Elizabeth Olsen Reveals How WandaVision Exceeded Disney’s Predictions

WandaVision was the first Marvel Disney+ series that was a runaway success. In fact, it was so commercially as well as critically successful that Disney

By Ishita Chatterjee
June 24,2021
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WandaVision was the first Marvel Disney+ series that was a runaway success. In fact, it was so commercially as well as critically successful that Disney penned a 3-year contract with its head writer- Jac Schaeffer. 

Now, Disney didn’t say what the exact streaming numbers were for WandaVision like they did for Winter Soldier and now for Loki. But this doesn’t mean that the show’s performance was mediocre. 

In fact, it was far from it. WandaVision ruled the streaming charts at the number one position in terms of viewership numbers. Also, every time a new episode came out, it trended on one of the biggest social media platforms- Twitter. 

Not to mention the fact that the song- “Agatha All Along” reached the #1 position in the iTunes Soundtrack chart. In terms of pop culture effect, WandaVision had a huge impact. But not everyone knew just how famous the show had become. 

Wanda And scarlet witch

One of them was lead actress Elizabeth Olsen. So when did she know that her show was a huge hit? Let us tell you about that below: 

When Did Elizabeth Olsen Find Out That WandaVision Was A Hit? 

Back in May 17, Elizabeth Olsen gave an interview on The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast. There she was asked the exact moment she found out about WandaVision’s popularity. 

The lead actress said that she knew about it when she was shooting for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in a small English town. Since she was shooting in a little town and that too for a different movie, so she was largely distracted and didn’t realize the cultural impact of the show. 

In fact, she says that she didn’t see any advertisements for the show where they were shooting as well. The full quote by Olsen is: 

“Well, it was odd in many ways. I was filming Doctor Strange 2, playing the same part, in a different country — I wasn’t even in a major city in England, I was in a small river town in England. It sounded like there were lots of posters and billboards and things like that in LA and New York, but I didn’t see any of that.”

The moment it clicked for her was when director Matt Shakman sent a video of a drag brunch that was WandaVision-themed to her and Kathryn Hahn in early May. Olsen says that: 

“And then I didn’t realize the cultural impact it had until last week when our director Matt Shakman sent Kathryn Hahn and me a video of a WandaVision drag brunch in Minnesota. I truly believe that you have to reach a certain level of presence in pop culture in order to be honoured with something like that. That’s when I started to realize, ‘Wow, people really did watch this thing and talk about it weekly. How cool.'”

Does Elizabeth Olsen Know About The Viewer Count For WandaVision? 

Since WandaVision was so hugely popular, the host wanted to know if Elizabeth Olsen was aware of the viewing numbers for the show. To this, the actress replied that the show exceeded Disney’s expectations for it by miles. She said” 

“When I first realized it had big numbers? Disney+ had projected a certain amount of millions of viewers they were hoping to have by a certain time, and it was like 100 million more or something crazy like that. I was like, ‘100 million?!'”

Marvel Studios Focusing On Social Media Reactions

It is endlessly funny that Elizabeth Olsen came to realize WandaVision’s popularity only after seeing a famous TikTok video of a drag-brunch that had fashion like that of the show. Know that this also reminds us of the fact that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently said that they will be keeping a close eye on the social media popularity of the shows and how the shows are being received.  

Now, since the Marvel Disney+ shows are getting a weekly release instead of a full one together like some other streaming shows, so it allows a fandom to build up. Also, it allows the show to stick in the minds of the general public for a long. Not to mention that it is a great idea to look at social media reactions to judge what people liked or disliked about it. 

When it comes to WandaVision, people largely reacted positively to it, and it spawned a lot of memes and discussions about the characters. So it definitely was a huge success for both Marvel and Disney and launched their Phase 4 successfully. 

You can stream all the episodes of WandaVision on Disney+ now. 

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