"What is grief, if not love persevering?" Vision's verbal shoulder to cry on captured the hearts and imaginations of Marvel fans everywhere in WandaVision. Now, the show's creator has revealed the surprisingly less-than-straightforward process behind how that instantly iconic line made it on to Disney Plus.
"In the writers' room, we had intense conversations about grief and loss. We had a grief counselor come and speak to us," creator Jac Shaeffer told The New York Times on the initial move that would lead to the line that sparked a million memes – and a great deal of introspection.
But Vision's words didn't arrive in a vacuum. The original line that the creative team arrived at was slightly different. "So I came up with a line that was something along the lines of, 'What is grief but love surviving?' We agreed that wasn't quite it and we were turning it over and trying to figure it out," Schaeffer explained.
Then, a solution: Schaeffer's assistant, Laura Monti, came up with "persevering" and, thus, a legend was born. Most importantly for Schaeffer, though, it was a collective effort: "We all believe that the line was born of the enormous amount of collaboration and unity on the show. So many talented women, specifically, came up with it."
After all: what is the creative process, if not pitches persevering?
For more on the show, check out our guide to the WandaVision ending – and how those post-credits scenes set up Marvel's next wave of sequels. Next up: The Falcon and The Winter Soldier on March 19.
