Some say the finale's twist just doesn't add up.
'WandaVision' Fans Have Mixed Feelings About That Evan Peters Reveal
Warning: This article contains spoilers for all nine episodes of WandaVision, as well as some Marvel movies. Also, episode nine of WandaVision has a mid-credits scene and a post-credits scene. If you finished the episode but forgot to stick around for those, go back and watch!
In many ways, WandaVision functioned like no other Marvel project before it, and exactly like one in others. The show undoubtedly gained traction week by week with the help of fans sharing theories and Easter Eggs, or delighting over clever MCU tie-ins and casting choices. Look, Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) mastered the magic trick from Ant-Man! How will this tie in with Dr. Strange 2, which we know will include the Scarlet Witch? You get the idea.
On the other, WandaVision was never supposed to be a simple introduction to Phase 4 of the MCU. Above all else, WV was a thoughtful exploration of grief as Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) avoided processing the death of her soulmate Vision (Paul Bettany) in Avengers: Infinity War by accidentally enslaving the small town of Westview and casting the citizens in her own little sitcom.
Jumping decades week to week, this storytelling model was unlike anything we've ever seen from Marvel and gave escapism through television a whole new meaning. And yet, WandaVision largely abandoned this fascinating vehicle in favor of a somewhat typical MCU fight scene for its big finale. All of these things can be true.
This is why it's fair to feel frustrated by the WandaVision finale even if you loved it. No, WandaVision never promised to introduce the Multiverse or villains like Mephisto, but it's also not true that fans were pulling these theories out of absolutely nowhere. The biggest example of this, and the reveal that caused the most frustration online, was the decision to cast Evan Peters as fake Pietro Maximoff, only to reveal that he was really just Agatha/Agnes' (Kathryn Hahn) husband Ralph Bohner the whole time.
AdvertisementIn case you don't know the significance of Peters' casting as Pietro, let me give you the basics. Until recently, Marvel Studios didn't own the rights to X-Men, despite the popular franchise's Marvel comic roots. Therefore, in order to introduce Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch into the MCU, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) were given non-mutant backgrounds. Meanwhile, over at Fox, the X-Men movies included a much more beloved, comedic version of Quicksilver, played by Peters.
So, after the death of Taylor-Johnson's Pietro in Age of Ultron, the surprise introduction of Peters in episode five of WandaVision made fans lose their minds! Were we finally going to bring in a separate universe where the X-Men and mutants exist? Based on the finale….no. In fact, now it seems that the “recast” Pietro was a complete red herring. So yeah, people had thoughts about this.
Many felt purposefully misguided and were disappointed by the reveal.
https://twitter.com/SITHPIETROS/status/1367785486627057664
https://twitter.com/IzzaacBruh/status/1367759129104637952
https://twitter.com/AaggronV/status/1367808221994381317
https://twitter.com/coffeesfclosers/status/1367759886356987905
https://twitter.com/AbiThere4You/status/1367885602234888192
https://twitter.com/Kawaiivibes4/status/1367852092828905476
Still, others aren't so sure we should take Ralph Bohner at his word.
https://twitter.com/Flynn5200/status/1367908060061175808
https://twitter.com/cxxtiels/status/1367760030049603586
One TikTok user broke down exactly why the reveal doesn't track, which could mean we're in for a long game. “I have openly maintained the entire time that I think it makes absolutely zero sense for fake Pietro to be anyone other than Fox Quicksilver—also he was literally introduced as Fox Quicksilver and the captions,” user @jstoobs said in her video. “We're supposed to believe that Agatha has full control over this regular Westview citizen named Ralph Bohner, of all things, and she's able to somehow mimic [Pietro's] superspeed ability—he does it even when he's just alone with Monica at the end—but she can't make him look like [Wanda's] brother, Aaron Taylor Johnson?”
Honestly, I'm just wondering why a guy who lived his whole life as Ralph Bohner would laugh at his own name when Monica (Teyonah Parris) reads it off his headshot… I'm just saying that maybe there's still be hope for Quicksilver! But even if there's not, at least we all got to share something incredibly special for a few weeks. See you when The Falcon and the Winter Soldier hits Disney+ on March 19.
This story originally appeared on: Glamour - Author:Emily Tannenbaum