Back in November of 2019, which now seems so long ago, Disney+ launched with the premiere of the Star Wars live-action series, The Mandalorian. Now fast forward present day as we are gearing up for the premiere of Marvel Studios’ first sitcom style series on Disney+, WandaVision, which debuts this Friday, January 15th.

We bring up The Mandalorian because it would seem like the success of the series would make it an obvious example for other series to follow. Especially noting that it comes from such a huge film franchise. In the same way, WandaVision is branching off from the highly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe and now must captivate audiences on the small screen. So what did Marvel Studios take away and possibly applied to their own series?

This past weekend we had the opportunity to attend a virtual press conference for WandaVision. Part of the participating talent and creative team was the head honcho of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige. He talked about some of the things that inspired them at Marvel from The Mandalorian. Starting with some of the tech that they had used.

“We were all underway on WandaVision before we saw The Mandalorian. There is lots and lots, of The Mandalorian that has inspired us at Marvel Studios. Not the least of which is the stagecraft. Technology that they’re-that they pioneered that we’re using on some upcoming projects. I think though in terms of it was wonderful to see the amazing job that Disney did and Disney marketing did in event-izing that. One of the things I was always, um, concerned about was to say anything that we do we want to event-ize.”

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The sophomore season of The Mandalorian definitely had an event feel. The anticipation was high and excitement would carry on a week to week. WandaVision should be no different.  Feige praised Disney for being able to keep up by not releasing all the episodes at once.

“Also the fun week to week discussion, which I guess happens on all week to week television. Sometimes series drop all at once on streaming services. Disney I think was very smart to do the week by week because that conversation that happens every week between episodes I think is very important.”

Another point he made was the importance of the series on Disney+. Saying that they are just as important as ones that are shown in theaters. “We want to make people understand these projects on Disney Plus are as important as the projects going into theaters. We want to feel that same excitement and the Disney marketing team is best in the world. Best of all time frankly, right now, the group running it, that can do that. They certainly showed that, they can do that spectacularly on Disney plus The Mandalorian.”

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At the end of the day, it was all just about that three-letter word that everyone keeps trying to shove down our throats, FUN. Because, if you’re not having fun then what’s the point right?

“Frankly just a lot of fun. So each time I witness that and experience that and joined in that with The Mandalorian, it got me excited for the way we had already been building WandaVision to be unveiled”, said Feige.

As proven by The Mandalorian, making a series from a huge film franchise can be accomplished. This is now the challenge that Marvel Studios has accepted with the variety of series they have on their slate. With what we have been allowed to see so far, it seems that they too are headed in the right direction that will lead them to more success.

Marvel Studios’ WandaVision premieres this Friday, January 15th, 2021 only on Disney+.