"We Interrupt This Program" is the fourth episode of the American television miniseries WandaVision, based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision. It follows an investigation of the idyllic sitcom life that Maximoff and Vision are living in the town of Westview, New Jersey. The episode is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. It was written by Bobak Esfarjani and Megan McDonnell, and directed by Matt Shakman.
Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen reprise their respective roles as Vision and Wanda Maximoff from the film series, with Teyonah Parris, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, and Kathryn Hahn also starring. Development began by October 2018, and Shakman joined in August 2019. The episode is the first to depict the events of the series from the real world of the MCU rather than from inside Maximoff's sitcom reality. It opens with Monica Rambeau (Parris) returning from the Blip, which is depicted in a darker way than the comedic version of the event previously seen in the MCU. Filming took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Atlanta, Georgia, including at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, and in Los Angeles.
"We Interrupt This Program" was released on the streaming service Disney+ on January 29, 2021. Critics praised the episode for answering some of the series' mysteries, and also highlighted the episode's opening sequence as well as the performances of Parris, Park, and Dennings.
Plot Captain Monica Rambeau, an agent of S.W.O.R.D., returns to life following the Blip only to find that her mother, Maria, died of cancer three years prior. Three weeks later, Rambeau returns to work and is told by acting S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward that she will be assigned to terrestrial missions only, as her mother had directed before her death for anyone that returned from the Blip. She is subsequently sent to help FBI agent Jimmy Woo with a missing persons case in Westview, New Jersey. They speak to two police officers who insist that Westview does not exist, despite the town's presence directly behind them. Woo explains to Rambeau that he can not physically enter the town due to an unknown psychic force. They discover a hexagonal static CMBR field surrounding the town, which Rambeau is pulled into. Within 24 hours, S.W.O.R.D. establishes a base around the town and sends drones to investigate.
Astrophysics expert Dr. Darcy Lewis is brought in to study the phenomenon. She discovers television broadcast signals coming from the field and, using vintage televisions, finds the transmissions are for the sitcom WandaVision. S.W.O.R.D. personnel use the show to observe events inside the town, learning that the real residents have been "cast" as characters, Rambeau is "Geraldine", and Vision is alive despite his death five years prior. Lewis and Woo attempt to make radio contact with Wanda Maximoff. S.W.O.R.D. agent Franklin crawls through the sewer system in an attempt to enter Westview, but his suit is transformed into beekeeper attire and his tether detaches and turns into a jump rope at the edge of the static field. When Geraldine mentions Ultron, Maximoff violently casts her out of the town which Lewis and Woo realize is censored from the broadcast. The sitcom illusion disappears, and Maximoff sees her husband Vision appear as he did when he died. Horrified, she restores the illusion. Rambeau wakes up at the S.W.O.R.D. base and is surrounded by agents. She tells them that Wanda is controlling the illusion.
Production Development By October 2018, Marvel Studios was developing a limited series starring Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany's Vision from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films. In August 2019, Matt Shakman was hired to direct the miniseries. He and head writer Jac Schaeffer executive produced alongside Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso. Feige described the series as part sitcom, part "Marvel epic". The fourth episode, "We Interrupt This Program", was written by Bobak Esfarjani and Megan McDonnell, and shifts the series' perspective to outside the sitcom reality of the previous episodes. Schaeffer originally pitched it as being similar to an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, in order to shift the series to a new genre after taking influence from sitcoms for the first three episodes.
Writing
After the release of the series' first three episodes, Schaeffer acknowledged that they would need to provide answers to those episodes' mysteries soon. Olsen said the fourth episode would be "quite a shift. It's a really fun perspective swap and I think a lot gets understood at that moment." Schaeffer had found the central idea of Maximoff being responsible for the series' sitcom reality to be a simple concept, and felt it would be satisfying to fans to introduce it as a mystery first before explaining the story from the perspective of Monica Rambeau and S.W.O.R.D. in the fourth episode. She noted that this turned the episode into an "enormous info dump" for the audience, but hoped that all the answers would help viewers see the rest of the series as an "emotional and a psychological journey, rather than a sneaky mystery the whole way".
Because of the large amount of information that needs to be conveyed in the episode, Esfarjani had only a small amount of time to introduce Rambeau as an empathetic character. The writers discussed starting the episode with a more traditional character introduction sequence such as having Rambeau working out, training, or spending time with a dog, but they felt this lacked emotion. When the idea of her returning to life following the Blip, due to the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), was suggested, Esfarjani felt it placed her in the most empathetic moment from the MCU and sped up the process of the audience becoming attached to Rambeau as a protagonist while also quickly clarifying where the series is set on the MCU timeline. Schaeffer added that the sequence sets the tone for the rest of the episode while also digging into Rambeau's character by setting her up on a "rough road". As part of the latter point, the writers decided to reveal that Rambeau's mother Maria has died during the time that Rambeau had disappeared. Schaeffer said this was a tough decision since she has strong feelings about Maria and her relationship with her daughter from their earlier appearances in the film Captain Marvel (2019). Lashana Lynch, who portrayed Maria in Captain Marvel, was informed of this decision before the show premiered. After many conversations about how to portray people returning from the Blip, the writers and producers decided to set the sequence in a hospital as an interesting place to depict the scariness and confusion of the event from Rambeau's perspective. This is different from the portrayal of the Blip in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), which has a more comedic tone, and Schaeffer explained that Marvel Studios was happy for the series' tone to be different as long as the visuals matched with those seen in Far From Home.
For S.W.O.R.D. and their base outside Westview, Schaeffer was influenced by the film Arrival (2016). She was also inspired by series with structural shifts for moving this episode away from sitcom homages to provide answers and a different perspective; examples of these influential series and episodes include Russian Doll and its fourth episode "Alan's Routine", the sixth episode of Escape at Dannemora, the Girls episode "The Panic at Central Park", and Lost. Rambeau, Jimmy Woo, and Darcy Lewis represent the series' viewers since they are watching the fictional WandaVision sitcom and have similar questions to those asked by viewers of the series' first three episodes. Schaeffer described Woo and Lewis as "helper characters" with supporting roles in the MCU films and expressed excitement at getting to spend more time with them in this episode than was done in the films. Schaeffer's initial ideas for the series included the idea that Maximoff's abilities create cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), since in the real world that is radiation from the creation of the universe that is visible in television static. McDonnell did further research on CMBR for the episode.
Casting
The episode stars Paul Bettany as Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Randall Park as Jimmy Woo, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, and Kathryn Hahn as Agnes. Also appearing in the episode are Josh Stamberg as S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward, Alan Heckner as S.W.O.R.D. Agent Monti, Selena Anduze as S.W.O.R.D. Agent Rodriguez, Lana Young as Dr. Highland, and Zac Henry as S.W.O.R.D. Agent Franklin / the beekeeper. Archival audio from the film Captain Marvel of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel speaking to a young Monica Rambeau is heard at the start of the episode.
Filming Soundstage filming occurred at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, with Shakman directing, and Jess Hall serving as cinematographer. Filming also took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area, with backlot and outdoor filming occurring in Los Angeles when the series resumed production after being on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The episode's opening sequence features a choreographed one-er that follows Rambeau through the hospital as people return from the Blip, using a handheld camera and natural lighting from the hospital environment. Hall noted that they had been unable to use any of those elements in the previous episodes due to the "vocabulary" of their sitcom settings. Dennings found it difficult to act against the monitors seen throughout the episode since she only knew loosely what would be shown on them, with the actual footage added in post-production. She said trying to imagine the footage helped the feeling of solving a mystery. A practical stunt was filmed for when Maximoff throws Rambeau out of her house, with multiple breakaway walls built on set that Parris and her stunt double could be thrown through. An area past the fake walls was lit to match an outside environment, but the production did not have a long enough run to film the stunt that far so the change in lighting from inside to outside had to be created with visual effects.
Visual effects Tara DeMarco served as the visual effects supervisor for WandaVision, with the episode's visual effects created by The Yard VFX, Industrial Light & Magic, Rodeo FX, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ), Framestore, Cantina Creative, RISE, Digital Domain, and SSVFX. Rodeo FX developed the visual effects for the Hex boundary, based on the magnetization of old CRT television screens when brought into contact with magnets. The boundary is depicted as clear and difficult to see, as Shakman wanted it to be mysterious and unsettling for the audience. The moire pattern that can be seen when Rambeau touches the boundary was specifically based on footage that Rodeo shot of themselves experimenting with magnets and televisions. Rodeo also created Westview for when it appears in the background of shots in the episode. Supervisor Julien Héry said there were a lot of small details added to the town to make it look realistic without drawing attention, such as traffic lights, trash cans, and fire hydrants. Cantina Creative designed and animated graphics for the devices in the episode, including S.W.O.R.D.'s holographic table and monitors as well as the devices used to monitor the Hex's CMBR levels.