Marvel Studios Ends an 18-Month Dry Spell When WandaVision Premieres in 3 Weeks

There are only three more Fridays until Marvel Studios ends an 18-month dry-spell with WandaVision, the first title out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since last summer’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. The inaugural Marvel Studios series and the start of Phase Four of the MCU, the Kevin Feige-produced WandaVision ends a 563-day gap between titles with its January 15 premiere on Disney+. 2020 became the first year without a Marvel Studios movie since 2009 when Disney bumped Black Widow, once planned for a May and then November debut in theaters, back to May 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lengthy wait between the Spider-Man sequel and WandaVision has “caused great, great anticipation,” Feige recently told Emmy Magazine. “The marketing team — the people who make our amazing films feel like events — they’re doing the same thing for our Disney+ series. That was something very important to us and important to Disney when we decided to enter this new arena. And it helps that each series is unique, interesting, and a new entering point.”

WandaVision kicks off Marvel’s biggest year yet in 2021, where the studio will release an unheard-of ten titles between January and December. Along with Black Widow, Marvel plans to open Shang-Chi and Eternals in theaters while fan-favorites like Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) return in their own “cinematic-quality” episodic TV series in later months.

On Christmas Day, three weeks out from WandaVision, a special sneak peek aired during the Disney Parks’ Magical Holiday Celebration welcomed viewers to Westview — the suburban neighborhood home to “unusual couple” Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany).