Once the finale of WandaVision had cut to black, we were left to sift through the rubble of a thousand fan theories that turned out to be hugely wide of the mark. The ninth episode hewed closer to the standard Marvel Cinematic Universe formula than any of the show’s previous installments, but it still tied things up in a neat enough fashion.
However, some folks were left dismayed by the lack of a major cameo, which turned out to be Paul Bettany pulling double duty. Obviously there’s no obligation on Marvel’s part to parachute in familiar faces for every single project, but there was vocal discontent online from certain sections, especially when WandaVision had made literally anything possible up to that point.
Another bone of contention was the resolution of Quicksilver’s identity crisis, when it was revealed that Evan Peters was a dude named Ralph all along. Of course, there’s already been speculation that there’s more to this than meets the eye, with Mr. Bohner said to be the key witness that drew Jimmy Woo to WestView in the first place, but some fans were upset he didn’t turn out to be the same guy from Fox’s X-Men franchise. At least, not yet.
In a new interview, director Matt Shakman addressed the big Quicksilver reveal, and compared it to the divisive Mandarin twist from Iron Man 3, which was either a work of genius or killed the entire movie, depending on who you ask.
“Just out of the blue, no idea who the person is, sent me this tirade of like, ‘Didn’t you guys learn from Iron Man 3 with the fake Mandarin?’, and my first takeaway was how that was my favorite part of Iron Man 3, when Ben Kingsley came out of the bathroom saying, ‘Don’t go in there!’. I was like, ‘This is amazing!’.
Trevor, the fake Mandarin, was fantastic. Playing with expectations, turning things around, is always enjoyable, and what I would say to the Marvel fan who’s a little disappointed that the X-Men didn’t show up, or the multiverse didn’t show up clearly right there, is that they’re coming. You know they’re coming, right? You’ve got a movie called Multiverse of Madness. You’ve got mutants announced at Comic-Con a year and a half ago. Like, they’re coming. And guess who else is coming? The Mandarin is coming! He’s the villain in Shang-Chi! So your patience will be rewarded.”
It certainly doesn’t feel like we’ve seen the last of Evan Peters in the MCU, and Shakman is right, as we’re only one TV show into Phase Four and there are still plenty more twists and turns to come as things progress, even if WandaVision‘s bow wasn’t tied to everyone’s satisfaction.