- WandaVision Episode 5 introduced a character that was heavily rumored in the months preceding the Disney+ premiere.
- The character might be important to Marvel’s plans to bring the X-Men into the MCU going forward.
- Fans have also observed other potential Easter eggs in WandaVision so far that might tease the Fantastic Four in addition to X-Men.
To see “Episode 5” trending on Twitter this Friday was probably a confusing surprise to all the people who aren’t Marvel fans. But that’s proof of how massive WandaVision already is. Episode 5 was certainly an amazing new installment in the series, delivering the show’s first bombshell. And with each new WandaVision episode that premieres on Disney+ every Friday, the mystery deepens. We’re also getting more and more explanations and teasers in the process. It’s increasingly evident that WandaVision is not a sitcom, which was of course to be expected. Wanda might be desperately trying to live some sort of idyllic life in that imaginary bubble as she grapples with her ongoing grief. But the TV show is quickly transitioning to the thriller/horror genre as we uncover what’s going on.
Aside from Wanda and Vision’s arcs moving forward, WandaVision has another purpose, and that’s to tease the arrival of new characters in the MCU by planting Easter eggs that will pay off later. Marvel spent more than a decade creating the Infinity War saga without being able to fully use Hulk and Spider-Man. The studio also had to do it without any mention of several key superheroes, including the Fantastic Four and X-Men. Fox had the rights to these Marvel comics characters, but now they’re back at
Before we go any further, we should note that some spoilers follow below if you’re not up to date with WandaVision.
Fantastic Four
Marvel has already confirmed that Fantastic Four is in the works, revealing in mid-December that Jon Watts would direct the film. That’s all Kevin Feige and Co. told us about Fantastic Four. But Marvel is already dropping hints that the First Family is coming soon.
In Episode 4, SWORD Director Tyler Hayward (Josh Stamberg) brings Monica Rambeau (Teyonnah Parris) up to speed as to what’s been happening to the organization while she was blipped. She missed out on more than five years of action and lost the likely promotion that she would have gotten. That’s when Hayward tells us that the astronaut program is still in tatters after they lost half of their personnel during the Blip.
We know from that brilliant Episode 4 opening that all the people snapped away in Infinity War returned to life in the same place as soon as Hulk reverted everything to normal. Anyone blipped in space might have rematerialized in space, likely complete with the spaceship they might have been piloting at the time. Remember that Episode 4 also shows us a person materializing as they’re transported in a hospital bed that isn’t initially there. Regardless of how astronauts would return to life in space, Hayward’s comment is a detail that might be teasing the Fantastic Four. At least that’s the connection that many Marvel comics fans made.
Then there’s a different line in Episode 5 that some interpreted as a potential Fantastic Four hint. At one point, Rambeau says she knows of a specific aerospace engineer who could help out with their problems. Some might have thought of Reed Richards as a likely candidate. But a Redditor pointed out that a Spanish translation of the subtitles uses a feminine pronoun, suggesting the engineer is a woman. Could it be Sue Storm? After all, WandaVision also tells us that Rambeau is a pilot herself, and she got the current gig after being grounded. There’s no guarantee that the line in Episode 5 refers to the Fantastic Four, but Marvel is very careful with every little detail, dialogue included. That line is teasing someone some sort of key MCU character.
X-Men
The major reveal at the end of Episode 5 confirms that Evan Peters plays Pietro in the MCU, after having played the mutant version in some of Fox’s X-Men films. Marvel wants Quicksilver back in some form, now that it can use mutants. But Wanda can’t revive dead people; that much is clear from the same Episode. So she might have just snatched a different Pietro from the multiverse — or maybe it’s the villain of the series that’s pulling these strings. Not to mention that Wanda and Vision’s children will develop abilities of their own.
There might be a different major X-Men hint potentially hiding in Episode 5, and it comes from the same Director Hayward.
At one point during the Westview taskforce’s briefing, the Director shows everyone a video that gives us another key piece of the puzzle. In the three weeks since the final Endgame battle, which is when Wanda returned to life and fought Thanos, she raided the SWORD headquarters to grab Vision’s corpse.
Given his position, Hayward knows everything there is to know about Wanda so far, and he’s aware she can be a threat. She started as a Hydra agent of sorts before joining the Avengers. She then chose Captain America’s side in Infinity War and went rogue for a couple of years. She reemerged in Infinity War during the battle of Wakanda when she was wiped from existence once Thanos snapped his glove. But the Director goes on to ask if Wanda has an alias or a “funny nickname.” That’s a very unusual and unnecessary question during that particular briefing. FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) would have mentioned such details when presenting Wanda’s history.
The simplest explanation for Hayward’s question is that Marvel wants to tell the audience that Scarlet Witch, Wanda’s funny nickname, will be used at some point during the series. That would be a first for the MCU.
But what if Hayward is also aware of other individuals who might be operating under aliases and funny nicknames around the world to do both good and evil. Remember that, under the Sokovia accords, all superheroes must have registered with authorities — unless you were Spider-Man, of course. But there may have been other mutants with abilities similar to Wanda’s who wouldn’t necessarily want to be identified as superheroes. And they’d use aliases.
The Sokovia accords were likely altered after the events in Infinity War, and we’re yet to learn what happened to superhero management in those five years. Also, it’s unclear how Marvel will introduce the X-Men. If mutants always existed in the MCU, then Hayward might be already on to something. That might be why he’s asking that silly question. If these Infinity Stone blips have somehow created mutants, then Hayward is just teasing the Scarlet Witch name reveal.
Either way, with four episodes left in the mini-series, we’ll soon get to see who will refer to Wanda as the Scarlet Witch. And we’ll probably get more Easter eggs about mutants and other characters that might be important to the main MCU story.
