Warning: This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of WandaVision.
Throughout the time-spanning Disney+ series WandaVision, viewers have seen references to all kinds of classic sitcoms, from old favourites Bewitched and The Dick Van Dyke Show to more recent offerings Malcolm In The Middle and Modern Family.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Matt Shakman revealed that nods to even more old shows were considered for WandaVision, but didn’t end up making the finished product.
In the most recent episode of WandaVision, viewers discovered that the title character’s love of sitcoms stems right back to her childhood in Sokovia, and that she turned Westview into a town like those in her favourite shows to help process her trauma and grief.
Explaining how it was decided which sitcoms the show would pay homage to, Matt explained: “We were looking at family sitcoms. There are a great many wonderful shows like Taxi or The Office that could’ve been inspirations, but the ones that we focused on were the ones that were about family because that’s obviously what Wanda yearns for.
“She loses her family when she’s young, she loses her brother, she loses Vision and the family that might have been. So the family sitcoms were the strongest thematic connection to that.”
Asked which other shows could have been referenced – including Full House, which starred Elizabeth Olsen’s twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley – Matt then revealed: “We took inspiration from all kinds of different shows, and we were picking the shows that we felt were incredibly timely and timeless.
“They were so popular in their moment and their era when they came out, but they also continued to be really good and live on.”
He added: “We did look at Full House, we did look at Family Ties, we did look at Growing Pains. We looked at so many different shows, and I have some small nods in there.
“There’s an opening title sequence to episode 5, where we do the crane shot from Full House, where they’re having the picnic, or we run through the park with them as a nod to Lizzie growing up just behind the camera on that show.”
WandaVision’s final episode debuts on Disney+ on Friday, with Marvel boss Kevin Feige recently casting doubt on whether it would be back for a follow-up series.
He explained: "Some of the shows that we are about to start filming, we are keeping in mind a structure that would lead into a season two and a season three in a more direct way than, say, a show like WandaVision, which clearly goes into a feature.”
The “feature” in question is the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel Multiverse Of Madness, which Elizabeth will star in once again as Wanda Maximoff.
HuffPost may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Prices and availability subject to change.