How WandaVision’s ‘Pietro’ surprise cameo connects to an MCU multiverse

WandaVisionThe fifth episode of Us gave more answers about this strange TV show than in the previous chapters. It turns out that before creating her suburban sitcom fantasy, Wanda broke into a SWORD facility that housed Vision’s corpse. We also found out that Wanda is using her mind control powers for the first time since. Avengers: Age of Ultron. And Wanda seems to be projecting grief all over the town of Westview.

For those who are catching up: WandaVision and the Westview Anomaly appears to be a manifestation of Wanda’s grief over Vision’s death. She projects a happy sitcom life – perhaps inspired by shows she watched as a child in Sokovia – to avoid grief.

All of this revealed itself throughout episode five. And then a brief appearance in the final scene left viewers with a giant question that could have future and lasting implications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the appearance of Wanda’s late brother Pietro, she reports. introducing mutants into the MCU?

Only Marvel knows the answer for sure, but let me explain why this cameo was such a monumental moment for WandaVision and why comic book fans are absolutely in shock.

Why WandaVision Introducing Evan Peters’ Pietro aka Quicksilver is a big deal

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The biggest shock of WandaVision so far comes at the end of episode five, when Wanda and Vision hear a knock on the door. Depending on the tone of the entire episode, we were prepared for it to be Agnes, but it was actually Pietro (known as Quicksilver in the comics), aka Wanda’s super-fast twin brother who was killed by the manic AI known as Ultron. Becoming even more curvy, the character was portrayed on WandaVision by Evan Peters and not Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the actor who played Pietro in Avengers: Age of Ultron. This switcheroo directs Kat Dennings’ Darcy, Marvel’s first astrophysicist and avid follower of the WandaVision sitcom, to exclaim, “She recast Pietro?”

And in this very simple cameo, Marvel and WandaVision threw viewers a major curveball that could have profound implications for the MCU and the X-Men.

The reason why Peters appearance is so huge dates back to the late ’90s, when Marvel sold the rights to the film to some of its main characters. Fox got the rights to X-Men and Marvel Villains, and Sony got the rights to Spider-Man. Because those rights went to different studios, that meant Marvel’s entire roster of superhumans and villains wouldn’t make it to screen. The Pietro and Wanda case was a bit unusual, as Marvel and Fox shared ownership of the two characters. This was done because both characters were mutants and played roles as part of the Avengers.

Both studios used their own versions of Quicksilver, with Taylor-Johnson playing him in Age of Ultron and Peters playing the speedster in X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse.

The ownership of character rights has changed over the past few years – when Marvel and Sony struck a deal for Spider-Man in 2015 and when Marvel’s parent company Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019. Quite simply, any Marvel’s roster of superheroes can now all appear onscreen together, at least from a rights perspective.

What makes Pietro de Peters’ arrival such an eyebrow twist is the possibility that WandaVision could hint that Fox’s X-Men characters already exist in the MCU. Granted, there are some big questions, like if Peters’ Pietro has any powers or if he’s just another person from Westview who was cast on Wanda’s sitcom – a very real possibility. If he’s just another person drawn into Wanda’s spectacular great grief, then he’d just be a smiling Easter egg.

But if Peters’ Pietro is indeed Fox’s version of Pietro, then his presence could be an acknowledgment that Fox’s slate of X-Men characters and mutants exist in the MCU in a parallel reality that Wanda is manipulating. This could then mean that WandaVision is a way for Marvel to finally bring its recently acquired X-Men characters into the MCU. The thought being: If Wanda was successful in luring Fox’s mutant Pietro into her Westview anomaly, then her fellow mutants must already exist and could, like Pietro, jump into established Marvel MCU storylines.

What makes this theory even more enticing is that Marvel has played with the existence of parallel delays in the MCU before. In 2019 Avengers: Endgame, the main plot centered on the time jump without changing the future of the other timelines (see: The Elder’s conversation with the Hulk). Additionally, Marvel’s Doctor Strange sequel is called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, again alluding to parallel universes. Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda is reported to be a main character in this film.

There is also recent news that Sony’s third Spider-Man movie stars Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield, actors who played Spider-Man before current Spider-Man Tom Holland; Alfred Molina, who played Doctor Octopus, the villain in Maguire’s second Spider-Man movie, will also reprise his role.

And the idea of ​​a multiverse and parallel universe was at the heart of Sony’s Oscar-winning animated feature. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

Again, this could all be a shy tribute to the movies and actors of the past. But if Marvel does lay the groundwork for a multiverse and the X-Men, it starts with great progress WandaVision.

Wanda’s powers seem to be changing

Since its first episode, WandaVision slyly rewrote what we know of Wanda’s powers. In her appearances in previous Marvel films, Wanda has used telekinesis (the ability to move things with her mind) and limited telepathy (the ability to read minds and project thoughts). WandaVision expanded those abilities, showing her manipulative matter (like in the first episode, when she turned a hen into eggs) and sometimes “rewinding” the series (like in the second episode, where she made Agent SWORD disappear. coming out of the sewer).

Wanda’s powers were a topic of conversation again in Episode Five, as we learned they could be even bigger than they appear.

In the episode, Darcy, Monica, and Agent Woo discuss what they know Wanda can do – move things with her mind and perform mind control. But they also realize as Wanda is manipulating matter. The three note that Monica walked through Westview’s energy field wearing a Kevlar vest, but when she was zapped of it, it appeared that Wanda had changed the vest to a suit. She appeared to have done the same with a SWORD drone, which was turned into a toy helicopter. And Monica’s medical scans – which were taken after Wanda blew her up – were abnormal (the x-ray was blown out), suggesting that Wanda may have done something to her too.

So Wanda could change things on an atomic level, which would be a big deal. But the characters don’t seem to be really fazed by this new skill, as it was never mentioned again in the episode.

Either way, these new wrinkles introduce a different way of thinking about Wanda’s powers. What if her powers looked like something like the manipulation of reality, which she possessed in the comics, and mind control and the burst of energy was just how they manifested? in the MCU? What if she was capable of something bigger? What if she was more powerful than anyone knows?

Going back to the idea of ​​alternate realities, Wanda’s apparent ability to manipulate reality could tie in perfectly with the theory of multiple parallel universes and introduce all kinds of quirks into the MCU. It also aligns with the House of M comic book event that the show references quite heavily.

Granted, we still don’t know what’s really going on or if Wanda’s ability to warp matter is real and permanent. There could easily be a plot like a villain controlling Wanda or making her more powerful than she looks. But it’s something to watch out for, especially since there could be implications for the future of the entire MCU.