- The first WandaVision episodes are now streaming on Disney+, offering fans a much different taste of the MCU than what they’re used to.
- Marvel’s first MCU Phase 4 adventure may have started as a sitcom, but things are about to take a turn for the worst and the first two episodes do a great job building anticipation.
- The real villain of the show has not been revealed — but some fans think Marvel might have accidentally leaked a surprise superhero appearance while potentially teasing other villains via Easter eggs.
The first two WandaVision episodes are streaming on Disney+, and they’re something else. The show is unlike anything in Marvel’s MCU roster so far, and that’s a good thing. The black-and-white sitcom setting works, although this first MCU Phase 4 show is hardly a comedy. Yes, you will laugh at all the silly puns, but a mystery is brewing. Things are not as they seem and you can feel the tension in the air. Something terrible might happen, and we still don’t know how we got here. That is, Wanda has no idea where she actually is, and the fact that she appears to be in control of her own world is incredibly misleading. After all, Vision is dead and he wasn’t resurrected at the end of Endgame like most of the Avengers Thanos had killed.
None of these are real spoilers, by the way. We’ve all seen the trailers, teasers, and exclusive clips that Marvel released in the past few weeks, and they do indicate the direction of the show. Wanda is living in some sort of made-up universe that she can control, and she’s experiencing everything in a sitcom-like fantasy. Sadly,
Now is the time to stop reading if you want to avoid potential WandaVision spoilers.
Mephisto and/or Nightmare are expected to appear in the first MCU Phase 4 adventure, and they might continue to face some of our favorite Avengers in the next chapters. There’s been a lot of speculation online as to which one of them will actually appear on the screen and who will play the villain(s). Some say that Marvel might combine the two into a single character. But what if other baddies are at play here?
Each WandaVision episode will give us a look at a particular chapter of the golden age of sitcom, and Episode 2 honors Bewitched with an animated opening scene. In it, fans will immediately observe a crawlspace between the floors that houses a weird-looking helmet. Many have observed that the helmet matches the one worn by the Grim Reaper, a Marvel villain that might appear in WandaVision.
The Grim Reaper is Eric Williams in the comics, Inverse reminds us. He antagonizes the Avengers after his brother Simon gets involved with Baron Zemo to take them down. It so happens that Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl) is set to star in the upcoming The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show.
But wait, it gets better. Remember Simon?
Don't touch that dial! Take a behind-the-scenes look at Marvel Studios' first Original Series, #WandaVision. Two episodes are now streaming on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/6WvbEBMCmM
— WandaVision (@wandavision) January 15, 2021
Marvel released the two-minute WandaVision featurette above, which gives us a look behind the scenes at making the show. All you have to do is wait 24 seconds to see a peculiar poster on a wall, showing none other than Simon. Well, Simon Williams goes by the name of Wonder Man in the MCU, a character that some fans have been waiting for. Murphy’s Multiverse reminds us that Wonder Man nearly appeared in Guardians 2 as a cameo before that scene was scrapped. Nathan Fillion was supposed to play Wonder Man, but we never got to see those scenes.
Vision actor Paul Bettany did tease in an interview a surprise character for WandaVision, without divulging any secrets.
In the comics, Simon got his powers from Zemo, and Ultron used his patterns as a basis for the creation of Vision. That’s not MCU canon, but Marvel could always revisit it. Moreover, Simon did have romantic feelings for the Scarlet Witch, which is a problem. And Wonder Man wasn’t immediately a superhero either, acting at the behest of Zemo. So he could very well be a villain in a story like WandaVision.
Let’s not forget, however, two things about things we see in official MCU footage. First of all, scenes are supposed to contain Easter eggs that Marvel comics fans will immediately recognize. That’s what the Grim Reaper helmet might be. Just an Easter egg. The second thing is that Marvel likes to mislead fans. That Wonder Man poster seems too deliberate in that featurette. Maybe Marvel is simply trying to keep the mystery surrounding the villains alive for as long as possible and keep fans guessing and over-analyzing things.
Speaking of Easter eggs, that beekeeper in Episode 2 can’t be a clue for Swarm, can it? That’s a Spider-Man villain we’ve never seen before and not necessarily a must-have in the MCU. WandaVision will continue with Spider-Man 3 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a three-part story inside the bigger MCU Phase 4 storyline. But would Marvel have any reason to tease a villain it won’t really control or need?
We’ll have to wait for the next episodes to see who the real villains are, forcing Wanda to live in this imagined world.
