WANDAVISION Exclusive: Jac Schaeffer Details Breaking Down The Series & Pulling Off Those Huge Tonal Shifts

With a pair of Marvel Cinematic Universe outings in Captain Marvel and Black Widow already on her resume as well as the comedies TiMER and The Hustle, Jac Schaeffer is a pretty well-established feature film writer, so when she was tasked with realizing WandaVision, it should come as no surprise that she initially approached the miniseries as if she were working on a single, full-fledged blockbuster Marvel film. 

WANDAVISION Exclusive: Jac Schaeffer Explains What Makes The Scarlet Witch Such An Interesting Character To Write For

However, considering the massive scope and immense scale of the nine-episode adventure, she took her traditional three-act structure and broke it down with a room full of experienced TV writers to create what is arguably Marvel Studios' most unique and justifiably bizarre offering yet. 

"I came from writing features, so I couldn’t help but approach it like a big feature, however, it is more sprawling than that. We often talked about it as a run of a comic, that it’s an opportunity for a deep dive on characters that you might not have the opportunity to see in a larger perspective inside the MCU, so I think that’s the closest analogy that I could use, but then I hired a room full of TV writers and they - I hadn’t written for TV prior - were the ones who really helped me understand how TV writing works and it is very much a television show."

While the premiere firmly established the miniseries as a true television show, the major talking point thus far has been the massive tonal shifts we've experienced in each episode as the show has seamlessly transitioned from light-hearted sitcom to a dark psychological thriller before reverting back to the beginning as if nothing happened - something on par with what we've seen the likes of David Fincher (Fight Club; Mindhunter) pull off throughout his career.

Speaking to Schaeffer about designing all of these unique twists and turns, she heaped praise on Fincher, who she described as one of her personal heroes, and admitted that his work has definitely inspired some of her own

"First of all, you just said Fincher-level, and I’m going to take that home with me and tuck it under my pillow because that’s like the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. He is a hero of mine. I love that. All of his movies are total personal influences on me."

As for the tonal shifts themselves, which almost always come when you least expect them - especially in episode three with Wanda and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) - she explains how her intention wasn't ever to just create twists for the sake of having a twist, but to actually hone in on recreating that feeling of uncertainty that keeps you on your toes.

"Yeah, the tonal shifts - our theory was that if we could create an authentic sitcom, what everybody knows about sitcoms is that they end in a neat bow, they always end happily and perfectly, and we talked a lot about how in all of our favorite series, there were often a very special episode or an episode where they dealt with drugs or somebody dies or whatever and how that was always very unsettling, those episodes, for me, even more so than a drama because it was such a violation of the pact that the creators of a sitcom make with an audience. We come to a sitcom, shaking hands with the creators that it’s just going to be a lovely ride and we won’t be taxed and it won’t be hard.

So, I was really inspired by that feeling, I wanted to create that feeling, that feeling of being unstable and destabilized, I come from features, so I wanted it to have a cinematic feel to it, to feel a little bit like horror, a little bit psychological, and I think the closest comparison is The Twilight Zone and that show would so often lull you into thinking you’re looking at one thing and then flip the script."

Check out our full video interview - which contains potential minor SPOILERS - with head writer Jac Schaeffer below and don't forget to like and subscribe! 

Welcome to WandaVision. Coming soon to Disney+. Marvel Studios' captivating new series "WandaVision" stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, and marks the first series from Marvel Studios streaming exclusively on Disney+. The series is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.