‘WandaVision’: Why Your Fan Theories Were Both Wrong and Right and Where Does Marvel Go Now?
Even though it had what I would call a satisfying ending, it’s sad to see WandaVision go. We’re not going to see a season 2 of the show, though Wanda’s story will continue in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Even though I’m sure that Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki will be good shows, WandaVision became a cultural phenomenon in a way the other Marvel shows are unlikely to reproduce.
And before we get started, there are going to be spoilers for probably every episode of WandaVision, so watch it and then come back.
One thing we can say for sure about WandaVision is that it made Wanda Maximoff, now going by her comic book moniker the Scarlet Witch, a major character in the Marvel Universe. I would bet that right now, more people want to see the next Doctor Strange movie to follow the story of this supporting character from the background of the Avengers films than to see the exploits of Doctor Strange himself.
That’s exactly what Disney was hoping to accomplish with their TV shows in a way they never could with projects like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; they wanted the TV shows to build hype for the movies, and they certainly have.
Of course, a big part of the appeal of WandaVision was the Twin Peaks-esque story that left fans guessing about what was coming. It may seem like there was a major lack of payoff with things like the aerospace engineer we were all sure would turn out to be a major cameo, and it was supposed to be, but some things got cut that still had a bunch of clues pointing to them in earlier episodes. These cameos were presumably cut so late in production that Elizabeth Olsen and Teyonah Parris weren’t even aware they were cut, though Paul Bettany was talking about himself when he said he got to work with an actor he had always admired.
Of course, there were plenty of red herrings as well. Like, what was the point of casting Evan Peters as a fake Pietro if he just turned out to be some guy who Agatha was controlling to get close to Wanda and learn her secrets? It was meant to make us think that he might be the Quicksilver from the X-Men films because if they had cast anyone else, we, the audience, wouldn’t have been fooled. It’s the same reason Emma Caulfield was cast as Dottie, who turned out to just be another one of Wanda’s neighbors trapped in the hex. If Kathryn Hahn was the only person you recognized outside of the main cast, it would have been even easier to figure out that she was going to play a bigger role in the series.
Even though WandaVision wrapped its plot up and answered most of our questions, the serialized nature of the Marvel universe means there are still some plot threads dangling at the end of the show. Vision has been reassembled and the Vision Wanda created gave him his memories back, but without the Mind Gem as a part of his brain, what will his personality be like?
And what about Billy and Tommy? Were they ever even real? Wanda hearing their voices in the post-credits scene seems to imply that they are real and they’re alive somewhere. Considering Marvel seems to be looking to introduce the Young Avengers, with Cassie Lang having been recast for a potentially bigger role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania and Kate Bishop slated to appear in the upcoming Hawkeye series, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them. This is especially likely considering Billy is Marvel’s most prominent LGBT character, along with his husband Hulkling, who I wouldn’t be surprised to see turn up in Secret Invasion.
And if you’re looking for the next Marvel show that could hit the zeitgeist the same way WandaVision and The Mandalorian have, Secret Invasion is a safe guess, as is She-Hulk, which is going to surprise a lot of people if it’s anything close to the quality of the John Byrne or Dan Slott eras of the comic it’s based on.
