Marvel Fans Are Tipping Their Hats To Kevin Feige For The Best ‘WandaVision’ Episode So Far

(Spoilers from Marvel Studios and Disney+’s WandaVision will be found below.)

Last week’s episode of WandaVision built upon all of those easter eggs that propped up HYDRA to remind everyone that Wanda Maximoff can never escape her traumatic past. So, we got a lot of Age Of Ultron references, which led people to believe that we might be seeing Wanda’s brother, Pietro, reenter the MCU. Of course, Pietro died in Age Of Ultron, if Pietro was gonna make a comeback, an adjustment needed to be made. After all, Wanda couldn’t simply conjure the guy back up… actually yes, she could do that if she wished. We learned that much last week from Monica/Geraldine’s revelation that “it’s all Wanda” (although many suspect that it’s also “all Agnes”) during the SWORD agent’s final moments in Westview.

Well, Episode 5 told us, over and over again, that Wanda is in control here. This isn’t an illusion; it’s reality. She’s controlling the town’s citizens and essentially holding them hostage by changing their personalities and writing the script on what happens, who does what, and yeah, the Agnes stuff is getting complicated. We can’t tell if Wanda’s controlling her too, or if Agnes is pulling strings with Mephisto in the background, but we do know that Vision is attempting to get Wanda to stop causing so much “pain” to those who she’s controlling. Whether or not that helps to qualify Wanda as a future MCU big bad, we don’t know yet, but we got a massive payoff at the end of the episode.

Pietro is back, only he’s not the MCU Pietro/Quicksilver we know from Age Of Ultron. Instead, Wanda has recast Aaron Taylor Johnson, as Darcy observes.

Instead of Aaron, we see Evan Peters, who played the same character in the X-Men movies. Quicksilver asking, “Long-lost bro get to squeeze his stinkin’ sister to death or what?” is pretty swell. I love how he referred to Vision as a “popsicle,” and given what we saw last week, dude is an undead popsicle. This seemingly simple moment easily qualifies this episode as the best WandaVision entry thus far. The live audience obviously loved it, and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has done the thing, y’all.

With a solitary chess move, Feige has combined the MCU and the FOX superhero universes. The implications here are huge. Disney+ and Marvel Studios can now pull mutants into the game, and who knows, we might even see Deadpool shimmy into the party sooner than expected. It’s mind-boggling, how casually this is all going down.

Once again, too, I’m reminded of how Feige dropped those telltale hints like he does. Ahead of WandaVision‘s debut, he talked about how Wanda’s was the most powerful Avenger vengefully facing off against Thanos during the Endgame final battle. She was incensed (and rightfully so) about everything in her world being taken away, and Feige characterized that as “interesting,” almost with a wink and nod. (Ain’t he a stinker?) And in WandaVision, Wanda’s been taking everything back while bending reality like we saw her do in Age Of Ultron. After that, of course, Wanda was sidelined and largely relegated to romantic interest, which angered me at the time, but given that the romcom-y stuff has been superbly played up in this Disney+ series, it’s all coming together more than I could ever have imagined.

Has Kevin Feige really been planning this all along? Did he really push Wanda into the background with the intent of knocking our socks off in Phase 4 by obliterating her “romantic interest” purpose and finally elevating her as the all-powerful being she was forecast to be (from the very moment she was introduced in the MCU)? I think this episode confirms the answer is “yes,” but again, we’ll have to wait and see where this show takes us next. It’s worth noting that Monica and Darcy did pay debate whether Wanda or Captain Marvel was more powerful against Thanos.

“Scarlet Witch” could become the dominant Wanda moniker at some point, and I suspect that Agnes will play into that, since all signs have pointed toward Agnes truly being Agatha Harkness, a sorceress from the comics who helped Wanda come into her powers while training with HYDRA.

We also know that Wanda will play a pivotal role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so it feels safe to assume that Pietro being “recast” has opened that door as well. Are we in the multiverse now, baby? It kind-of feels like it.

Whatever the case, Marvel fans are thrilled and tipping their nerd-hats to Kevin Feige.

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Fans are now placing all of their trust in Feige, which is a good thing. After all, there’s no going back now.

‘WandaVision’ will stream new episodes each Friday.