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Director Matt Shakman on the intersection of WandaVision and Just The Ten Of Us

As a kid, Matt Shakman spent a lot of time on Hollywood backlots, acting on ’80s and ’90s sitcoms like The Facts Of Life, Night Court, and Just The Ten Of Us. As the director of the new Disney Plus series WandaVision, he’s synthesizing a vintage Hollywood aesthetic into the Marvel Cinematic Universe using the classic sitcom tropes and sets he knows so well to create a whole new world.

For the video above, The A.V. Club talked to Shakman about just that, and about the classic sitcom boot camp to which he subjected WandaVision stars Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn, and the rest of the cast. We also talked about his life-changing lunch with Kevin Feige and Dick Van Dyke, and what life was like as a kid riding his bike around the Warner Bros. lot.

The first two episodes of WandaVision hit Disney Plus Friday, January 15, with new episodes dropping every Friday thereafter.

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