WARNING SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION AHEAD FROM EPISODES 1-5
There seems to be an assumption from those watching this week’s episode of WandaVision that Marvel Studios has ushered-in the Fox era of the X-Men franchise, despite the fact the studio has multiple times used the word reboot when talking about their plans for the X-Men moving forward. It’s worth noting among a bunch of iffy things about the cameo, Wanda and Darcy don’t seem to recognize the Evan Peters version of Pietro standing in the doorway.
Here are some things to think about as most viewers have taken the cameo as a literal introduction/recast and now believe that Evan Peters is taking over the Pietro/Quicksilver role from now on which seems a little shortsighted given how the show has previously manipulated the audience from the start. Taking the surprise at face value instead of stopping to think of the multitude of reasons why Peters playing Pietro from now on is extremely unlikely and potentially more of distraction or red herring if anything else.
- Dr. Darcy Lewis makes it clear that whoever Evan Peters is playing in the show, that this person at the door is not her brother (previously played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Lewis shockingly states “they recast Pietro?.” This is somewhat reinforced by Wanda seemingly not recognizing the person at the door, something you can tell by the puzzled look on her face as it finally sinks in this is supposed to be her brother. We’ve seen actors recast in the MCU before but Darcy makes a point that isn’t Pietro,
- Wanda’s father is reaffirmed to be the very dead Oleg Maximoff by Agent Jimmy Woo and not Magneto also using footage from Avengers: Age of Ulron. This could crush speculation that the Fox version of Magneto will either have a family connection or even appear on the show at all. If they wanted to establish the previous X-Men universe within the MCU that ship has long sailed after the merger as they originally announced Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool was the only character they were keeping.
- Agnes is shocked to learn Wanda can bring things back to life using her abilities as she mentions her brother to the twins (in front of Agnes) and conveniently later in the episode Wanda’s “brother” is brought back to life. We never see how that happened exactly or where he even came from.
- When Vision and Wanda get into a scuffle about what is going on in the bubble the doorbell rings, something she says she didn’t do and if she didn’t bring that version of Pietro back, who did?
- Despite Wanda having “control” of everything in the bubble, she could stop their dog Sparky from dying or use her powers on the twins when they wouldn’t stop crying or aging. If she is 100% in control of everything and everyone you’d think she could have done something there.
- Nothing can be trusted in the Westview bubble. Many things are distorted and they’re not all as they seem, making it less likely that Pietro is really Pietro. Mostly everyone within Westview is given a new name and persona. There is a good chance that Evan Peters is simply playing someone that was trapped in the town and given the role of Pietro as a way to torture or distract Wanda.
- There have been teases via concept art that Wonder Man aka Simon Williams will be part of the show, an actor/superhero. There is a chance that Evan Peters was selected by whoever within the bubble to be recast in the Pietro role because he is Simon and picked because of acting experience as a way to be more convincing to Wanda and Vision as others have dropped character in various scenes. Agnes mentions doing another take in the episode and Wanda materializes a dog collar without her noticing.
- Peters’ Pietro could be just a figment of her imagination and will disappear alongside the bubble.
- Pietro might be Mephisto or another villain simply manipulating Wanda while pretending to be her dead brother.
- Could both the twins and Pietro be manifested by someone else in Westview such as Anges or another mystery character?
- Hiring Evan Peters, the former Quicksilver, is a great way to confuse audiences and help keep everyone guessing about what is really going on. If they had hired someone else for this part it likely wouldn’t have had the same impact. It seems like the entire point of the show is to keep fans on their toes and create their own theories. It certainly feels like the concept of the Disney+ series is to mimic water-cooler television.
I think we’ll know more in the next couple of episodes and I would not be shocked if ultimately we don’t see Peters in this role for very long revealing himself to be something else entirely.
THE RONIN 