Just what on Earth is happening in that WandaVision trailer? Wanda and Vision are in a 1950s sitcom? A storyline from the X-Men comics may have the answer.
Last night, during the 72nd annual Emmy Awards, Disney dropped its first official trailer for WandaVision, and it was weird:
WandaVision is the first of several TV shows set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’ve also got The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye, She-Hulk and more, but WandaVision distinguishes itself by how bizarre it looks. Wanda (Elizabeth Olson) and Vision (Paul Bettany) are living in some kind of 1950s-style, I Love Lucy-inspired sitcom? And I also saw flashes of a more 1980s-style Full House look in there. Just what is going on?
WANDAVISION, exclusively on Disney+.
Well, we don’t know for certain, but Marvel fans are already on the case. The way they figure it, WandaVision is kind of a combination of a couple of Marvel comic storylines, including Tom King’s work on Vision and the X-Men storyline House of M.
Some background: although it’s not never been mentioned in the MCU, Wanda is traditionally an X-Men character, the daughter of metal-bending mutant Magneto. She has the power to alter reality, which can be hard to adapt; that’s probably why, in the movies, Wanda’s powers basically amount to, ‘She waves her hands and shoots little red pew pew lights that do stuff.’
But in the comics, Wanda — or the Scarlet Witch, as she is known on the page — is capable of some incredible feats. In the House of M storyline, a grief-stricken Wanda alters the entire fabric of reality so she can get back her lost children, creating a world where familiar characters have entirely different roles.
It looks like WandaVision may involve a version of this, but this time, Wanda alters reality to reunite with Vision, who was killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War in such a way that he didn’t just pop back to life when Tony Stark Snapped his fingers in Avengers: Endgame. At the end of the WandaVision trailer, we see Wanda change around the furniture in her living room. Is she using her powers to create the reality she wants, and what unintended consequences will that cause?
That last part is important, because it could help answer a question Disney has no doubt been furiously thinking about ever since it acquired 20th Century, and with it the screen rights to the X-Men: how does the studio bring the X-Men into the MCU? There are a lot of options, with one being that Wanda accidentally creates mutants by altering the fabric of reality.
As for whether she’ll be Magneto’s daughter in that new reality…let’s just settle one bizarre question at a time.
And we’re not just pulling this stuff out of nowhere, either. At one point in the trailer, during the dinner party scene, the characters pour from a bottle of wine with the label ““Maison du Mepris.” In French, “maison” means “house.” House of Mepris…House of M.
Image: WandaVision/Disney+
You know Marvel loves its Easter eggs.
And the comic connections may go even deeper. In the comics. Wanda and Vision have twin sons: Speed and Wiccan, who go on to be members of the Young Avengers. Another member is Kate Bishop, aka the new Hawkeye. Rumors are that Kate will be introduced in the upcoming Hawkeye show. Is Disney setting up for a Young Avengers series?
WandaVision is coming out “soon,” most likely this year. It’s a little weird that we still don’t know exactly when but we’ll take it.
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h/t Forbes