Exclusive: Preview Marvel’s Behind-the-Scenes Look at ‘Wandavision’

The first Marvel TV show on Disney+ was bound to be big, but Wandavision‘s combination of emotional depth, loving sitcom homages, campy comedy, and movie-level action made the show a genuine phenomenon. Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Wandavision — which debuts Friday, March 12th, on Disney+ — takes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show, from its conception to the intense filming process.

The documentary digs into the endless work that went into keeping Wandavision‘s decades-spanning sitcom segments authentic to their inspirations. Most strikingly, the first, Dick Van Dyke Show-inspired episode was shot live in front of an actual studio audience. In that episode, the magic Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) uses in her house happened right on stage via old-fashioned wire work, a la Bewitched – an almost vanished craft that the crew had to re-learn. (We also discover that Paul Bettany, as the Vision, had his skin colored blue instead of red for the episode – apparently blue reads as red in black and white.)

Related: Watch WandaVision on Disney+

The documentary delves into visual effects, costumes, and the development of all the characters in the show, from Kathryn Hahn’s delightful Agatha Harkness to Teyonnah Parris as superhero-in-the making Monica Rambeau (a character who first appeared as a child in 2019’s set-in-the-Nineties Captain Marvel). Songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, of Frozen fame, also show up to explain how they came up with the music in the show, including the instant classic “Agatha All Along.”

Wandavision was just the beginning of the MCU’s streaming onslaught: Friday, March 19th will see the debut of Marvel’s next show, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, starring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan.