'WandaVision' Mystifies With 'Thor' and 'Ant-Man' Crossover Characters

When Wanda Maximoff returns with Vision in a Marvel Cinematic Universe television series for Disney+ called WandaVision, they’ll do so alongside an MCU character from the first two Thor movies and another from Ant-Man and the Wasp. This makes more sense in the context of Scarlet Witch’s origin and powers, and lends further evidence to the theory that the entire series is some kind of dream or vision Wanda experiences.

Per the official Marvel.com blog, we know that WandaVision “features the characters Wanda Maximoff and Vision as two super-powered beings living their ideal suburban lives who begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.” Doesn’t that sound like an idyllic dream that might turn into a nightmare?

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During Disney’s D23 convention last weekend, Marvel Studios announced that Kat Dennings would assume the role of Darcy Lewis WandaVision, who she previously played in Thor and The Dark World. The studio also confirmed Randall Park would appear as Jimmy Woo, Scott Lang’s parole officer from Ant-Man and the Wasp. Why are a present-day graduate assistant and FBI agent part of a story set around 70 years ago?

They’ll be joined by Kathryn Hahn as a new character who’s some kind of nosy neighbor, and at San Diego Comic-Con in July, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige welcomed Teyonah Parris (Chiraq, Dear White People), who will play the grown-up Monica Rambeau in WandaVision — also more or less in the present day.

Of all the upcoming shows and movies taking place in Marvel Studios’ Phase Four and beyond, WandaVision is perhaps the most confusing on account of all these contradictions.

On Sunday, artist Andy Park also shared to Twitter a piece of WandaVision concept art he painted that shows the pair seated on a living room couch in an idyllic 1950s house. Looming behind them are the shadows of their comic book counterparts.

To recap: Official concept art has a retro 1950s vibe. Characters from the present day across at least three different Marvel Studios solo films will appear. All this without reminding fans that Vision is totally dead after Thanos plucked the Mind Stone from his head like it was a ripe piece of fruit. Based on what we know, the only possible explanation has to do with Wanda’s original powerset as we saw in Avengers: Age of Ultron mixed with the one that’s evolved over time: mental manipulation mixed with reality warping

By Avengers: Endgame, Wanda was able to best Thanos in one-on-one combat using the power of her red magic, but she spent most of Ultron causing the Avengers to see traumatic visions. As Wanda’s powers grow, it’s totally possible that she’s close to reaching power levels akin to the character from the comics, who could completely rewrite all of reality. Either that or she’s merely inducing a vision into her own mind, a magically-induced hallucination to help ease the pain of losing her beloved Vision.

Such a magical effect could potentially drag random people from the “real world” into the hallucination — or at least facsimiles of them. Consider how Rick and Morty once put two characters inside a simulation, and the computer created fake versions of familiar faces to help make the simulation seem more real. WandaVision could do something similar, but that doesn’t explain why it would be these seemingly random MCU characters.

Kevin Feige described WandaVision as half superhero epic and half retro sitcom. The idyllic nature of the setting reinforces the theory about this all being fake and/or some kind of vision. Even the title “WandaVision” conjures up a premise that the entire series is a “vision” that “Wanda” experiences rather than the more obvious (and bad) portmanteau about the characters “Wanda” and “Vision.” Something doesn’t add up here, and Wanda’s weird magic is the only explanation.

WandaVision will be released in spring 2021.