Questioning Reality With Wandavision

*Spoiler alert: Wandavision spoilers up to episode 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron*

Both new and old Marvel fans alike have been reeled in by Disney Plus’ new show, Wandavision. Each episode brings new twists and leaves everyone asking the same question at the end; what just happened? Every time a question is answered two new ones seem to pop up in its place. It makes the week-long wait for new episodes practically painful sometimes. The show’s events began to make more sense after the release of episode 5. Viewers were given a look outside of Wanda’s bubble and found that everything finally seemed to add up, answering their questions. However, the final moments of this episode had the biggest twist yet—Pietro. 

As many Marvel fans may recall, Pietro, known as Quicksilver in the comics, was Wanda’s twin brother who died a hero after getting shot in Avengers: Age of Ultron protecting Hawkeye and a child from a spray of bullets. Viewers could see how much this destroyed Wanda in that moment as she could feel her twin’s death at her core. Now, in Wandavision we see he was, in the words of show scientist Darcy, “recast” in Wanda’s world. This was not the MCU Pietro portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson that we watched die on the big screen. This quicksilver is actually Peter Maximoff from the X-men series played by Evan Peters.

So what does this mean exactly? Both the MCU and X-men movies are based on the original Marvel comics. However, we have never seen such a crossover before in either movie series. In fact, Wanda and her brother’s storylines are much different in the MCU movies than they were in the X-men.

Wanda is not oblivious to this change. When she sees her brother for the first time she looks shocked and doesn’t quite recognize him. In episode 6, Wanda and her twin were dressed in their original comic book costumes for Halloween while her kids were trick or treating. Seizing the opportunity, Wanda starts to test her brother and asks the question that’s been bugging her since his entrance to the show, “Why do you look different?” His response was a brush off to the question saying, “You tell me. If I found Shangri-La, I wouldn’t wanna be reminded of the past either.” This statement showed how much insight Quicksilver had into his sister’s mind and the world she created. Wanda created this world from the pain she felt over Vision’s death, and as Pietro reveals later in the episode, he felt Wanda needed him so he came. It’s likely Wanda’s heartbreak took her back to the tragic loss of her brother which is why she subconsciously recast him. 

This week, the revived Maximoff brother was noticeably missing from the episode. It wasn’t until the end credit scene that he reappeared for a split second making us wonder what his plans are. Marvel has not explained what they intend to do with this crossover, although Quicksilver has not mentioned an affiliation with the X-men, so it is unclear if he’s meant to be Peter, Pietro, or neither. We will have to stay tuned to the last few episodes to see how this unfolds and determine what is happening. Will there be more crossovers such as this in the future? Only time will tell. 

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