Kathleen Hanna Sang This Week’s Malcolm In The Middle-Inspired WandaVision Theme Song
WandaVision, the new Marvel TV series on Disney+, is a strange experiment for a couple of dominant entertainment brands. The weekly series has a lot going on. It attempts to tell a story about grief and out-of-control power and the blurring of the lines between realities, but it’s also a knowing tribute to past eras of television. Every week nods toward a different era in sitcom history, and the episode that went up on Friday specifically nods to the snarky fourth-wall-breaking slapstick of Malcolm In The Middle. For the Malcolm-style title sequence, the show brought in a ringer: Punk rock legend Kathleen Hanna.
All the different WandaVision themes come from Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, the married songwriting team who won Oscars for their songs from Frozen and Coco. For this past week’s episode, Anderson-Lopez shares lead vocal duties with Hanna, leader of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre and the Julie Ruin. Here’s that opening sequence:
Shout out to the amazing @kathleenhanna of bikini kill and le Tigre fame. She’s the star of this week’s riot girl inspired WandaVision theme song! #wandavision #marvel
— Kristen Anderson-Lopez (@Lyrikris10) February 12, 2021
The aesthetic on that sequence is a close match to the Malcolm In The Middle opening, which had its own underground-adjacent music. They Might Be Giants recorded the song “Boss Of Me” specifically for the show, and it won them a Grammy. Here’s that opening:
As Brooklyn Vegan points out, Bikini Kill’s Demirep is the theme song of the Hulu series PEN15. Kathleen Hanna is getting that sync money!