Being invited to compose the theme songs for WandaVision was a dream come true for award-winning songwriters Robert 'Bobby' Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.

As huge sitcom aficionados, who watched shows such as I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Brady Bunch religiously when they were growing up, the married duo had always wanted to write a sitcom theme song of their own. The opportunity finally presented itself when WandaVision director, Matt Shakman, Lopez's college friend, asked them to be a part of his project for Marvel Studios.

Described as a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the series follows newlywed Avengers Wanda Maximoff (played by Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (played by Paul Bettany) as they lead seemingly ordinary lives in a suburban town following the events of Avengers: Endgame. The show pays homage to the different eras of American sitcoms in its nine episodes, with the premiere episode focusing on the '50s. 

"It was actually a dream job to get to channel all of these decades and write these songs that would be sort of umbrellas that would capture the iconic theme songs of all of those decades," said Anderson-Lopez at a virtual press event. 

However, Lopez and Anderson-Lopez knew that the process was not as straightforward as it appeared and approached the project with great care.

Anderson-Lopez shared: "Our challenge was that we needed to create songs that sounded like these iconic sitcom theme songs without ever parodying any one theme song."

To strike a balance between paying homage to classic sitcom themes and creating songs that were unique to WandaVision and its characters, the duo infused WandaVision's music with a dose of Lopez-Anderson-Lopez magic — the same kind which produced acclaimed songs such as 'Let It Go' from Walt Disney Animation Studios' Frozen and 'Remember Me' from Pixar's Coco.

The result this time was a unique four-note motif that would accompany the show's title "WandaVision" across the different episodes.

"We put it [the word "Wanda"] on this octave leap and it's fun to sing. "Vision" is very TV. It's like a little tritone and a half step up," explained Lopez.

"There is an air of mystery [in WandaVision] that kind of makes you go 'What's going on?' and that's why he [Robert] chose the tritone," Anderson-Lopez added. "It is like raising your eyebrows. He wanted to put mystery in the motif that goes throughout."

Once the motif was finalised, the next step was to find a way to differentiate the show's multiple theme songs.

"We had to tell the audience using the instrumentation, what time period we're in. For the 50s, we used a much more jazzy ensemble that matched the big-band aesthetic of that time. For the '60s, it was a more intimate group. It was more Latin percussion, the stuff that was trending in the 60s. As you'll see in the coming episodes, we modify it for every week," said Lopez.

While the duo's latest compositions are sure to evoke nostalgic memories for those who grew up with the iconic sitcoms that WandaVision references, there is a sizeable portion of the Marvel fanbase that might find these shows unfamiliar. 

Having two children of their own, Lopez and Anderson-Lopez hope that the theme songs that they have created for the series will spark younger viewers' interest in sitcoms of the past.

"The impact [we wanted to make] is sharing our love for these different styles and our love for this decade and our love for this amazing medium. Some of the best songwriters of every decade were writing the theme songs that were going into these shows. In a way, they shaped how music worked in TV and entertainment, so to be able to celebrate those iconic musical moments in our culture and try and make people a little bit curious is part of the fun," shared Anderson-Lopez.

"Bobby's father, who doesn't know a lot about the Marvel Universe and isn't interested in it, loves this show. Because of that, he was able to talk to our daughters, who are obsessed with the Marvel Universe. We're able to sort of cross the divide between the Generation Xers [and the younger generation] and have this thing they can share," she added. 

For Lopez and Anderson-Lopez, who have been writing songs as a duo for 19 years, creative differences are now part and parcel of working together. According to them, remembering their duties as parents is the trick to overcoming these conflicts.

Anderson-Lopez said: "If we find ourselves really fighting, we take a break or we go for a walk. Sometimes it means it's time to eat lunch, or go home to our kids and put on the hats of parenthood instead of writers, and then sort of hit the next day with a refreshed ability to listen to each other."

[You have to] try each other's ideas, even if at first you think 'Oh, that would never work'. If you don't try it, then the other person doesn't feel heard," shared Lopez.

Catch WandaVision on Disney+ from 23 February onwards.