Not even the advance promotion by Marvel Studios and Disney+ could quite prepare audiences and MCU fans from what to expect with “WandaVision,” the first series of the superhero franchise’s Phase 4 myth arc. Seeing Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany’s Wanda Maximoff and Vision, living in a sitcom setting that changes aesthetics by the decade, while a contemporary crew watches the proceedings from “outside,” was a dose of meta-fiction. With the series concluding this Friday there is a mood to celebrate. On NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the host and Olsen engaged in a hilarious spoof chronicling decades of late-night shows, and sending up both “WandaVision” and COVID-19.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the March 4 episode of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” featured actress Elizabeth Olsen, aka Wanda Maximoff the “Scarlet Witch” of the MCU. But before getting to the interview she and host Jimmy Fallon kicked things off with an introductory spoof called “FallonVision,” in which he and Olsen lampshade how late-night TV talk shows were like on some of the decades portrayed by the Disney+ MCU series “WandaVision.”

It starts with a show intro styled in 1950s black-and-white, with Fallon respectfully introducing Olsen as a “lovely lady.” The actress herself is dressed glamorously in a black dress and pearls. The disconnecting clue is that instead of being in the show set with Fallon, Olsen was in another location via split-screen. A voice then eggs Fallon to snap out of it before the screen glitches and the show restarts, now with a 1970s motif and the now-groovy host calling Olsen a far-out young artist.

When a suddenly wary Olsen questions why they are not in the same set, the show jumps straight into the 1990s. This time the actress manages to jog Fallon’s memory: how his frustration at the pandemic preventing live-guesting on “The Tonight Show” made him wish for earlier, simpler days. When he owns up to it, the show restarts one last time, with the current show title, and Fallon acknowledging that Olsen was joining him via Zoom. The screen glitches anew however, and the “true” culprit reveals herself: “WandaVision” costar Kathryn Hahn, aka nosy neighbor Agnes aka the witch Agatha Harkness.

All in all, it was a nice parody by Jimmy Fallon and “The Tonight Show” of how “WandaVision” has intrigued viewers throughout its two-month run. One can only hope the finale does not drop the ball with this tense excitement. Elizabeth Olsen stars in “WandaVision,” concluding March 5 on Disney+.

Image courtesy of The Direct