Cuevas Week 4

Marvel's WandaVision: So. Many. Questions.

         If any of you follow the Marvel franchise, you're probably aware of its new release, WandaVision. In this post, I’m going to be diving into some theories and discussions of the genius this series has produced thus far, so if you haven't watched or are fearing spoilers, this probably is not the post for you. Also, if you're not familiar with the franchise, a lot of this might not make much sense. I'll do my best in explaining what I can!

After Marvel’s release of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel fans eagerly waited for a new release to sink our teeth into. It was to our dismay that Marvel had decided to release their next production in the form of a TV show streamed only on Disney+, but after watching the series so far, I immediately resigned that initial distaste. This show is absolutely brilliant and leaves me begging for more every Friday.

It is centered around Wanda Maximoff and The Vision, two Avengers who formed a love interest throughout the previous Avengers movies. The initial strangeness is not that it's filmed as a 1950’s sitcom, but rather that in Avengers: Endgame, Wanda was forced to kill Vision, but in WandaVision he seems perfectly alive. Each episode is filmed like an old sitcom starring Wanda, Vision, and their quirky neighbors- however, every episode advances to a new time period, and time seems to move extremely fast. Wanda gets pregnant and gives birth to twins in a matter of days, and their environment and home changes from the 1950s to the 1980s with each episode. Wanda and all the townspeople don't seem to mind, while Vision is deeply concerned. Through an investigation by S.W.O.R.D (Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Department), and access to the actual broadcast of their ‘sitcom,’ we discover that Wanda has used her powers, gifted to her by the mind stone, to actually create this reality- the only reality where the Vision is alive, the only reality where Vision can exist. All of the townspeople are being mind-controlled by Wanda, and although Vision knows Wanda is controlling them, he can't understand how she is controlling him. In fact, he does not even know that he died, or that she did this to bring him back. All we know is that the town of Westview is a creation of Wanda's grievous psyche- and in our current state at episode 5, there's seemingly no way to stop her. 

I mean, can we blame her, really? When we meet her and her brother in Avengers: Age of Ultron we learn that her parents died in a bomb explosion, and later in that movie, her brother Pietro, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson is shot to death. That is why it was so shocking for viewers, and seemingly for Wanda, to see Pietro standing at Wanda’s doorstep in the last episode- this time played by Evan Peters. Just when we thought we were starting to figure things out! Of course, surprises like these always welcome theories.

Evan Peters played Pietro Maximoff in the movie X-Men, whose rights were owned by Fox until recently when Disney purchased them. Some say this is an introduction to the idea of the multiverse, and claim that Wanda wanted Pietro back so badly, she needed to steal him from another reality. This theory makes sense, besides Wanda’s visible surprise at seeing him in the show. Then there's the theory that Wanda’s neighbor, Agnes, is a Marvel comics character named Agatha Harkness, a powerful witch who was often an ally and aggressor in the comic stories of the Scarlet Witch (Wanda.) There are a multitude of rumors that clearly and sensibly synthesize the comics and the WandaVision show, and I am more than eager to see what comes next. For now, I will be eagerly awaiting the next episode this Friday!