Rumors have been circulating for months that X-Men franchise star Evan Peters would be making his way over to WandaVision on Disney+, and now we have the confirmation!
Marvel Studios‘ WandaVision series tells the story of the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), and her husband, the android known simply as Vision (Paul Bettany). While not everything about the story is yet clear, the series’ format features the styles of various television sitcoms through the ages, with each episode moving a decade or so forward in style from the one before it. Something is obviously amiss in the world the series is set in, but exactly what remains a mystery.
Wanda Maximoff has been through a lot in recent years. She lost most of her family at a young age due to a war in her home country of Sokovia, with only her and her twin brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor Johnson) surviving. Later, both Wanda and Pietro were granted superhuman abilities by the Mind Stone within Loki‘s Scepter at the hands of Hydra. Wanda was given mysterious hex-magic powers while Pietro was given super-speed. They became the supervillains Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver and aided Ultron in his attacks against The Avengers until they learned of his overall plan for global destruction that would entirely wipe out humanity. The pair turned on Ultron and joined forces with The Avengers in order to put a stop to his maniacal plans. Unfortunately, Pietro was caught in the line of fire and killed; sacrificing his own life to save both a civilian child and fellow Avenger, Hawkeye.
For obvious reasons, Wanda took the loss of her twin brother especially hard. She would find solace and eventually love with another new Avengers team member, The Vision, who would later be killed in battle with the team. Somehow, Vision has inexplicably returned, and over the course of the first three episodes of the series, he and Wanda were wed and she somehow became pregnant and gave birth to their new twin sons, Billy and Tommy. With her powers providing her the ability to warp reality, could she just be losing her mind and causing all of the insanity happening in WandaVision?
All of this leads us back to the mystery of the supposed casting of Evan Peters in the show. Peters previously played a version of Wanda’s brother Pietro in the X-Men films for 20th Century Fox; a studio that was recently acquired by Disney. Now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox and the film rights to the X-Men characters, the previous film version of the franchise is being retired and the brand will be rebooted from scratch as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The confirmation of Peters’ involvement with WandaVision comes from a rather strange place – his Spanish voiceover actor. In his previous portrayal of Pietro, Evan Peters was voice-dubbed by Spanish actor Rodri Martin for Spanish-language releases of the X-Men films. Rodri recently announced on Twitter that he would be reprising the role for the new Disney+ series, even including an image of Evan Peters as Quicksilver in his post, only to make his account private and deleting the tweet shortly after posting it.
Rodri’s post roughly translated to the actor mentioning the upcoming premiere of WandaVision and then him noting that he will have “the privilege” of once again voicing Pietro. Does that mean that Peters’ version of Quicksilver would be heading to the MCU? Or could he simply mean he would be once again voicing Evan Peters in a different role on the show?
So how does Evan Peters fit into the WandaVision story? Could his version of Quicksilver really be speeding his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The version of Pietro Maximoff that fans of the MCU are used to was portrayed by Aaron Taylor Johnson. Following the characters’ death in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, viewers thought they had seen the last of the character. Meanwhile, Evan Peters’ Pietro from the X-Men films was a very different take on the character, and would most certainly not be easily interchangeable with Aaron Taylor Johnson’s version.
As WandaVision moves forward, Wanda has been forced to confront her feelings about the loss of her brother, and it has not gone well. Could Evan Peters’ version of Pietro showing up just be a fun nod to the Fox version of the X-Men universe? Maybe. Maybe her reality warping powers have simply pulled this alternative version of Pietro from his own universe due to her own feelings of loss and longing for her dead brother? Evan Peters’ version of Pietro was fairly well received in the X-Men films, so maybe with the Marvel Multiverse coming into play during Phase 4, they are seeing this as their opportunity to salvage one of the better aspects of those films rather than erase this version entirely? While he isn’t quite the same character as Aaron Taylor Johnson’s Quicksilver, having Evan Peters’ Quicksilver joining the MCU proper as a man out of his own universe would certainly be an interesting way to bring the character back into play.
Source: Marvel & 20th Century Studios
As the show has been heavy on classic sitcom tropes, and with the absolute level of zany fun it has been so far, it is entirely possible that they may be playing into a major trope that sitcoms used to pull off all of the time; recasting a major character without ever addressing that they look completely different. The only reason this particular reference seems unlikely is that WandaVision has already done its send-up of Bewitched, a show that featured one of the most egregious examples of this by recasting the male lead ‘Darrin’ after five successful seasons of the show and never mentioning the characters sudden change.
My personal favorite theory is that Peters is in fact joining the MCU, but he isn’t actually playing Pietro Maximoff; He’s playing an aged-up version of Wanda’s son Tommy. Better known to comic book fans as Speed in the Marvel Comics universe, Tommy Shepherd is a speedster just like his uncle Pietro, with white hair and all. He also has a twin brother named Billy that goes by the name Wiccan in the comics, who has powers similar to Wanda Maximoff herself. The pair are part of the superhero team The Young Avengers, and with the two of them having just been born in the third episode of WandaVision, it seems like the perfect way to bring Evan Peters into the MCU as a speedster with attitude; just not the one we are used to seeing him as.
With Wanda having become pregnant and also giving birth in the span of just one episode, it stands within reason that we will be seeing the twins growing up quite fast on the show, which would explain why an actor like Peters would be able to play the role of a character who has just been born. We’d even wager that Peters may actually be portraying both Tommy and Billy rather than just one of the pair.
Marvel has not exactly been subtle as they lay the groundwork for a Young Avengers project in the near future, having confirmed the upcoming debuts of Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, America Chavez in Doctor Strange: In The Multiverse Of Madness, the recasting of teenage Cassie Lang in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumanium, and the rumored appearance of Eli Bradley in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. Speed and Wiccan showing up as young-adult heroes is almost guaranteed, and Evan Peters is pretty much perfect for the part(s).
A new episode of WandaVision is premiering on the Disney+ streaming service every Friday through March 5, 2021. The series stars Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla), Paul Bettany (Solo: A Star Wars Story), Kathryn Hahn (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse), Teyonah Parris (Dear White People), Randall Park (Ant-Man And The Wasp), Kat Dennings (Thor), Emma Caulfield (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Jolene Purdy (Orange Is The New Black), David Lengel (Bosch), Debra Jo Rupp (That 70’s Show), David Payton (Chicago P.D.), and Fred Melamed (A Serious Man).
Are you excited about Evan Peters joining the MCU? Do you think he will be playing Pietro, the Twins, or maybe someone else entirely? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and be sure to stick around Geek Anything for all the latest WandaVision updates!
