With an initial look into Disney +’s first Marvel Studios television series, we try and figure out what the heck might be going on in WandaVision.
As part of “Phase Four” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios and Disney plan on releasing several Disney+ television series, the first of which is called WandaVision. Starring Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen, who will be reprising their roles as the Vision and Wanda Maximoff respectively, the first official teaser trailer for the series has dropped. Needless to say, it’s a bit of a puzzle. Brilliant, but puzzling all the same.
For instance, when did Vision and Wanda get married? Why is this series filmed like a television sitcom, complete with a cheesy laugh track? Are they really making a superhero parody of Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, and That ‘70s Show? What’s with them wearing Halloween costumes that resemble the ones they wear in the comics? And more importantly, how is Vision still alive after his death in Avengers: Infinity War?
The answers may actually not be as complex or convoluted as they might seem. There are not just cute nuggets of information hinting at what might be happening; if one has a working knowledge of the original Marvel comic books, they might even piece together the mystery that is WandaVision. But first, one will have to watch the teaser in order decipher any potential clues.
What does it all mean? Well, let’s take a look.
“This is our home now. I want us to fit in.”
Like any other comic book adaptation, WandaVision has to find it’s inspiration from the original comics. And from what we can tell in this teaser, there’s at least five different comic book stories being adapted and mixed together.
The first appears to take inspiration from Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s short-lived but critically-acclaimed comic book, The Vision. In that series, Vision created for himself a wife based off of Wanda’s brain patterns, along with a daughter, a son, and a dog. Then the Visions moved into the suburbs so they could try and live their lives as an ordinary, nuclear family. Aside from being creepy, things go wrong almost from the very start. While WandaVision isn’t following this scenario to the letter, it does seem that Vision and Wanda’s attempt at domestic bliss will definitely go haywire.
Another relatively recent comic book story arc WandaVision appears to be taking cues from might be Avengers: Standoff. This involved a super villain prison created by S.H.I.E.L.D. made to look like an ordinary small town which they called “Pleasant Hill” (an obvious riff on Pleasantville which, interestingly enough, also took place in a black-and-white TV sitcom universe). Through the use of a Cosmic Cube, S.H.I.E.L.D. “rehabilitated” the prisoners by changing their memories to make them believe they had always lived in this quaint, small town.
By contrast, this series appears to involve S.H.I.E.L.D.’s replacement, S.W.O.R.D., and it seems they’re as much in the dark as we are. It does appear, however, that Vision, Wanda, and perhaps dozens of ordinary people, are imprisoned and made to believe they’re in an idealized, sitcom-inspired version of small-town America. That would also account for why Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) is wearing 1970s fashion, and appears to be forcibly thrown out of some pocket dimension in front of S.W.O.R.D. agents. Perhaps she, along with S.W.O.R.D. are attempting to rescue whoever is trapped inside Wanda and Vision’s personal family sitcom.
Moreover, it looks as though where ever this place is, it may have been created… by Wanda herself. If so, that would fit in with another comic book story WandaVision appears to be taking inspiration from.
“We are an unusual couple, you know.”
One of the longest running subplots in the Avengers comics just so happened to be the romance between the Vision and Wanda. The two would actually get married in Giant-Sized Avengers #4, and, eventually, Wanda would give birth to twin boys. And as we see in this trailer, both Vision and Wanda being married with children appears to be the case. Of course, being that Vision is an android, you’re probably wondering how Wanda can even have kids by him? Well, this is where things start getting really weird.
In the comics, Wanda’s powers aren’t merely telekinesis; they’re literally a form of reality-warping magic. There was even an entire Avengers and X-Men crossover event called House of M in which Wanda, after suffering a nervous breakdown, altered history so that mutants ruled the world. This same “chaos magic” is what also allowed her to become pregnant by the Vision and bear his children, based on her own desires for wanting a normal life and family.
The kicker is that, since matter cannot be created or destroyed according to the law of conservation, Wanda could only reshape what already exists. That meant her children had to be formed from something else. In the comics, her twin boys were apparently created from the cells of Mephisto – Marvel Comics’ version of the Devil. And yes, there are rumors that Mephisto will appear in WandaVision played by Evan Peters – the same Evan Peters who played Quicksilver in Fox’s X-Men movies.
There was also a character in the comics who acted as a nanny for Vision and Wanda’s kids, the same person who helped train and improve Wanda’s use of chaos magic. That person was one Agatha Harkness, a 300-year old witch from Salem, Massachusetts. It’s rumored that “Agnes the nosy neighbor” played by Kathryn Hahn is, in fact, Agatha Harkness. That Hahn is wearing a witch costume in the teaser could be a dead giveaway to her true identity and purpose. And that purpose seems to be maintaining and controlling the “perfect world” that Wanda has unknowingly woven for herself.
Here’s something else to chew on: Vision and Wanda’s kids eventually grow-up to become Wiccan and Speed, two members of the Young Avengers. Considering that the upcoming Hawkeye series is rumored to involve Kate Bishop, this could be further confirmation that Stage 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is laying the groundwork for the Young Avengers as the new Avengers line-up.
“Am I dead?”
Yet how does all of this tie into the Vision somehow still being alive? Well, comic book readers knows that Vision was also killed off in the comics and, because he was an android, was remade but without his previous memories. WandaVision might be taking a slightly different approach.
Remember that when Thanos killed Vision in Avengers: Infinity War, there was a body left behind. Likewise, Shuri (Letitia Wright) had attempted to copy Vision’s brain-patterns before he fought against Thanos. So what if Wanda, in attempt to bring Vision back, used her magic to repair Vision and download the back-up copy of Vision’s mind? Unfortunately, since it’s incomplete, she has to give him new memories. Hence the sitcom-inspired pocket universe she has placed herself, Vision, Agatha, and various bystanders inside of? Basically, it’s an artificial life to reboot an artificial person.
This would also account for why Vision has no memories of his own death, and why he can’t remember where he and Wanda “moved from.” Or it could be that whatever memories Vision has are entirely based on Wanda’s own memories of him. Whatever the meaning, though, it’s bound to cause some sort of existential crisis for the Android Avenger. We’ll certainly know once WandaVision debuts sometime in December of 2020.
What did you make of the WandaVision trailer? Are you looking forward to the show? Let us know in the comments below!