Spoilers. Duh. Talk about a bombshell of an ending. But what does having Evan Peters show up as Pietro Maximoff really mean? Before we get into that, however, a quick explainer for anyone who might be lost with regards to why the Internet blew up after Friday’s episode of WandaVision.
Wanda’s brother, Pietro (aka Quicksilver), was played by Aaron Taylor Johnson in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He died in that movie. He was killed by Ultron. (Geraldine/Monica Rambeau brought up this terrible memory in Episode 3 and got run out of Dodge Westview because of it.) Evan Peters played the same character in the X-Men movies Days of Future Past, Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix. Only he was called Peter in those.
You see, before Disney’s acquisition of Fox in 2019, the two studios had an agreement. Disney (which owned Marvel, but not the movie rights to the X-Men) could use the characters Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, but could not make any reference to them being “mutants.” This is why in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wanda and Pietro are referred to as “meta-humans” and have their powers derived from Hydra’s Nazi-esque experimentation with the Mind Stone.
Now that the movie rights to the X-Men are back with Disney, we knew it was just a matter of time before they made their MCU debut, but this little twist was a welcome surprise…
… though not entirely an unexpected one. With actors (and characters) from pre-Disney Marvel movies set to return in the next Spider-Man instalment, it appears like the House of Mouse is getting ready for a deep dive into the multiverse. If they’re bringing back Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) – and maybe even Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parkers – why not an X-Man?
Hold Up… Pietro’s Alive?
Which brings us to our first big question. What are the implications of Pietro’s return for the plot of WandaVision?
What is clear from Pietro’s sudden arrival is that someone or something is, in fact, pulling the strings and “doing this” to Wanda. Throughout the episode, we are fed a series of red herrings (pun intended) to make us believe that Wanda, in her grief over Vision’s death, had turned evil. That she had manifested this idealised existence as a way to live the perfect life with Vision. Everyone else be damned.
There are, however, two moments in the episode that make us believe otherwise. The first (which explains one of the questions we had from last week’s recap) was Monica’s plea to Wanda, in which she asks her why she would bring a S.W.O.R.D. agent into her reality? Was it her way of somehow fighting back against the unknown entity that was making her do this? The second happens right at the end of the episode, when an exhausted Wanda says: “I don’t know how any of this started in the first place.” Add to that how surprised she is to hear the doorbell ring – and to see Pietro – and it’s clear that she is being manipulated by some force determined to distract her (and Vision) from the truth.
There’s also the fact that making Wanda evil might be too much of a bold direction for Disney. I mean, look how quickly they backtracked after The Last Jedi. Given how similar story arcs in the comics – where Wanda’s tortured mental state has lead to everything from the end of the Avengers to the extinction of the mutants – have been criticised, it would make sense that the MCU keep their distance. Also, the kids need good female superhero role models you know.
Urgh. Does This Mean X:Men: The Last Stand Is Canon?
On to big question number two. What about Evan Peters’ return? What does that mean for the MCU? Is it an acknowledgement that the Fox X-Men movies are canon; but from a different universe? If so, are we going to see a sort of reverse House of M where Wanda inadvertently (or advertently) brings mutants into the MCU?
If some evil force is indeed toying with Wanda, then why bring back the Evan Peters iteration of Pietro and not Aaron Taylor Johnson’s? Surely the latter would have been an even bigger gut punch?
Then again, all of this could just be yet another meta-wink at how sitcoms would constantly recast roles and hope you wouldn’t notice? (See: Cheers, Frasier, Friends, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Roseanne, That ’70s Show, Seinfeld, Full House, and so on.)
What do you think all of this means? Is everything connected? Or is Disney trying their darnedest to break the Internet by pointing in another direction and then screaming, “MADE YOU LOOK!”
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