approached the stone it reacted to her presence, showing her a vision of an apparition inside the Mind Stone. Harkness suggests that the stone augmented Maximoff's latent magical abilities, which otherwise would have gone undiscovered. Maximoff then relives a fond memory of Vision when they lived at the Avengers Compound, discussing grief and bonding over sitcoms.
After Vision's death, Maximoff visited S.W.O.R.D. to recover his body. Director Tyler Hayward showed her the disassembled remains but refused to hand Vision over. Maximoff drove to a dilapidated lot in Westview that Vision had bought for them, intending to live there together. Overwhelmed with grief, she used her powers to create a house on the lot, manifest a new version of Vision, and extended her spell across the entire town, turning it into the style of a black-and-white, 1950s sitcom.
After reliving these memories, Wanda hears her children Billy and Tommy crying for help. She finds them being held captive by Harkness, who mocks Maximoff for not knowing the full extent of her own abilities and using them to create a sitcom-style fantasy world in Westview. Harkness explains that Maximoff has been using powerful chaos magic, which makes her the mythical "Scarlet Witch". In a mid-credits scene, Hayward uses Maximoff's energy to activate the reassembled, all-white body of the original Vision.
Production Development By October 2018, Marvel Studios was developing a limited series starring Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany's Vision from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films. In August 2019, Matt Shakman was hired to direct the miniseries. He and head writer Jac Schaeffer executive produced alongside Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso. Feige described the series as part "Marvel epic", part sitcom, that paid tribute to many eras of American sitcoms. The eighth episode was written by Laura Donney, and is titled "Previously On". This title reflects the episode's structure and its exploration of Maximoff's past life.
Writing
Schaeffer described "Previously On" as a "therapy episode" that explores Maximoff's grief. Her overall goal for the series was to allow Maximoff to at least start processing all of her trauma from the MCU films, since they had never given her the space or time to do so, and this episode is dedicated to that process. They do this by having Maximoff literally re-live her traumatic memories with Agatha Harkness. Instead of just revisiting different moments from Maximoff's past, the writers wanted to spend time with Maximoff in each memory to give "space [and a] voice" to her grief. Donney acknowledged that Harkness does not have ideal motivations in the episode since she is acting selfishly, but she still serves the role of a therapist who says, "How did we get here? Show me. I'm listening. I'll go there with you." The writers felt it was important that Maximoff explore her past with someone else, even if it is an antagonist, because the episode is also about Maximoff "sharing her experience. It's testifying, in a way: being heard, being seen, being ."
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.
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. 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. 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". A later scene shows a memory of Maximoff and Vision discussing grief, which Shakman felt was the "center point" of WandaVision.
Ahead of the series' premiere, Feige said Maximoff's powers were never fully defined during the Infinity Saga, and the series would explore the true origins of her powers and how the Mind Stone unlocked them; "Previously On" confirms that Maximoff was born with her powers and they were just amplified by the Mind Stone, which was considered a retcon of Maximoff's backstory in the MCU. Phil Owens of TheWrap called this "huge" since all previous human superheroes in the MCU were believed to have been born without abilities, only acquiring them later on. Harkness calls Maximoff the "Scarlet Witch" in the episode, which Maximoff had not been known by in the MCU until this point. Commentators believed the "Scarlet Witch" name was more of an inherited title or lineage of witches, rather than a superhero moniker; recent versions of the character in the comics have also made this change. The appearance of S.W.O.R.D.'s white Vision was inspired by the character appearing as such in the comic book storyline "Vision Quest" by John Byrne.
Casting
The episode stars Paul Bettany as Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Debra Jo Rupp as Sharon Davis, and Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness. Also starring in the episode are Julian Hilliard as Billy and Jett Klyne as Tommy, Maximoff and Vision's sons; Josh Stamberg as S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward; David Payton as John Collins; David Lengel as Harold Proctor; Amos Glick as a pizza delivery man; Selena Anduze as S.W.O.R.D. Agent Rodriguez; Kate Forbes as Evanora Harkness; Ilana Kohanchi as Iryna Maximoff; Daniyar as Olek Maximoff; and Michaela Russell and Gabriel Gurevich as young Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.
Filming and editing Soundstage filming occurred at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, with Shakman directing, and Jess Hall serving as cinematographer. Filming also took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area, with backlot and outdoor filming occurring in Los Angeles when the series resumed production after being on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While filming the scene where Maximoff and Vision discuss grief, Bettany felt that Vision needed a line similar to one he says in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) about humanity. Schaeffer gave a suggestion that was adjusted by her assistant, Laura Monti, to get the final line: "What is grief, if not love persevering?" This line received widespread praise from audiences and critics when the episode was released. Editor Nona Khodai collected all of the available footage of Maximoff and Vision from the MCU films to reference when editing the series, which was especially useful for making sure that she was matching those films with scenes in this episode that weaved between them.
Visual effects