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Students react to highly anticipated 'WandaVision' finale

March 10, 2021
Illusion by Maddie Monroe
Illusion by Maddie Monroe —

Since its debut in January, Jac Schaeffer’s "WandaVision" has been causing chatter amongst Marvel fans and casual viewers alike. Available on streaming service Disney+, this comic-based show follows events post "Avengers: Endgame" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU.

The miniseries revolves around the classic Marvel characters of Wanda Maximoff and Vision played by Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany respectively, and shares their continued storyline with the MCU franchise as the couple attempts to navigate life in suburban New Jersey, despite their unusual circumstances. 

As the show came to a close last Friday, Michigan State students had mixed reactions to the finale. 

Physics senior Kevin Raju felt it would've been nice to see the plot develop beyond Wanda's storyline but he understands that the theme mainly centered on Wanda and how she coped with her loss.

“For the most part the story is focused on Wanda, so that being said, there are some unresolved plot points a little bit ... but it wasn't really the focus of the show,” Raju said.

Besides the plot's emphasis, Raju was satisfied with the broad range of characters. 

“What I liked is that they also brought in a few of the side characters you saw... from Ant-Man she (Schaeffer) brought in James Woo, from Thor she brought in Darcy Lewis,” Raju said. "So I really liked some of that, and finally, the inclusion of S.W.O.R.D."

Raju enjoyed the show enough to sacrifice his sleep to watch it. 

“I’ve been watching it since episode one and in most instances, I can honestly say, I've actually stayed up until 3 in the morning when it came out and just watched it then, instead of just waiting throughout the whole day," Raju said.

Media and information senior Jake Fishkind also rearranged his sleep schedule for the show. 

“My friends and I stayed up until 3 a.m. every week to watch it as soon as it dropped on Disney+," Fishkind said. “We were in it.”

Overall, he enjoyed the way the length of the series allowed the characters to develop. 

“I thought it was great, it allowed MCU stuff to be a lot more character-driven than just a two and a half-hour long piece,” Fishkind said. 

However, internet hype led to some disappointment for Fishkind when it came to the finale. 

“The finale was weird because if I hadn’t been looking at all of the internet theories and things that people thought could happen in the show," Fishkind said. "I think I would’ve been a lot more pleased with it initially ... but overall I thought it was a great way to end the show.”

According to international relations junior Shelby Auterman, the series had a rocky start but she still enjoyed the finale.

“I originally didn't want to watch it because I thought 'Oh, it's just some random TV show,' a marvel one, who cares," Auterman said. “But I was told it was really good, so I watched it, and I got really into it.” 

She did, however, find the first few episodes somewhat confusing. 

“I was very confused by the first couple episodes,” Auterman said. “It wasn’t until they started adding those little scenes featuring the S.W.O.R.D. workers that I started to piece together what was happening.”

Auterman said she saw the finale as a teaser for some sort of continuation.

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“That got me extremely intrigued and got me very excited for what’s next,” Auterman said.

As of now, there are no official plans for a WandaVision season two. However, in Tony Stark’s own words, “part of the journey is the end.”

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