Disney+ Review – Assembled: The Making of Wandavision

“It’s such a beautiful puzzle box.”

Peeling back the curtain on what is perhaps Marvel’s most secretive and convoluted project, the first episode of the new documentary series Assembled takes us onto the set and behind the cameras to see how the pieces of Wandavision all slid into place to make a groundbreaking television experiment that it’s fair to say has been quite a large success.

Listening to all the big players in the show, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Teyonah Parris, Kathryn Hahn, and Kat Dennings talk about their time filming, expanding their characters and opening up and embracing the unique experience really provides a new layer to the production that doesn’t always come through when you’re watching the show. Whether it be Bettany enjoying his ‘fake butt’ or Olsen revelling in being able to tackle strong comedic elements in her performance, listening to how much fun the cast and crew had in putting Wandavision together is as satisfying as it was trying to piece together the secrets of the show’s narrative each week. The documentary special walks the audience through the process of how the many facets of the show intertwine, including filming in front of a real live audience, implementing subtle CGI, following the ‘rules’ of sitcom television and choreographing more airborne fight sequences than ever before and it’s no surprise to see how much effort was put into making everything appear as seamless as it does.

After there being what feels like such a long gap between the last time we saw Wanda and Vision on our screens and the show’s first episode, it’s surreal to see Olsen and Bettany relive their MCU journeys through Assembled, both of them seem to have grown so much into their characters that it’s difficult to imagine anyone else ever playing them, or an MCU without either of them.

When the cast and crew are as excited as everyone was making Wandavision is, it makes the show more enjoyable from a meta point of view, it gives you more respect for the actors who truly love their craft and aren’t just working for a paycheck, and I mean, do these people not have the best jobs? And they know it.

If you loved Wandavision and wonder how it all came together, (and no it wasn’t Agatha all along) Assembled‘s first episode will definitely be worth your time, it feels like a great way to close the gap between the end of Wandavision that left so many questions and seemed to go as quickly as it came, and next week’s premiere of Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

The first episode of Assembled is now streaming on Disney+