The new trailer for WandaVision, which aired for the first time during the 2020 Emmys broadcast,
delivered a sense of lunacy, senselessness, and, surprisingly, fear. Still, there are
a lot of little details hidden in its frames. Let's back up and dig them out.
The dinner party early on in the trailer kicks off with a stylish pouring of red wine. Only
the most discerning connoisseurs, i.e., Marvel fans with sharp eyes, will have noticed the
bottle's label, attributing its creation to the Maison du Mépris winery.
There are a couple of potential takeaways here. First off, "Maison du Mépris" translates
from French to English as "house of contempt," which is creepy enough on its own, foreshadowing
a less-than-ideal domestic situation for Vision and Wanda.
But more importantly, the name could be a reference to House of M. For the uninitiated,
over the last six decades, Wanda Maximoff has a pretty impressive track record when
it comes to warping reality to try to fix her bad moods. In the 2005 storyline House
of M, she creates a world where every character has had their deepest wish fulfilled: Spider-Man's
uncle is still kicking, Captain America wins World War II and retires, and Wanda has a
pile of kids to call her own. Painting with broad strokes, it seems pretty similar to
the evident scratch-the-surface-and-it's-a-nightmare world that's present within WandaVision.
Most of WandaVision's marketing so far has set up the sitcom framing which the show will
apparently play around with.
"It is a mashup between American sitcoms throughout the decades."
The latest trailer doubles down that connection. In addition to actress Debra Jo Rupp, best
known for her performance as the laughter-prone, liquor-loving, nervous mother Kitty Forman
on the sitcom That '70s Show, another familiar-looking star who appears is Kathryn Hahn, whose casting
was announced in August 2019 during the D23 Expo. According to Marvel Studios head honcho
Kevin Feige, her character would fit the typical sitcom trope of the all-too-curious woman
next door. He teased on stage at D23:
"What does every sitcom need? A nosy neighbor! There's always a nosy neighbor that's stirring
up trouble."
This WandaVision trailer does paint Hahn's character in that light, but it doesn't give
her a name or set up her backstory...at least not explicitly. The trailer's captions identify
her as a woman named Agnes. The footage shows her being, true to Feige's word, the typical
busybody neighbor in the past, setting up the dinner party that turns sour and simply
hanging out at the WandaVision household. But it also shows her striking true fear into
Vision's heart by telling him that he's dead in what seems to be the present day. Agnes
is dressed as a witch when she drops that bombshell on Vision, lending perhaps the biggest
piece to the puzzle here.
Taking everything into consideration, it seems that Hahn's character Agnes might be some
version of Agatha Harkness, "Ag" plus "ness" to make "Agnes." In the comics, Agatha is
a powerful witch who mentors Wanda Maximoff. Unfortunately, things don't end well between
Wanda and Agatha in the comics, but we won't spoil that for you.
At one point in the trailer, we watch as Vision walks the suburban streets on Halloween night.
In this quick glimpse, Vision is rocking a totally different look, one that's kitschier
than his usual get-up but incredibly comic-book-accurate.
But it doesn't call back just any comic issue, the costume is straight from The Avengers
#57 from October 1968, in which Vision made his first-ever appearance. Vision's bright
red face, green hooded bodysuit adorned with a yellow diamond in the center of his chest,
matching yellow cape with a big flared-out collar, and green diamond adorned on his forehead
all come together to give a clear callback to his original costume.
Wanda is also seen wearing a costume from the comics, an all-red get-up with her signature
headpiece and a tied-in-the-front cape, but that's something fans previously saw in the
earlier WandaVision teaser from February 2020.
When cutting together a trailer, editors have to ensure that all the footage packs as big
a punch as possible and sets the tone of the series without spoiling anything. But that's
only part of the creative endeavor. Editors also need to select the perfect song to set
the trailer to, and in most cases, the tune chosen says just as much about the project
in question as the footage itself.
This new WandaVision trailer is no exception. It's set to "Twilight Time" by The Platters,
a vocal group established in 1952 that rose to prominence during the early stages of the
rock-and-roll era of music in the United States. The song, released in April 1958, is a good
fit considering that WandaVision will in part take place in the 1950s, but it's also appropriate
due to its lyrics. Written by Buck Ram, the lyrics to "Twilight Time" tell of a deep love
between two people. In the WandaVision trailer, the song's lyrics help underline both the
true affection that Wanda and Vision share for one another and the hardships that the
couple must endure.
Being superheroes, one with various magical abilities and the other an artificial being,
Wanda and Vision aren't like other couples, and their relationship will never be quite
"normal." Though they still try to fit in, they must keep their superhero status hidden
and hope that at the end of the day, no matter what, they can be with each other.
"They will never stop being afraid of you."
"I can't control their fear. Only my own."
The line "I fall in love again as I did then" also hints at the fact that WandaVision will
skip across time, moving through the decades from the '50s to the '80s and beyond, but
that the couple's love will remain strong through it all.
Additionally, it's pretty easy to draw a few parallels between WandaVision and The Twilight
Zone. The trailer for a series with possible Twilight Zone influences utilizing a song
entitled "Twilight Time"? That might not be a simple coincidence.
At one point in the trailer, Wanda and Vision can be seen in a very '70s iteration of their
household, toting two infants, seemingly baby boys. The shot is quick, but may be incredibly
significant, as there's precedent in the pages of Marvel comics for Wanda and Vision having
twin boys.
In the comics, Wanda uses her "probability magic" to become pregnant with twin boys named
William and Thomas, who were delivered by none other than Doctor Strange. Unfortunately,
in their initial incarnations, William and Thomas weren't exactly real, as they had a
weird habit of blinking out of existence whenever Wanda wasn't thinking about them.
"We are an unusual couple, you know. Oh, I don't think that was ever in question."
Eventually, though, Wanda was able to combine her powers with those of the extra-dimensional
demon Mephisto to give the twins actual life. When they reached their teen years, they began
to exhibit powers: William possessed a version of his mother's reality-warping abilities,
while Thomas inherited the blinding speed of his uncle, Quicksilver. As the heroes Wiccan
and Speed, respectively, the two became key members of the Young Avengers.
With other Young Avengers members either already having been seen in the MCU, like Cassie Lang,
the daughter of Ant-Man, or known to be arriving shortly, like Kate Bishop, the protege of
Hawkeye, the appearance of these two little tots could constitute the strongest evidence
we've seen yet that the Young Avengers are a part of Marvel's plan for the future.
In one of the trailer's final moments, a young woman dressed in attire from the '60s or '70s
is seen being forcibly ejected from Wanda and Vision's reality. She flies through the
air backwards, zooming across a country pasture in broad daylight and then breaching some
kind of inter-dimensional barrier before being plopped down outside of a modern military
installation in the dead of night.
Her arrival appears to cause quite a bit of commotion at the base, evidently belonging
to S.W.O.R.D., the S.H.I.E.L.D. counterpart otherwise known as the Sentient World Observation
and Response Department, and it's possible that a few of the soldiers rushing to investigate
may have seen her before. Played by Teyonah Parris, she's Monica Rambeau, ace Air Force
pilot and the daughter of Maria Rambeau, the best buddy of Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel.
Fans have long known that Monica would be appearing on WandaVision, although the context
of her appearance hasn't been clear.
How has Monica, last seen as a little girl in the mid-'90s in Captain Marvel, found herself
in Wanda's orbit? It appears that she was somehow able to slip into the alternate reality
that Wanda created, but how did she do that and why would she be thrown out so violently?
Are all of those guys mobilizing just because of the oddly dressed woman who came flying
out of the inter-dimensional breach, or are Wanda's activities causing other weird problems?
"Your mom's lucky. When they were handing out kids, they gave her the toughest one.
Lieutenant Trouble."
"You remembered!"
The trailer definitely raised a lot of questions, but all should become clear when WandaVision
debuts on Disney+ later this year.
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