is the sixth episode of the American television miniseries WandaVision, based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision.
Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen reprise their respective roles as Vision and Wanda Maximoff from the film series, with Teyonah Parris, Evan Peters, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, and Kathryn Hahn also starring.
Critics enjoyed the episode's comic book-accurate Halloween costumes and Peters' performance and highlighted a scene between Vision and Hahn's character Agnes.
In the fictional WandaVision program, now set during the late 1990s to early 2000s, Wanda Maximoff wants to spend Billy and Tommy's first Halloween together as a family.
"Pietro Maximoff" offers to take the boys trick-or-treating, causing mischief with his super-speed, which Tommy is revealed to have inherited.
[3][4] He and head writer Jac Schaeffer executive produced alongside Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso.
",[9] was written by Chuck Hayward and Peter Cameron,[10] with the sitcom reality scenes paying homage to the late 1990s to early 2000s.
[13] Hayward and Cameron watched a lot of Malcolm in the Middle to "internalize the anarchic-but-comforting tone" of that series and also determine the types of jokes that best worked for it.
The episode escalates from having "glitches" within the series' sitcom reality (the Hex) to a "Twilight Zone-level of horror", with Maximoff finally losing control of the situation.
When Vision leaves the Hex, they had to "walk the line between high stakes and gruesome" which Hayward felt was successful due to Cameron's "beautiful prose".
[9][16] Dais Johnson of Inverse said the commercial had a "Rocket Power-tinged aesthetic of Millennial youth",[17] while Men's Health's Josh St. Clair compared it to ads for Go-Gurt and Kool-Aid that aired on children's television networks in the early 2000s.
[12][21]: 31:49–32:05 Also appearing in the episode are Julian Hillard and Jett Klyne as Billy and Tommy, respectively, Maximoff and Vision's sons, Josh Stamberg as S.W.O.R.D.
In the Maximoff's childhood flashback, young Wanda and Pietro are respectively portrayed by Sophia Gaidarova and Joshua Begelman, with Stephanie Astalos-Jones as the toothless old woman.
[28] Agnes wears a classic witch costume in the episode as a way to hint at the character's true identity, which is revealed later in the series.
[21]: 34:03–34:17 [34] DeMarco used Vision's introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), which was primarily created by Lola VFX, as the definitive version of the character when approaching the visual effects for him in WandaVision.
Bettany wore a bald cap and face makeup on set to match Vision's color, as well as tracking markers for the visual effects teams to reference.
[35] Complex 3D and digital makeup techniques were then used to create the character, with sections of Bettany's face replaced with CGI on a shot-by-shot basis; the actor's eyes, nose, and mouth were usually the only elements retained.
[35] MARZ created the sequence where Vision transforms into his full modern appearance from the films and flies over Westview, then approaches Agnes and the Hex boundary.
DeMarco gave Rodeo FX freedom to explore different styles for the disintegration effect, but told them that it should not look like the Snap from Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the Quantum Realm from Ant-Man (2015), other dimensions from Doctor Strange (2016), or any of the force fields, holograms, or weapons seen in other MCU films.
Since the episode shows things beginning to unravel for Maximoff, Lopez and Anderson-Lopez wanted the theme song to have a chaotic element to it and a feeling of alienation.
[46] A soundtrack album for the episode was released digitally by Marvel Music and Hollywood Records on February 19, 2021, featuring composer Christophe Beck's score.
[53] Nielsen Media Research, which measures the number of minutes watched by United States audiences on television sets, listed WandaVision as the third most-watched original streaming series for the week of February 8 to 14, 2021.
While it may not have a surprise up its sleeve as outlandish as last week's unexpected visitor, Episode 6 returns to the uneasy mystery vibes of earlier chapters for quieter, but no less spectacular effect."
Purslow felt Peters worked as "the perfect weird uncle" and pairing him with Billy and Tommy helped make those two more interesting characters.
Vision exploring the town to investigate produced some of the series' "most unsettling imagery" while Maximoff extending the hex was "a huge set piece for the episode".
[9] Also giving the episode 4 out of 5 stars, Rosie Knight wrote for Den of Geek that some viewers may have been letdown by "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"
Knight enjoyed Peters' performance, calling him "pitch perfect as the annoying troublesome uncle", and said Vision trying to escape the Hex was a "solid tragic hero moment" for Bettany.
was the first episode of the series where the sitcom material did not feel "presented in air quotes", with the early scenes coming across as "a more convincing recreation rather than an ironic one".
[58] Hayward and Cameron were nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for the episode at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.