Paul Bettany (Vision) says the MCU “gets more and more bonkers”

Elizabeth Olsen is Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany is Vision in Marvel Studios’ WANDAVISION, exclusively on Disney+.
Elizabeth Olsen is Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany is Vision in Marvel Studios’ WANDAVISION, exclusively on Disney+.

Wild MCU rumors are flying lately. Tom Cruise as Iron Man! John Krasinski as Captain America! Is this what Paul Bettany means when he says things are going to get “bonkers”?

After the resounding success of the Infinity Saga, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to dive into new territory with Phase 4. This brings us not only new blockbuster movies but also a selection of new TV shows. The first of these to air is WandaVision, with Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprising their roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision. The trailer, which sees our heroes living out some kind of fantasy sitcom life, is pretty weird, and apparently we don’t know the half of it:

Normally, MCU trailers tease huge battles and powerful villains. Instead, we get…well, I’m not sure what we got, but I’m definitely intrigued, and the fans are atwitter about what it all means.

That includes superhero superfan Kevin Smith, who shared his excitement — and his insight — on social media:

"As a kid who bought the “Vision & the Scarlet Witch” comic book mini series in the 80’s, I’m so ready for this! @wandavision is clearly the creepy road to the Multiverse of Madness and this trailer has got my imagination going!"

Replaying, Bettany teased that things only get “more bonkers” from here on out:

I’m instantly curious as to what “more bonkers” means. How far is this show willing to go? And beyond that, is the MCU about to take a weirder turn?

That would be consistent with recent rumors about 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Although we don’t have a ton of information, that movie will deal with Doctor Strange entering the multiverse, meaning he could in theory come across alternate versions of himself and other heroes. According to insider Daniel Richtman’s Patreon account, Marvel boss Kevin Feige wants to stack with movie with fun cameos showing people the MCU that might have been. For example, he reportedly wants Tom Cruise to show up as Iron Man, since the actor was apparently up for the role back in 2006 before it went to Robert Downey Jr., who made it his own and then some.

And yes, of course there’s already fan-art of what that would look like:

Since this first came up, the rumor has snowballed, with We Got This Covered reporting that Marvel also wants John Krasinski to play alternate universe Captain America, since he was in consideration for that role before Chris Evans nabbed it.

All of this would certainly be fun, and would be consistent with Bettany’s “bonkers” descriptor. It kind of reminds me of what Warner Bros. is doing with the upcoming Flash movie, with Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton both on tap to return as different versions of Batman as the Flash zips around that multiverse.

In any case, the trailer for WandaVision is definitely a hit, with Deadline reporting that it managed to rack up 53 million views in 24 hours, not to mention 302k social mentions. People are as interested as we are.

Disney+ has yet to set an official release date for WandaVision, but expect it to premiere later this year.

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