Here’s how ‘WandaVision’ latest episode sets up ‘Captain Marvel 2’

Warning: this article contains big spoilers for the seventh episode of WandaVision.

Once upon a time, Marvel fans are said to have gathered in multiplexes to attend the sold-out screenings of the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster. In the days of quarantine-era COVIDs, they just took over Disney + when the last episode of WandaVision removes and stops the streaming service. This is what happened overnight when the seventh episode, “Breaking the Fourth Wall,” premiered at midnight on the West Coast. Moments later, the outage tracking site, Downdetector, reported thousands of cases of disruption of Disney + service in the Pacific time zone. Can we assume this was an actual episode of Agatha throughout?

But let’s wait a moment for the episode’s climax – and widely suspected – Big Bad, as “Breaking the Fourth Wall” also features a new Big Time Hero that will take us straight into the events of Captain Marvel 2. Carol Danvers remained in the background for much of the season, as Monica Rambeau (Tayonah Parris) struggled with the legacy of her surrogate aunt. In the 1990s, young Monica watched Aunt Carol create the Captain Marvel cloak, then soar into deep space for future adventures while she and her mother, Maria (Lashana Lynch), remained bound to Earth. . But today Monica seems less in love with her childhood hero, perhaps because of her absence after Maria was diagnosed with cancer. Every time Captain Marvel’s name pops up this season, she visibly flinches and changes the subject faster than Peter Maximoff can speak to himself in a corner.

Carol returned to Earth for the events of Avengers: Endgame – which took place three years after Maria’s death – putting her in a good position to be on the level of Luke Skywalker WandaVision cameo Elizabeth Olsen referred to. And she makes an appearance at a key moment in “Fourth Wall”. When Monica’s first attempt to enter the Hex Barrier in a SWORD Mechanical Vehicle fails, she decides to make her way through the other side entirely on her own. Diving into the red static wall surrounding Westview, she hears the voices of her mother, aunt and even Nick Fury ringing in her ears via audio cues coming straight from Captain Marvel. “Your mother is lucky: when they handed out kids, they gave her the hardest part,” Danvers says as Maria pushes her last through the Hex, her eyes shining like Aunt Carol’s.

The story continues

In the Marvel Comics sequel, Monica actually predated Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, taking over after the first version, Mar-Vell, was killed off in a groundbreaking 1982 graphic novel. During her tenure, she joined and eventually led the Avengers, later transferring the nickname Captain Marvel to Mar-Vell’s son and adopting the name Photon instead. WandaVision The fourth episode established that “Photon” was Maria’s nickname in SWORD, and the sixth episode pointedly mentioned that going through the Hex twice had changed Monica on a cellular level … as in superpowers. This means that “Fourth Wall” functions both as Photon’s origin story in the MCU and as a prelude to Captain Marvel 2, which Nia DaCosta will direct later this year and is set to arrive in theaters on November 11, 2022. Is it any wonder that fans are anticipating a real Brie Larson cameo before WandaVision end?

If Aunt Carol shows up, it will probably be too late to help Wanda and Monica in their fight against Agatha Harkness, Kathryn Hahn’s next door neighbor, inclined to magic and most certainly evil. From the first episode, fans suspected “Agnes” to be Agatha: a powerful witch who has a long history with Wanda in the comics. And “Fourth Wall” finally offered confirmation, revealing that everything that had happened so far – from Pietro’s resurrection to Sparky’s death – was his doing. It’s a twist that viewers enjoyed, although they weren’t in the least bit surprised.

After that cliffhanger, viewers on the west coast had better steel themselves for more service outages when WandaVisionThe penultimate episode drops next week. Expect it to start with Photon’s very first supervillain battle: A bonus mid-credits scene showed her confronting the Agatha-controlled version of Pietro as she attempted to reach Wanda.

WandaVision currently broadcasting on Disney +.

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