At this point, just about every Marvel fan is aware thatWandaVisionhad a very special cameo from Evan Peters that served as a nod to Fox’sX-Menfilms. While some were happy to just see a fun wink at theX-Mencontinuity in the MCU, others were quite certain that this particular character was confirmation that the timelines of the MCU andX-Menfilms were finally going to merge after Disney’s acquisition of Fox.
The show has finally wrapped up, however, and unfortunately for hopeful fans, there was no confirmation one way or the other on the multiverse question.Peters hangs around as Quicksilveruntil the end of the show, but in the end, he is portrayed as just another victim of the struggle between Wanda and Agatha Harkness, with no hints of any timeline altering shenanigans.
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While some still argue that Peters' Quicksilver cameo was testing the waters for some kind of crossover, others were disappointed that Disney didn’t pull the trigger and confirm the appearance of the X-Men. For now, it seems that any kind of substantial answer about what happens tothe continuity of Fox’sX-Menfilmswill have to wait. In the meantime, oneWandaVisionproducer has shed some light on the reason for choosing Peters as Quicksilver. To go into slightly more detail, Peters wasn’t exactly the Quicksilver fans remember fromAvengers:Age of Ultron. At first, it is implied that Wanda has somehow raised her brother from the dead with a brand new appearance, but eventually, it is revealed that the villain Agatha Harkness has purposefully manipulated a man named Ralph into pretending to be Quicksilver, and Wanda had nothing to do with it.
As producer Mary Livanos explains, leaving asidethe issue of multiverseand cameos, the moment was meant to send Wanda off-balance, make her question her own abilities and motivations: “the villain plot really was to make Wanda feel unsure about her power…. we wanted her to be unsure about what she was capable of, about what she was doing, was her subconscious acting out again?” From a narrative standpoint, casting Quicksilver with a new face and personality serves both to confuse audiences, and Wanda herself.
They also wanted to emulate the actual grieving process, including what it’s actually like to lose someone and how memories can become fuzzy. In order to simulate that idea, the concept of having Pietro return for the first time since his demise inAvengers: Age of Ultron, but with a different appearance, became an interesting parallel to the way real-life memories of loved ones can change over time: “In our studies of grief and grieving, a side effect that we found is when you lose someone, the details of memory recall can get fuzzy. So the idea that she kind of forgot exactly what her brother’s face looked like, and perhaps her powers have been acting out again, we found really compelling.”
So even though Peters' appearance inWandaVisionmay not be setting up anX-Mencrossover, it’s clear a lot of thought went into the casting choice, and it fit the narrative in subtle ways that reinforce the theme of grief and loss. It’s an interesting peak behind the scenes of how casting decisions like this are made very early in the creative process.
WandaVisionis now available on Disney Plus.
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