WandaVision: Could The Gifted characters be returning?

Could The Gifted characters be returning in WandaVision in some way?

While not incredibly likely, it seems possible that The Gifted characters may return given the events of WandaVision episode 5, “On a Very Special Episode…” This episode of the Disney Plus series was an homage to 1980s sitcoms like Growing Pains and Full House, which included the obligatory family pupper playing a special role.

At the very end, however, a special guest showed up at Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision’s (Paul Bettany) front door – her long-dead brother Pietro/Quicksilver in full Uncle Jesse mode. But this was not the Aaron Taylor-Johnson version viewers knew from Avengers: Age of Ultron – instead it was the X-Men version played by Evan Peters.

This key change – which as of this writing has yet to be explained – could open up the key to The Gifted characters making a comeback, possibly serving as a springboard to the show being revived.

While the show was canceled after its second season due to the Disney/Fox merger in early 2019, it featured a grounded, thoughtful take on mutant life and the difficulties that entailed. The final episode, titled “oMens” (2.16) ended on a cliffhanger that seemed to point towards a storyline influenced by the Days of Future Past arc for a third season, as an alternate-reality Blink (Jamie Chung) appeared through a portal asking for the aid of the assembled improvised family of the Struckers (Amy Acker, Natalie Alyn Lind and Percy Hynes White), Thunderbird (Blair Redford), Polaris (Emma Dumont) and Esme Frost (Skyler Samuels).

It’s a long shot, but here’s how The Gifted characters could be returning in WandaVision

Since WandaVision is partially based on the House of M storyline from the comics, where the Scarlet Witch created an alternate reality where mutants ruled the world as a monarchy, her sister Lorna was also part of the royal family. And what is Lorna’s codename? Polaris.

Furthermore, a version of Polaris’ metallic crown was crafted for the show, while the end credits of WandaVision tease Wanda’s red crown.

The X-Men had disappeared from the world of The Gifted years before for vague reasons that were never explained, which could have come about because of The Snap in Avengers: Endgame (half of all life in the universe could have included alternate Earths, surely).

And bringing in Wanda’s sister from another reality would be helpful in taking care of the twins and coping with Vision’s death, much the same as the premise of Full House (which starred Olsen’s sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley as Michelle Tanner), further emulating the sitcom history the show has explored thus far.  Maybe Lorna could even raise her daughter Dawn alongside her cousins Tommy and Billy.

Dumont’s castmate Skyler Samuels, meanwhile, posted an emotional “I miss filming stuff” post on her Instagram, specifically talking about playing Esme and missing the stand-in castmates for Phoebe and Sophie.

While this is a very common sentiment amongst cast and crew of creative endeavors across the country, the final phrase of Samuels’s post feels like it could be a hint.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CK1wKS9rBgc/

“Looking forward to the return of days like these,” it says, which is probably a generic wording meant in the general sense of “filming things in person again”. On the other hand, the unusual spelling of The Gifted episode titles indicated that it was originally planned for four seasons, eventually spelling out X-MEN in all capitals.

Furthermore, showrunner Matt Nix has moved on to the Disney Plus TV series reboot of Turner and Hooch, which stars Lyndsy Fonseca of Agent Carter (due sometime later this year). Lind is currently working on the ABC drama Big Sky, but since both of those fall under the Disney umbrella, they could easily slide over production-wise to a third season.

The rights of the Netflix characters like Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have reverted to Marvel Studios after about two years from the end of their shows, so it seems likely that the use of The Gifted characters may also have had that time-gap of forced dormancy as well, but that would be up by this time.

Finally, the world of Alternate Blink’s portal was composed mostly of rubble and flames, at least the part we could see of it. Given Wanda’s abilities vastly increasing and SWORD’s Director Hayward ramping up his military-inspired tactics, it seems very possible that Westview may become a smoking crater before everything is over, which would certainly require the assistance of more heroes.

While we can hope, we have to tune into the end of WandaVision each Friday to get some clues (and maybe eventually answers) about where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going, and how mutants fit into it.