"Breaking the Fourth Wall" is the seventh episode of the American television miniseries WandaVision, based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision. It follows the couple inside the town of Westview, New Jersey, as their idyllic suburban life begins to unravel. The episode is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. It was written by Cameron Squires and directed by Matt Shakman.
Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their respective roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision from the film series, with Teyonah Parris, Evan Peters, Randall Park, Debra Jo Rupp, Kat Dennings, and Kathryn Hahn also starring. Development began by October 2018, and Shakman joined in August 2019. The episode pays homage to sitcoms of the mid-to-late 2000s and 2010s such as Modern Family, and reveals that Hahn's character is Agatha Harkness with the end theme song "Agatha All Along" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Filming took place in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Atlanta, Georgia, including at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, and in Los Angeles.
"Breaking the Fourth Wall" was released on the streaming service Disney+ on February 19, 2021. Highlights for critics included Olsen's performance, the character development of Monica Rambeau, Hahn's character reveal, and the "Agatha All Along" song, which won a Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Plot In a late 2000s setting, Wanda Maximoff decides to have a day to herself. Agnes agrees to babysit Billy and Tommy and takes them to her house. Vision wakes up in a circus run by S.W.O.R.D. agents who are under Maximoff's spell. He finds Darcy Lewis, frees her from the spell, and learns about his death and the events that led to the current situation from her. Maximoff sees various parts of her house constantly reverting to prior iterations from older 'episodes' and is unable to control them. Vision and Lewis's journey back to his house is continuously interrupted at a junction point, leading Vision to assume that Maximoff is preventing him from returning home. However, he also realizes that his wife needs him and flies the rest of the way, leaving Lewis behind.
Outside Westview, Monica Rambeau and Jimmy Woo meet with S.W.O.R.D. personnel who are loyal to Rambeau's late mother rather than Director Tyler Hayward and obtain a vehicle that should be able to cross the barrier. The mission is unsuccessful, as half of the vehicle transforms into a truck. Rambeau decides to enter herself, since she has already passed through the boundary twice. She passes through the static wall and emerges with glowing eyes and having gained powers. She goes to warn Maximoff about Hayward. Maximoff does not believe her and attacks, but Rambeau can withstand her assault due to her new powers. Their confrontation is interrupted by Agnes, who asks Rambeau to leave and takes Maximoff to her house.
Agnes tells Maximoff that the twins are in the basement, but when Maximoff goes to look for them, she finds a mysterious lair. Trapping Maximoff, Agnes reveals herself as Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch. She shows Maximoff a vision of her manipulating events, revealing that she killed Sparky and sent "Pietro Maximoff" to Wanda, which is presented as a new fictional program called Agatha All Along. In a mid-credits scene, Rambeau discovers Harkness's lair but is caught by "Pietro".
A commercial during the WandaVision program advertises Nexus anti-depression drugs.
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 "classic sitcom", part "Marvel epic", paying tribute to many eras of American sitcoms. The seventh episode, "Breaking the Fourth Wall", was written by Cameron Squires, with the sitcom reality scenes paying homage to the mid-to-late 2000s and 2010s.
Writing Because Schaeffer and the writers structured the series and Maximoff's arc based on the stages of grief, they knew that this episode was going to be the "depression episode", which happened to line-up with the confessional, mockumentary style of the sitcoms that this episode emulates, including Modern Family. Squires found some elements of writing the episode to be easy because the "talking head" segments of the mockumentary style allowed for the characters to directly tell the audience how they were feeling, but also found it a challenge to balance the different tones required for the episode. To help him with this, Schaeffer showed Squires a talking head scene from The Office where Pam Beesly tries to be happy but then breaks down crying, which showed ways that tone could change within the talking head segments.
Early drafts of the episode "On a Very Special Episode..." had elements of Maximoff and Vision's house, such as the plumbing, starting to go "haywire" as a sign that Maximoff was losing control of the sitcom reality, but this idea was eventually moved to "Breaking the Fourth Wall". Actress Teyonah Parris called Monica Rambeau's journey into the Hex in the episode her "moment to grieve and to just scream and let it out" and the "physical manifestation of Monica moving through her grief", with Parris trying to image the "heaviness of [her] guilt" and ultimately wanting to let her mother, Maria Rambeau, know she would move forward. The episode also features a mid-credits scene, the first for the series. Shakman said the mid-credits scene was included starting with this episode because "we've busted out of the television construct... so we can now introduce the Marvel language of the teaser scene... and that it happened to be when that device was invented made sense for how we were evolving the storytelling as well."
The series features fake commercials that Feige said would show "part of the truths of the show beginning to leak out", with "Breaking the Fourth Wall" including a commercial that advertises Nexus anti-depression drugs with the slogan "Because the world doesn't revolve around you. Or does it?". Matt Purslow of IGN felt this commercial was meant to represent Maximoff moving into depression from her angry grief stage, while Entertainment Weeklys Christian Holub likened the drug name "Nexus" to Marvel Comics' Nexus of All Realities, which is a portal that allows travel between dimensions. Phil Owen at TheWrap acknowledged the potential Nexus of All Realities connection but felt it was more likely that the drug was a reference to Maximoff's comic book status as a "Nexus Being", a living version of the Nexus of All Realities who can rewrite reality and is the focal point of the universe. He noted that the series depicts Maximoff as much more powerful than in the films, bringing her closer to the comic book version. An early version of the commercial saw Benedict Cumberbatch reprising his role as Dr. Stephen Strange in a "blink-and-you-miss-it cameo" as the pharmacist, before Cumberbatch was removed to avoid detracting from Maximoff's story. The series premiere of Loki in June 2021 revealed that a "Nexus event" in the MCU is an event that creates a new branched timeline in the multiverse.
Casting
The episode stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Paul Bettany as Vision, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Evan Peters as "Pietro Maximoff", Randall Park as Jimmy Woo, Debra Jo Rupp as Mrs. Hart, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis / the Escape Artist, and Kathryn Hahn as "Agnes" / Agatha Harkness. Also appearing in the episode are Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne as Billy and Tommy, respectively, Maximoff and Vision's sons, Josh Stamberg as S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward, Emma Caulfield Ford as Dottie Jones, Jolene Purdy as Beverly, David Payton as Herb, David Lengel as Phil Jones, Asif Ali as Norm, Alan Heckner as S.W.O.R.D. Agent Monti / the Strongman, Rachael Thompson as Major Goodner, Selena Anduze as S.W.O.R.D. Agent Rodriguez, and Amos Glick as the delivery man Dennis. Victoria Blade, Ithamar Enriquez, Wesley Kimmel, and Sydney Thomas portray the actors in the Nexus anti-depression commercial. Archival audio of a young Monica Rambeau, her mother Maria Rambeau, Carol Danvers, and Nick Fury from the film Captain Marvel (2019) is heard in the episode when Rambeau attempts to enter the Hex.
Design Shakman and cinematographer Jess Hall put together a collection of images from existing series that influenced the framing, composition, and color of the episode's sitcom setting, and Hall created a specific color palette of 20 to 30 colors for the episode based on those reference images so he could control the "visual integrity in color" of the episode. Hall worked with production designer Mark Worthington and costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo to ensure that the sets and costumes matched with his color palette. Because the Agatha All Along sequence begins in color and then transitions to black-and-white, makeup head Tricia Sawyer coordinated with Hall to make sure the colors of Hahn's makeup looked natural in both formats. Sawyer gave her more vibrant, pink lips that Hall had to make additional adjustments to with the digital intermediate so the transition would work.
Perception, who created the end credits sequence for the series, also created two title sequences for this episode. The opening sequence is in the style of the sitcom Happy Endings, with a title card in the style of Modern Family. For the Agatha All Along title sequence, Perception created purple smoke transitions between the different shots of the montage, as well as title graphics inspired by The Munsters. Additionally, Perception provided graphics for the episode's fake commercial based on similar commercials from the late 2000s.
Filming Soundstage filming occurred at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, with Shakman directing, and 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. Hall began using LED lighting with the episode since the episode's sitcom era was when that equipment began to be used. The episode was filmed to emulate the "talk-to-the-camera, shaky-camera, documentary style" of modern mockumentary-style sitcoms.
The moments featured in the Agatha All Along montage, which take place at the same time as scenes from past episodes, were filmed at the same time as those episodes so the crew could utilize the sets for their time periods. Hall said there was a "shift" required to film these moments at those times, since they were often single shots using a different type of camera setup or move, such as a crane, from the rest of those episodes. He added that the sequence is more cinematic than the rest of this episode's style.
Visual effects Tara DeMarco served as the visual effects supervisor for WandaVision, with the episode's visual effects created by SSVFX, Lola VFX, Rodeo FX, Industrial Light & Magic, Zoic Studios, Framestore, Cantina Creative, The Yard VFX, RISE, capital T, and Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ). 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 red to reflect Maximoff's anger and to reinforce that it is a hard barrier, with reflections of the environment that can be seen during daytime for which Rodeo was inspired by reflective television screens.