WandaVision: What’s hidden in plain sight in Episodes 1 and 2
By Mike McNulty
The two-part premiere of the sinisterly sweet sitcom, WandaVision, had plenty of Marvel Comics Easter Eggs to talk about.
If you tuned into the two-episode premiere of Disney+ and Marvel Studios’ WandaVision, and came away with more questions than answers, you’re not alone. For instance, if Vision (Paul Bettany) died during Avengers: Infinity War, how is he still alive? When did he and fellow Avenger, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) get married? How did these happy newlyweds wind up in the town of Westview, and why is everything like an old-fashioned television sitcom? Is this all Wanda’s doing, or someone else’s? And do the residents of Westview actually hear that canned laughter?
Yet there are clues which hint at what those answers might be, and some these clues are nods to both the original Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So with each episode of this nine-part miniseries, we’ll be looking at the Easter Eggs and nuggets sprinkled throughout the episodes, and try to figure what they might be referring to, and what they could be trying to tell us. Watch closely, as we try to see what WandaVision may have been hidden in plain sight. Oh, and of course, if you haven’t seen the series yet, there are SPOILERS.
August 23
The central gag of the premiere episode is that Wanda and Vision mistake the significance of this date, which they inscribed with a heart symbol. Initially, Wanda thinks it’s their wedding anniversary, but Vision learns it’s actually to remind them they’re having dinner with his boss, Arthur Hart (Fred Melamed) and the boss’ wife (Debra Jo Rupp). Just your classic, cheesy, 1950s sitcom mishap, right? Actually, there’s at least six different things that date could be referring towards.
As posted on CBR, August 23, 2019 is the same date Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced WandaVision at that year’s D23 Expo. Others, like Gamesradar, point out that the number 23 could refer to the number of films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe up to this point, from Iron Man (2008) to Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). But the date also has significance in Marvel Comics’ history. August 23, 1951 is the publication date of Adventures Into Terror #7, which has, on it’s cover, the blurb “Where Monsters Dwell!” and features a story entitled “The Two Were Alone!” Rather ominous when you consider Wanda and Vision’s situation, don’t you think?
Want more fun facts? August 23 is also a Cusp between the zodiac signs Leo the Lion and Virgo the Virgin in astrology. Cups, astrologers believed, indicated that as the Sun moved into a new constellation alignment, those born on that day would take on the characteristics of both signs. Basically, its a time of change. The date is also Black Ribbon Day, in which the European Union celebrates their freedom from the tyranny of Nazism and Communism, and is also Liberation Day in Romania.