‘WandaVision’ Might Be Over, But Wanda's Story Has Only Just Begun
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By the end of 2020, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had started to feel a bit…stale. Part of what makes the superhero genre so universally captivating is its capacity to go where other mediums can't. But by the end of Avengers: Endgame, the MCU was closing the door on a chapter that, no matter how wildly successful, had followed a series of predictable patterns. While that doesn't make watching Tony Stark save the world any less satisfying, it does make it less nerdy. And no matter how mainstream superheroes get, there’s always a part of the genre that deserves its place in the realm of the geek, where fan-fueled calculus thrives.
Now, with the explosion of new MCU series rolling out on Disney+ (at least four by the end of 2021), the superhero empire is reigniting fan theory fervor. When WandaVision premiered on January 15, the sitcom-turned-horror-show experiment heralded a bold new path for comic-book narratives. Turns out, superheroes can make for pretty hilarious sitcoms! But, most importantly, WandaVision was intent on not spoon-feeding fans the same exact story they’ve seen before. Which means, of course, that the fan theory machine was running hot.
WandaVision takes place after Endgame, and it stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as a delightfully well-matched Wanda Maximoff and Vision, basking in newlywed bliss in the quaint 1950s-era suburb of Westview. They don’t exactly know how they got here, or what they’re doing in a sitcom. But they roll with it, moving through the decades in Marvel-ized versions of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, and Malcolm in the Middle. But increasingly, Vision gets the sense not all is right in their cookie-cutter suburb.
As the puzzle pieces came together with each episode drop, we gathered here to break down the best fan theories around the internet. Now that the first season is over, we've come back to mourn—and make sense of what we've learned.
Warning: Major spoilers follow.
Theory #1: WandaVision is a spin on the comics arc House of M. (Confirmed.)
If you’ve spent any time digging around Marvel fan forums, you’ve probably already stumbled on this theory, and after episode 8, it was officially confirmed.
Some quick background: In 2005, Marvel Comics released a storyline called House of M, written by comics legend Brian Michael Bendis, in which an insane Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff) has a mental breakdown and attempts to recreate the universe. You see, she’s lost her two children, Billy and Tommy (sound familiar?), as well as her grip on reality. The other Avengers and X-Men (in the comics, Wanda is a mutant) realize they must consider killing Wanda, because her reality-shaping powers pose an enormous threat to humanity if she cannot recover her sanity. (Again, we're seeing several hints of this attitude in WandaVision.)
Hearing the news of her pending execution, Wanda manifests a new world, an almost-perfect utopia where her children are alive, her superhero teammates are happy, and mutants rule the world. But it’s a dangerous lie, and when Wanda realizes what she’s done, she decides the solution is to rid the world of mutants like her. (You might have seen a comic panel circulating of Wanda whispering, “No more mutants.” It's very meme-able.) At that point, the majority of the mutant population lose their powers.
WandaVision couldn't mirror House of M exactly because, at this point in the MCU, the X-Men and Avengers’ worlds have not yet collided. But we do know after episode 8 that Wanda did indeed manifest Westview entirely of her own ability, and her power came from grief. If you remember the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, you’ll recall that Wanda is forced to kill Vision while extracting an Infinity Stone from his forehead, then watch him die again when Thanos brings him back to life, and, well, kills him…again. Vision does not return to life in Endgame, but Wanda does confront Thanos and tell him, “You took everything from me.” So we know WandaVision was based, at least in part, on House of M.
Theory #2: Agnes is really Agatha Harkness. (Confirmed.)
Fans have been calling this since the pilot, and their patience was finally rewarded during episode 7, “Breaking The Fourth Wall.” Agnes is Agatha Harkness.
If you need a recap before we get into the meaty comics lore, here's what to remember: You first met Agnes (Kathryn Hahn), Wanda and Vision’s deliciously wry neighbor, in the WandaVision pilot. She appears in Wanda's sitcom life more often than any of the other Westview residents, and she seems much more aware of her trope-stuffed life than Norm, Mr. Hart, and the others. We're also privy to plenty of Easter egg bits foreshadowing her inevitable witch heritage—the brooch she wears, the witch's hat she dons for Halloween, the cackle she emits when telling Vision he's dead.
But it isn't until episode 7 that we finally got our answers. In "Breaking The Fourth Wall," we watch Agnes play babysitter to Billy and Tommy at her unusually ornate home. (Anyone who isn't getting witch vibes at this point just hasn't been paying attention.) She tosses out some zingers about how Wanda is “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs” but keeps her act strictly Modern Family…until the end of the episode, when Wanda stumbles into her basement dungeon/temple/lair. Agnes wanders in and purrs, “You didn’t think you were the only magical girl in town, did you? The name’s Agatha Harkness. Lovely to finally meet you, dear!”
But Agatha really gets her time to shine in episode 8. In “Previously On,” we learn Harkness was once part of a witch coven in Salem, Massachusetts in 1693, but her lack of control concerned her fellow coven-ettes. They attempt to cuff her and, ostensibly, kill her, but she overpowers them, kills them instead—including her own mother—and scampers off into the distance. Centuries later, she’s drawn to Wanda's power when she sniffs it out in Westview, and she demands to know how Wanda orchestrated such a terrible feat: “magic on autopilot.” The problem is, Wanda doesn't really know.
Much of this origin story matches the Marvel comics, in which Harkness is an old (like, was-alive-before-the-sinking-of-Atlantis old) witch who escaped the Salem Witch Trials and went on to master mystical arts, later teaching them to a young Wanda Maximoff. In other points throughout the comics, she serves as Wanda’s antagonist, and she’s also the one who, after Wanda gives birth to twins Billy and Tommy, reveals to the Scarlet Witch that her children are not, in fact, hers, but were born of more demonic origins. We don’t need to unpack all of that, but the point stands that both the television and comics versions of Agatha are integral to Wanda's development.
If that's the case, then we can expect to see Agatha again. More on that later.
Theory #3: Wanda is the show's villain. And it'll come back to bite her. (Confirmed.)
Episode 8 entirely shifted my assumptions about Wanda's role in Westview. I was originally under the impression an outside power must be forcing her hand. But “Previously On” reveals Wanda herself created—and controls—all of the anomaly.
In WandaVision, our Ms. Maximoff knows there's another world beyond Westview where her brother lived and died, and where Vision similarly lived and died. And she would prefer to stay in her sitcom world. Anything—or anyone—who seeks to threaten her fake reality is…well, removable. To keep the world outside at bay, she's set up a barrier wall (the “Hex”) in New Jersey, and it's apparently expandable: At the end of episode 6, she uses it to swallow up the majority of the S.W.O.R.D (Sentient World Observation and Response Department) agents threatening her game of make-believe.
Still, what makes Westview so fascinating is that it is not, as Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) tells S.W.O.R.D.'s Director Hayward (Josh Stamberg), born of "a premeditated act of aggression." The town and all its characters—including Vision—are drawn forth from Wanda in an eruption of emotion, almost as if she has no choice in the matter. Her “transmutation,” as Agatha describes it, is completely spontaneous. Her creation is her agony overflowing.
The Hex is a surprisingly apt expression of grief: a make-believe sunshine-and-daisies arena where pain cannot touch its creator, yet she still harms those around her through her denial. By putting them under her spell, Wanda is inadvertently torturing the denizens of Westview, who, as we learn in the finale, will forever see her as some sort of monster.
We can expect that reputation to follow her well into the next chapter, whether that be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or a second season of WandaVision. I would not at all be surprised if one of these folks—be it Norm or Dottie or Herb—reappears down the road, holding a vendetta against the Scarlet Witch for the trauma she unintentionally unleashed upon them.
Theory #4: Monica is a superhero. We just don't know what that means yet. (Confirmed.)
We first met Monica Rambeau as a girl in Captain Marvel. She was the super-cute daughter of Carol Danvers's best friend, Maria, remember? Lieutenant Trouble? Well, a few years have passed since then, and it would seem Maria went on to found S.W.O.R.D. She raised her daughter in the fluorescent-lit control rooms of the organization, and Monica went on to become a respected agent in her own right. But, as we learn in episode 4, Maria contracted cancer, and she died during the time Monica disappeared in Infinity War's "snap."
In the first moments of episode 4, Monica re-materializes after the Avengers reverse the snap, and she rejoins S.W.O.R.D. But she's temporarily "grounded," meaning she's assigned to lowly earthly tasks. That leads her to the doorstep of Westview, and eventually to Wanda giving her the boot from the Hex.
Then, in episode 5, Monica awakens on the S.W.O.R.D. base to discover her lab results are—gasp—mysteriously blank. The medic requests another blood draw, and Monica refuses. No explanation is given. But, if we had to guess, this moment is brought to you by that episode 6 reveal, when Darcy discovers the Hex is manipulating Monica's cells.
In the comics, Monica has skills similar to Danvers—photon blasts, flight, the works. Over the years, Monica has claimed multiple aliases, including Photon, Spectrum, Pulsar, and even—yes—Captain Marvel. An Easter egg in episode 4 reveals that Maria, in fact, used "Photon" as a nickname at S.W.O.R.D.
So, when Monica makes the courageous choice to squeeze her body through the Hex again in episode 7, it shouldn't be a surprise that she comes out on the other side with glowing blue eyes. And moments later, when Wanda attempts to again throw her out of Westview, Monica reveals some electric-blue blasts that burst out of her…legs? Hands? Either way, she's got powers, people.
In fact, in the finale, she saves Billy and Tommy from some S.W.O.R.D. bullets by employing a phasing ability that's eerily similar to Vision's. So, what’s next for Captain Rambeau?
One theory is that Monica had some inkling of power before she entered the Hex. That would track, given her complete lack of shock or concern when, wonder of wonders, she suddenly has electric currents sparking from her feet. Utterly unfazed by her supposedly new gifts, Monica seems equally unconcerned when the medic brings up her blank blood work. How can that be, unless she's familiar with the symptom? Yes, the Hex might have manipulated her cells, as Darcy suggests, and granted her stronger powers—but it seems unlikely those powers sprang up out of nowhere. What if, instead, Monica's abilities were strengthened by Wanda's Hex, in the same way Wanda's dormant witch abilities were bolstered by the Mind Stone? If that's the case, Monica must have a whole history we know nothing about. And if that's the case, we can expect to see her again very soon—perhaps in Captain Marvel 2. (Or, hopefully, earlier.)
Theory #5: The Mind Stone gave Wanda its power as a way of perpetuating its existence.
A moment of huge importance in the penultimate episode is delivered with such subtlety that it's easy to forget. But—bear with me—it could be the key to bringing Vision back for good this time.
In “Previously On...,” Agatha takes Wanda on a dismal trip down memory lane, to the moment when her family home was destroyed in an air raid. After a Stark Industries bomb lands near her and Pietro as children, Wanda inadvertently employs a “probability hex” to keep it from going off, thus protecting her and her brother for the two days of ensuing violence. Keep in mind, this is ostensibly years before Wanda ever comes in contact with an Infinity Stone. That means she was born either a mutant or a witch—or some combination of both. It also means she had powers long before Hydra's Baron Wolfgang von Strucker experimented on her and Pietro.
When she’s radicalized following the death of her parents, that’s when she volunteers for Strucker's experiments and is presented with an Infinity Stone. And I’ve got to admit, this might be one of my all-time favorite Marvel scenes. The Infinity Stone opens itself up to Wanda, revealing itself to her as the Mind Stone. She touches it and it shatters, sending forth a brilliant ray of light as well as an, ahem, vision: Herself, floating down from the heavens in full Scarlet Witch garb. The, er, human Wanda then drops to her knees and falls unconscious. Meanwhile, the folks recording the experiment on their grainy little screen only see her faint. They have no evidence of her interacting with the stone.
We're meant to infer this is the moment in which Wanda gets her powers. But Agatha clarifies the Stone only “amplified what would have died on the vine.” The question we can't yet answer is, why? If so many others couldn’t handle the Stone’s power, why did it open itself up to Wanda? And why Pietro (who didn't have powers prior to the Hydra experiments) too?
Reddit user shuerpiola explains it this way: The Mind Stone chose Wanda as a way of keeping itself alive. It gave itself to her, fusing its own existence with hers.
“The Mind Stone perceived Wanda's loss of her parents, sensed her potential, and realized it was grief that it could exploit to perpetuate its own existence," shuerpiola explains. "It granted Pietro powers for the same reason—knowing that if he had powers then he would fight against Ultron, leading to his death and compounding Wanda's grief…[The Infinity Stones] knew that Wanda and The Vision would fall in love, that The Vision would die, and that Wanda would ultimately use her powers to recreate The Vision, and the Mind Stone with him.
“As stated many times so far: everything in the Hex is real. Hayward was able to track the Vision by his vibranium signature—meaning it's genuine vibranium. Similarly, there's no reason to believe the Mind Stone in the Hex is a knock-off either.”
Is your brain spinning yet? Mine too. But bear with me for a moment longer.
You see, in the finale, Wanda tells Vision that he is “the piece of the Mind Stone that lives in me.” We know this Vision cannot exist outside of Westview. But if Wanda possesses a piece of the Mind Stone, and it amplifies her powers, then it's not too far a jump to assume she can recreate the Mind Stone.
And if she can recreate the Mind Stone, she can recreate Vision. For real this time.
Theory #6: The White Vision will appear again.
Marvel is infamous for its post-credits scenes, so when the first few episodes of WandaVision unveiled no last-minute bombshells, fans were disheartened. Marvel is also infamous for playing tricks on its audience, so we really shouldn't be shocked the big wigs tucked one of the most important scenes of the show in the middle of episode 8's credits.
During said scene, we watch the nefarious Hayward reveal his Frankenstein's Monster: an all-white version of Vision, apparently engineered from the real Vision's remains and fueled by a bit of Wanda's stray chaos magic. On one hand, it's a relief to know Wanda is not a necrophiliac living out her suburban utopia with a corpse. On the other hand, it's pretty gross to know Hayward, apparently, has no problem dipping into the morgue for inspiration.
Still, it's obvious this White Vision is not actually Vision. For one thing, there's no Mind Stone slotted into his forehead. He's also all-white, signaling a “blank slate.” And that dead luminescent stare is definitely meant to trigger our Terminator alarms. So none of us were exactly surprised when it turns out he's a baddie, ordered to destroy the Vision in Westview.
But as we see in the finale, this White Vision is not incapable of changing his ways. He's able to think and consider philosophy—he and Vision discuss the Ship of Theseus thought experiment—and when Vision touches his forehead, White Vision suddenly regains memories of Vision's life pre-Endgame. He then soars off into the ether, never to be seen again in the episode.
We'd be foolish to think he's gone for good. This is Vision's body, with Vision's memories intact. Give him a little Mind Stone magic, and there's no reason he wouldn't become the real Vision, alive and well again. At the end of the finale, Vision tells Wanda that they've “said goodbye before, so it stands to reason…” Wanda finishes, “We’ll say hello again.”
Theory #7: Billy and Tommy will return.
At the end of episode 3, Wanda gives birth to twins Billy and Tommy. In the comics, these cuties are Billy and Tommy Maximoff, aka Wiccan and Speed, who have superpowers similar to Wanda and Pietro’s: hex abilities and super-speed.
Billy and Tommy are stupendous characters in their own right, and they eventually become leaders of the Young Avengers, another popular franchise that Marvel probably has plans to cinema-tize. But they also have complicated origins: They’re actually created from fragments of a demon’s soul, and that realization is part of what originally drives Wanda insane during House of M.
Let's not get into that just now. Instead, let's focus on those last few seconds of the WandaVision finale, namely the post-credits scene. We see Wanda in a log cabin somewhere in an undisclosed mountainous wilderness, where she makes herself tea while her disembodied self studies from the Darkhold in her bedroom. What's the Darkhold? Ah, yes, it's the “book of the damned.” So, uh, it's important!
In the comics, this book contains the spells of the evil god Chthon. It's a source of enormous power but great terror, i.e. a witch's best friend. As Wanda studies the book in her cozy little Airbnb, she suddenly hears what sound like the cries of her children, coming to her from elsewhere—perhaps an alternate reality?
What this signals is that Billy and Tommy will return, either as reincarnations—as they do in the comics—or as alternate versions of themselves, discovered during Wanda's adventures in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Regardless, they exist somewhere, and we can expect to see them again.
Theory #8: After reading the Darkhold, Wanda has become a Nexus Being.
Before we dig into this one, let's rewind back to episode 7, in which a “commercial” airs for the anti-depressant drug “Nexus.” A “nexus,” by definition, is a connection—something that pulls two or more things together but remains constant itself.
Comics readers will recognize the term as a possible reference to the Nexus of All Realities, a sort of crossroads where multiverse travelers can pick which reality they'd like to explore next. The different realities also have Nexus Beings, individuals who can affect probability and alter the Universal Time Stream.
Given what we witness during the post-credits scene after the finale, we know Wanda is studying up on all the secrets of the universe, which would put her in the perfect position to become a Nexus Being. And if she's accumulated enough knowledge from the Darkhold to become stronger than the Sorcerer Supreme, aka Doctor Strange, you can bet he's going to hightail it to her vacation rental ASAP.
What we don't know is if the Darkhold will turn Wanda into Doctor Strange’s antagonist, or if it will grant her the multiverse-hopping skills to become his greatest ally.
Theory #9: Don't expect Agatha to stay all Agnes-ified forever.
During the finale, Wanda decides the worst punishment for a witch like Agatha is to strip her of her power and condemn her to sitcom life, ostensibly forever. She transforms Agatha back into Agnes, just a nosy little neighbor who speaks in quips and cliches.
It would be a sin at this point to relegate Kathryn Hanh's talents to one season of a Disney+ show. Her turn as Agatha has been one of the series's highlights, and she's an important relic from the comics. We can almost certainly expect Wanda to wander back into Westview sometime soon, needing a little advice from a witch who's been around since the Salem trials. Plus, remember:She had possession of the Darkhold before Wanda got her hands on it—which means Agatha likely has plenty of extra tricks up her sleeve once she breaks free of Wanda's runes.
We still don't know if WandaVision will be renewed for a season 2. What we do know is that the story this show started is far from over. Wanda is still grieving (and learning). White Vision is still on the loose. And the multiverse—finally—is beckoning.
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