Sometimes cosplay is a vehicle for serious and heartfelt creativity, giving artists a very particular medium with which to conceive of their work. Other times, it's a new method of comedy, offering budding humorists a stunning visual canvas for their funny jokes and japes. This WandaVision case appears to be a bit of a mix between the two, though the comedy portion definitely seems to be shining through.
A particularly clever cosplayer has decided to bring to life a short-lived but nonetheless memorable portion of Marvel's surreal cultural phenomenon on Disney Plus known as WandaVision. While the series has offered plenty of fodder for cosplay and other art based on WandaVision's various classic aesthetics, it seems that relatively few have tackled a particular aspect from the show's 1970s-inspired episode. Sure, the episode itself featured plenty of colorful outfits and designs, but there's one part that lends itself specifically well to cosplayers who happen to be expecting.
That's where Reddit user lindsayrivendell comes in. Harnessing her cosplay skills as well as her experience having dealt with giving birth, she channeled all that energy into a show-accurate portrayal of Wanda Maximoff's rather harrowing abridged pregnancy. She managed to perfectly recreate the outfit worn by Elizabeth Olsen's deceptively powerful Wanda Maximoff during that particular episode, all the way down to the baby bump. Granted, lindsayrivendell wasn't pregnant at the time of her cosplay, but she's definitely good at faking it.
Where the cosplay elevates from good to great is in the video posted by lindsayrivendell on the Marvel Studios subreddit. Backed by ABBA's "Mamma Mia" and set in an extremely '70s-looking room, she sells the absolute crap out of Wanda's pregnancy with exaggerated strained movements and pained expressions. The fact that she's able to pull all this off simply using a recliner as her prop is a testament to her prowess as a cosplayer (and former pregnant person).
Like other cosplays, such as this one that depicts The Witcher's Ciri with a real custom leather outfit, lindsayrivendell's Wanda achieves its greatness through that extra bit of effort. In this case, aside from the show-accurate outfit and faux pregnant belly, she elevates it through the setting and her own performance. As wonderful as many cosplays tend to be, there's truly nothing like actually seeing them in action.
Perhaps the relative lack of fan conventions (or at least safe ones, anyway) where one would usually see such performances helps drive home the effectiveness of this one. Or maybe it's simply that good, just like the MCU's WandaVision itself. Either way, this sort of effort and dedication is always worth celebrating.
WandaVision is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: lindsayrivendell/Reddit