From Creative to Speculative Audience: The Conversational Viewing of <i>WandaVision</i> on Twitter

ABSTRACT This article studies the social consumption habits in Spain of the series WandaVision, distributed every week internationally through Disney+. To understand the relevance of the phenomenon, two determining factors are examined: firstly, the incessant transformation of television consumption, strained by the fluctuation between binge-watching and appointment TV; and, secondly, the intermittent nature of a social and creative audience, which sometimes replaces commentary with speculation on possible narrative development. Through a methodological triangulation, an analysis of the most relevant hashtags on Twitter during the show broadcast, a questionnaire on consumption habits and five in-depth interviews were carried out. The aim is to observe how the “conversational viewing” developed on Twitter during the broadcast of the series can transform the viewer’s consumption preferences and generate a social conversation that favours discursive conjectures. The results reveal how the weekly broadcast can favor 1) weekly consumption and 2) the emergence of a speculative audience.