Ranking the Best Theories About What’s Happening

By the tip of 2020, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had began to really feel a bit…stale. A part of what makes the superhero style so universally fascinating is its capability to go the place different mediums cannot. However by the tip of Avengers: Endgame, the MCU was closing the door on a chapter that, irrespective of how wildly profitable, had adopted a sequence of predictable patterns. Whereas that does not make watching Tony Stark save the world any much less satisfying, it does make it much less nerdy. And irrespective of how mainstream superheroes get, there’s all the time part of the style that deserves its place within the realm of the geek, the place fan-fueled calculus thrives.

Now, with the explosion of new MCU series rolling out on Disney+ (no less than four by the end of 2021), the superhero empire is reigniting fan principle fervor. When WandaVision dropped on January 15, the sitcom-turned-horror-show experiment heralded a daring new path for comic-book narratives. Seems, superheroes could make for fairly hilarious sitcoms! However, most significantly, WandaVision—no less than initially—appears intent on not spoon-feeding followers the identical actual story they’ve seen earlier than. Which suggests, after all, that the fan principle machine is working scorching.

WandaVision takes place after Endgame, and it stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as a delightfully well-matched Wanda Maximoff and Imaginative and prescient, basking in newlywed (?) bliss within the quaint Fifties-era suburb of Westview. They don’t precisely understand how they received right here, or what they’re doing within the Fifties. However they roll with it: befriending neighbors, internet hosting expertise exhibits, almost spoiling dinner with Imaginative and prescient’s boss, and making an attempt to not wither below the essential eye of native Karen, Dottie (Emma Caulfied Ford). However more and more, Imaginative and prescient will get the sense not all is true on this cookie-cutter suburb.

New episodes drop each Friday, and because the puzzle items come collectively, we’re gathering the very best fan theories from across the web. Right here, we’ll attempt to make sense of what’s taking place to Wanda—and why it issues for the following part of Marvel tales.

Marvel Studios/Disney+

Idea #1: WandaVision is a spin on the comics arc Home of M. (Confirmed.)

Should you’ve spent any time digging round Marvel fan boards, you’ve most likely already chanced on this principle, and after episode 5 aired on February 5, it is nearly confirmed.

Here is the background: In 2005, Marvel Comics launched a storyline referred to as Home of M, written by comics legend Brian Michael Bendis, during which an insane Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff) has a psychological breakdown and makes an attempt to recreate the universe. You see, she’s misplaced her two kids, Billy and Tommy (sound acquainted?), in addition to her grip on actuality. The opposite Avengers and X-Males (within the comics, Wanda is a mutant) understand they need to contemplate killing Wanda, as a result of her reality-shaping powers pose an infinite risk to humanity if she can not get well her sanity. (Once more, we’re seeing hints of this in WandaVision.)

Listening to the information of her pending execution, Wanda manifests a brand new world, an almost-perfect utopia the place her kids are alive, her superhero teammates are comfortable, and mutants rule the world. However it’s a harmful lie, and when Wanda realizes what she’s performed, she decides the answer is to rid the world of mutants like her. (You may need seen a comic panel circulating of Wanda whispering, “No extra mutants.” It’s extremely meme-able.) At that time, nearly all of the mutant inhabitants lose their powers.

Home of M

Model: Marvel
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WandaVision cannot and will not mirror Home of M precisely as a result of, at this level within the MCU, the X-Males and Avengers’ worlds haven’t but collided. However it actually appears that Wanda has created her personal model of Westview out of grief. Should you bear in mind the occasions of Avengers: Infinity Battle and Endgame, you’ll recall that Wanda is forced to kill Vision whereas extracting an Infinity Stone from his brow. He doesn’t return to life in Endgame, and he or she tells Thanos, “You took all the pieces from me.”

Given the revelations we witnessed throughout episodes 4 and 5, this all is smart. When Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) is shipped spiraling again into the “actual” world, she whispers, “It is all Wanda.” We all know Wanda’s behind the “hex” surrounding Westview. What we do not know is how a lot of it she’s controlling.

Idea #2: Wanda is the present’s villain.

By now, we might be certain Wanda’s conscious of what is going on on in Westview, and he or she’s orchestrating most—if not all—of it. She is aware of there’s one other world past Westview the place her brother lived and died, and the place Imaginative and prescient equally lived and died. And she or he would favor to remain in her sitcom world. Something—or anybody—who seeks to threaten the pretend actuality is…nicely, detachable. To maintain the world outdoors at bay, she’s arrange a barrier wall (the “Hex”) in New Jersey, and it is apparently expandable: On the finish of episode 6, she makes use of it to swallow up nearly all of the S.W.O.R.D (Sentient World Commentary and Response Division) brokers threatening her recreation of make-believe.

Curiously, in an interview with ELLE.com about WandaVision, Olsen talked about, “With our present, you do not know what the villain is, or if there may be one in any respect.” It is clear the S.W.O.R.D staff that is arrange camp outdoors of the Hex assume she’s that villain. Imaginative and prescient is beginning to get that sense, too, and he is keen to flee Wanda’s chess board. However that does not imply all of the items add up.

Here is why: Wanda is tortured by her personal grief, by the errors she’s made because the Sokovia catastrophe in Age of Ultron. The chance that she’s blatantly disregarding human life for her personal achieve looks like a entice she would not enable herself to fall into once more—not simply, anyway. (Keep in mind that, in episode 5, Monica tells S.W.O.R.D.’s Director Hayward, “I do not consider this was a premeditated act of aggression.”) That mentioned, Wanda’s determined, and everyone knows what they are saying about determined folks. She may need allowed one thing supposedly innocent to develop into brutal by placing a cope with the unsuitable particular person.

She tells her brother, Pietro, in episode 6 that she does not bear in mind how the Westview anomaly first began. Within the wake of Avengers: Endgame, she solely remembers grief and vacancy. On high of that, she’s conscious the ethical quandaries round her Westview-puppeteering are sticky—she expresses as a lot to Pietro. So it is unlikely she created the Hex with a transparent thoughts. One thing or somebody manipulated her, toying along with her lucidity.

Chuck Zlotnick

Idea #3: The Westview residents know they’re being managed. Perhaps they’ll do one thing about it.

No matter who is pulling the strings, the Westview denizens have some inkling of unusual goings-on about city.

In episode 4, we study that these sort people are being “portrayed” by actual people. Darcy Lewis (an astrophysicist you will acknowledge from the Thor movies) and Jimmy Woo (a S.H.I.E.L.D.-turned-S.W.O.R.D. agent we met in Ant-Man and the Wasp) assemble a bulletin board lined with profiles of the characters and their actual names: Norm is Abilash Tandon, Phil is Harold Proctor, Mr. Hart is Todd Davis, and so forth. These characters did not volunteer to carry out imaginary lives in Wanda’s sitcom-verse, so that they should be—to at least one diploma or one other—below her thumb.

However they’re additionally acutely aware. In episode 5, Agnes asks Wanda if she desires to “take it from the highest” after Imaginative and prescient refuses to just accept her questionable babysitting expertise. Later, Wanda does not appear involved about Agnes witnessing her and Imaginative and prescient utilizing their powers. And at Imaginative and prescient’s workplace, Norm and Imaginative and prescient intercept an electronic mail from Darcy concerning the “Maximoff anomaly.” Norm laughs it off: “It is a joke. Cannot you inform? None of it’s actual.” Then, when Imaginative and prescient clears his thoughts, Norm’s face contorts into horrified panic: “She’s in my head. None of it’s my very own. It hurts.”

We’re meant to imagine that “she” is Wanda, after all. However does she know she’s hurting them? And is it doable the Westview residents know greater than they’re revealing? In episode 6, Wanda chats with Franken-Norm concerning the Neighboorhood Watch’s reign over the Halloween festivities, and he asks her if there’s something she “desires modified.” The query puzzles her, although it appears a transparent nod to her management over the city.

Then there’s Agnes. She, specifically, appears to have extra data than she’s sharing, even when it frightens her.

Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Idea #4: Agnes is absolutely Agatha Harkness.

You first met Agnes (Kathryn Hahn), Wanda and Imaginative and prescient’s deliciously wry neighbor, within the WandaVision pilot. It is doable she’s merely a quippy side-character, however all indicators level to the alternative.

To begin with, Agnes seems in Wanda’s sitcom life extra usually than any of the opposite Westview residents, and he or she appears rather more conscious of her trope-stuffed life than Norm, Mr. Hart and the like. Close to the tip of episode 6, Imaginative and prescient discovers her on the turn-off for Ellis Avenue, mere minutes after Wanda has simply instructed her kids to not enterprise previous the very same avenue. Along with her witch’s hat and poor sense of path, Agnes appears utterly unsettled.

Previous to stumbling upon Agnes, Imaginative and prescient had made the disagreeable discovery that, ostensibly, Wanda is just controlling a sure radius inside Westview at any given time. The remainder of the households are frozen, although nonetheless self-aware, if we’re to guage by the lady caught hooking her laundry on a line whereas a tear rolls down her cheek. When Imaginative and prescient makes an attempt to make contact with these icicles, they don’t have any skill to reply.

At Ellis, Agnes can also be caught, although acutely aware sufficient to maneuver and communicate—which, in and of itself, indicators one thing completely different about her. Imaginative and prescient asks the place she’s headed, and he or she says, “City Sq. Scare. The place is it?”

The synthezoid chuckles anxiously. “City sq., I count on.”

“Bought misplaced,” she explains.

Pissed off by all of the unanswered questions, Imaginative and prescient mind-zaps her like he did Norm within the earlier episode. Agnes breaks out of her trance and stares at him: “You’re one of many Avengers! You’re Imaginative and prescient! Are you right here to assist us?” earlier than explaining, “Wanda gained’t even allow us to take into consideration leaving.” She then reminds him a number of instances that he is lifeless, and begins to cackle like, nicely, a witch.

At this level, Imaginative and prescient’s as unsettled because the viewers, and he brain-blasts her again to her trance state. Agnes takes the chance to show her automotive round and head again to city, by no means answering why she was at Ellis Avenue within the first place. Was she making an attempt to flee?

Here is the place the comics lore comes into play. A number of followers assume Agnes should be Agatha Harkness; within the comics universe, Harkness is an outdated (like, was-alive-before-the-sinking-of-Atlantis outdated) witch who escaped the Salem Witch Trials and went on to grasp mystical arts, later educating them to a younger Wanda Maximoff. In different factors all through the comics, she serves as Wanda’s antagonist, and he or she’s additionally the one who, after Wanda provides beginning to twins Billy and Tommy, reveals to Wanda that the kids usually are not, in actual fact, hers, however have been born of extra demonic origins. We don’t have to unpack all of that, however the level stands that Agatha has an vital function in Wanda’s life—so it is smart she’d seem in Wanda’s TV present.

One other attention-grabbing element? Within the comics, Agatha has a son named Nicholas Scratch. And the title of Agnes’s bunny in WandaVision? Señor Scratchy. Yours actually can be nicely and actually shocked if she does not have some bigger function to play within the MCU, which might be a real blessing for the franchise given Hahn’s inimitable vary.

Marvel Studios

Idea #5: Billy and Tommy are the primary kids in Westview to get superpowers. They won’t be the final.

On the finish of episode 3, Wanda gives birth to twins Billy and Tommy. Within the comics, these cuties are Billy and Tommy Maximoff, aka Wiccan and Pace, who’ve superpowers much like Wanda and Pietro’s—hex talents and super-speed.

Billy and Tommy are stupendous characters in their very own proper, they usually ultimately develop into leaders of the Younger Avengers, one other well-liked franchise that Marvel most likely has plans to cinema-tize. However in addition they have difficult origins: They’re really created from fragments of a demon’s soul, and that realization is a part of what initially drives Wanda insane throughout Home of M.

What’s most attention-grabbing about Wanda’s relationship with the twins in WandaVision is that she can not seem to management them. She will be able to’t make them cease crying as infants. She will be able to’t cease their fast age development. They usually appear to know greater than she desires them to—like, as an illustration, that she “can repair something,” as Tommy stresses after their pet, Sparky, dies in episode 5.

When Tommy asks her to deliver the canine again to life, Wanda responds, “I’m making an attempt to let you know that there are guidelines in life. We will not rush getting older simply because it is handy. And we won’t reverse demise, irrespective of how unhappy it makes us. Some issues are endlessly.”

However we all know from episode 5 this is not true. Wanda apparently resurrected Imaginative and prescient, if S.W.O.R.D. is be believed; they’ve proof of her stealing his physique from their base. And the twins can rush their very own getting older, which appears to indicate they’ve inherited their mom’s powers—or that, in some way, they’ve acquired them.

Previous to episode 6, many followers have been below the impression there have been no different kids in Westview. However all of them come crawling out of…someplace for Halloween, all wearing costume and unprepared to have their sweet stolen by two hot-headed and super-speedy Maximoffs. Pietro (Evan Peters), who has solely simply appeared in Wanda’s actuality with no rationalization, makes observe of this: He implies Wanda saved the city’s little tykes sleeping of their beds till a kid-friendly occasion like Halloween arrived. “You dealt with the moral concerns of this situation as greatest you might,” he tells her. She does not appear so certain.

At this level, Tommy has revealed he shares his uncle’s penchant for super-speed, whereas Billy solely reveals his extra nebulous magical powers when his dad makes a break for the Hex perimeter. Determined to flee, Imaginative and prescient pushes by way of the barrier, leaving bits of himself behind till he crumples to the bottom. Billy senses his ache and tells his mom they’ve to assist him.

It is doable Billy and Tommy’s powers have solely been dormant up up to now, and that they inherited them genetically. However it additionally appears doable the Hex itself is doing one thing to their molecular construction. In any case, we study from Darcyin episode 6 that Monica’s cells have been manipulated twice on account of Hex interference. Would possibly this give her powers? And if it provides her, Billy, and Tommy their very own powers, may it additionally give the opposite Westview residents powers, too? Would that make them…mutants?

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Idea #6: Pietro’s return opens the doorways to the X-Males universe.

If we all know something concerning the MCU, it’s that the creators aren’t afraid of bold storylines. Plus, extra franchises = extra $. And the X-Males franchise is a money-maker.

Disney owns the rights to X-Males, which is why you’ll see these movies in your Disney+ queue. It is seemingly the Avengers MCU and the X-Males universe will ultimately collide on the silver display screen, as they do within the comics. WandaVision appears able to be the rainbow bridge.

By far the largest reveal of episode 5 is Pietro Maximoff’s return to the display screen. Wanda’s brother exhibits up at her doorstep, utterly sudden—and, apparently, not by her design: When the doorbell rings, she tells Imaginative and prescient, “I did not try this.” The door swings open, and there is Pietro…besides not the one from Age of Ultron. That is Evan Peters’ model of Pietro, who first appeared in X-Males: Days of Future Previous.

That is the primary time the worlds of the X-Males movies and the MCU movies have collided. And Evan-Pietro appears not sure what he is doing in Westview both. In episode 6, he explains to Wanda that, in a single second he was getting shot, and within the subsequent, he was blipped into Westview. This makes the favored principle that Evan-Pietro is from an alternate universe much less doable: He remembers dying throughout Age of Ultron, which by no means occurred to Pietro within the X-Males movies. Nonetheless, there’s one thing crucial about this specific model of Quicksilver arriving in Wanda’s fantasy land, and it virtually positively has one thing to do with the world of mutant-kind.

Marvel Studios

Idea #7: Monica’s superpowers are already cooking.

If you have not already googled Monica Rambeau’s title in a mad fervor, here is what it’s worthwhile to know: She first appeared as a bit of lady in Captain Marvel. She was the super-cute daughter of Carol Danvers’s greatest buddy Maria, bear in mind? Lieutenant Hassle? Properly, a number of years have handed since then, and it will appear Maria went on to discovered S.W.O.R.D. Maria raised her daughter within the fluorescent-lighted management rooms of the group, and Monica went on to develop into a revered agent in her personal proper. However, as we study in episode 4, Maria contracted most cancers, and he or she died throughout the time Monica disappeared within the “snap.”

Within the first moments of episode 4, Monica re-materializes after the Avengers reverse the snap, and he or she rejoins S.W.O.R.D. However she’s quickly “grounded,” which means she’s assigned to lowly earthly duties. That leads her to the doorstep of Westview, and ultimately to Wanda giving her the boot.

Then, in episode 5, she awakens on the S.W.O.R.D. base to find her lab outcomes are mysteriously clean. The medic requests one other blood draw, and Monica refuses. No rationalization is given. However, if we needed to guess, this second is dropped at you by that episode 6 reveal, when Darcy discovers the Hex is manipulating folks’s cells.

WandaVision has but to disclose if this grownup Monica has any talents, however within the comics, she has expertise much like Danvers—photon blasts, flight, the works. Over time, Monica has claimed a number of aliases, together with Photon, Spectrum, Pulsar, and even—sure—Captain Marvel. An Easter egg in episode 4 reveals that Maria, in actual fact, used “Photon” as a nickname at S.W.O.R.D. And in episode 5, Monica requests Darcy’s staff construct a “10,000-pound fallout shelter comprised of lead for photons.” It is uncertain that is a throwaway reference.

Monica may not have her powers but, but when she ventures again into the Hex, it is seemingly they will make their first look.

Now, why does she look so remiss when Jimmy mentions Captain Marvel throughout certainly one of their briefings? We will not know for certain. However we will assume it has one thing to do with ’90s-era Danvers departing Earth to spend 23 years exploring Outer House, leaving Maria and Monica alone on the blue planet.

Suzanne Tenner

Idea #8: S.W.O.R.D. began all of this.

Marvel likes to reveal how corrupt folks in energy are the dangerous guys extra usually than demigods and mad titans. So what if, like in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the actual villain is somebody we have already met?

We see in episode 5 that Wanda retrieved Imaginative and prescient’s corpse from a S.W.O.R.D lab. Should you look intently, you may see he was in items, utterly dismantled and certain being experimented with. It is doable S.W.O.R.D itself was violating Imaginative and prescient’s will and making an attempt to recreate him, so Wanda stole his physique and resurrected him with the intention to rescue him.

If that is true, which means S.W.O.R.D. may need had a hand in Wanda’s creation of Westview. And Director Hayward may know extra about it than we have been led to consider. It appears seemingly, on condition that little “Cataract” undertaking Darcy discovers in episode 6. Hayward’s already confirmed himself to be an ass. What if he is additionally the catalyst?

Idea #9: Somebody’s snacking on Wanda’s magic.

By far essentially the most weird factor of episode 6 is the claymation industrial, that includes a ravenous little one on a desert island and a shark who affords him yogurt referred to as “Yo-Magic.” Sadly, the child is simply too weak and fidgety to get the wrapper off the container, and he finally ends up actually decomposing earlier than our eyes. “Yo-Magic: The Snack For Survivors,” the industrial concludes.

Aside from being a really upsetting interruption from our favourite program, this Easter egg appears to have most followers stumped. That mentioned, it is a fairly clear play on phrases: Yo-Magic is “your magic,” and possibly Wanda’s magic. So, is somebody snacking on Wanda’s magic—maybe the Westview residents themselves? And if they do not get the magic anymore, do they die?

Marvel Studios

Idea #10: The sequence’ huge dangerous is Mephisto.

I’ve grown much less drawn to this principle over time as a result of it does not appear consistent with what’s occurred within the present up to now. However Reddit followers appear adamant that WandaVision has but to disclose its trump card: an as-yet-concealed villain named Mephisto.

His character has been round because the Nineteen Sixties, and he’s based mostly on the Mephistopheles of German legend. Mainly, he’s a demon-like creature, oft confused for Devil, who can shape-shift and alter time. As soon as upon a time, he served Thanos, very like Ronan and different huge bads. Maybe he’s manipulating Wanda, however it appears extra seemingly the 2 of them made a pact—a cope with the satan, if you’ll. Maybe, in return for her personal sitcom-verse the place Imaginative and prescient is alive, Wanda agreed to enter Mephisto’s area and develop into trapped below his rule.

Here is why this principle holds weight: In episode 5, Wanda stresses a number of instances that she does not know “how any of this began within the first place.” When Imaginative and prescient confronts her, she appears horrified by his accusations, mystified that he thinks she’s able to controlling everybody in Westview always. Certain, she could possibly be bluffing. However there’s seemingly a component of reality to her protection. Maybe one thing outdoors of her—perhaps Mephisto?—is controlling her skill to regulate.

Idea #11: The “lacking particular person” will play an vital function.

In all the joy of latest episodes, it is simple to neglect that Monica and Jimmy first confirmed up in Westview due to a lacking particular person case. However do not let that element escape you. It could possibly be an enormous clue.

The lacking particular person they’re after—a male—is within the Witness Safety Program, and none of his recognized associates or relations have even heard of him.

Bettany talked about in an interview with the “Lights Digital camera Barstool” podcast that he works with a particular thriller actor in WandaVision: “So many issues get leaked, however there’s this factor that has been utterly below wrap that occurs. I work with this actor that I’ve all the time needed to work with and we have now fireworks collectively—the scenes are nice and I believe persons are going to be actually excited. I’ve all the time needed to work with this man and the scenes are fairly intense.”

Clearly this is a vital character, and there is a purpose he hasn’t been revealed but. Many fans think this thriller man is “Ralph,” the husband Agnes mentions regularly who has but to seem onscreen. Others think Ralph may simply be Mephisto.

Marvel Studios/Disney+

Idea #12: WandaVision will tie instantly into Physician Unusual in The Multiverse of Insanity. (Confirmed.)

This principle is much less about if than how. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed WandaVision will tie into the movie, and Olsen will star alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in March 2022’s The Multiverse of Insanity. So, what does that imply? Properly, the idea of Wanda creating her personal alternate actuality inside the multiverse could possibly be true. And if she exhibits up within the subsequent Physician Unusual, somebody should pull her out of the sitcom-verse—and it could possibly be the Grasp of the Mystical Arts himself.

Idea #13: The oldsters within the firs WandaVision industrial are Wanda’s mother and father.

All of the WandaVision “commercials” promote completely different merchandise. The primary is a Stark Industries toaster, the second is a Strücker watch, the third is “Hydra Soak,” a specialty bathtub product, and the fourth is a paper towel model referred to as “Lagos.” Should you’re an avid MCU fan, you’ll after all know Stark Industries is Tony Stark’s firm, and Strücker is the final title of Baron von Strücker, the Hydra chief who recruited Wanda and her brother Pietro earlier than Age of Ultron and gave them their powers.

Why is that this vital? As one fan pointed out, the adverts appear to be revisiting Wanda’s trauma: A Stark Industries bomb killed her mother and father, and Strücker corrupted Wanda and her brother, recruiting them for Hydra. Lagos is a reference to the town during which she by chance destroyed a constructing, killing quite a few residents inside.

However who’re the person and girl within the Stark Industries industrial? One Twitter user suggested they could possibly be Wanda and Pietro’s deceased mother and father, alive once more in her pseudo-reality. Does this imply she will deliver others again to life, akin to Imaginative and prescient himself, or even perhaps her brother Pietro? Or is she merely imagining all these ghosts of the lifeless?

Marvel Studios/Disney+

This story will probably be up to date every week after new episodes of WandaVision drop.

Watch WandaVision on Disney+