‘WandaVision’ Means Marvel X-Men Crossover Is Already Happening

Of the three new Marvel shows coming to Disney+ — Loki, Falcon & the Winter Soldier, and WandaVision — the latter definitely looks like the weirdest and most compelling. And now that we’ve seen a trailer with a glimpse of WandaVision, the show seems to be delivering on a promise we never knew we wanted while it’s also subtly bringing the X-Men into the complicated world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

WandaVision seems to focus on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), and their life in some kind of suburban sitcom environment that is in black and white until Wanda briefly appears to be pregnant when it switches to color. Are they living in some kind of dream? Telepathic simulation? Are Wanda and Vision popping through various dimensions through a new kind of Marvel multiverse? Oh, and wait a minute, isn’t Vision dead?

On top of all of that, there’s also another key detail that will make longtime X-Men fans excited: At one point, we see Wanda in her comic book-esque “Scarlet Witch” outfit, a costume that seems to indicate the show is blending into the X-Men comics at least a little bit.

Here’s some background for the non-comic book nerds: In terms of the world of the comics, all Marvel characters tend to occupy the same fictional universe. This means that it made sense for the X-Men to be in the 2008 Marvel comics version of “Civil War.” But in movieland, the various rights to different Marvel characters have been signed over to different studios. That’s why Spider-Man has been such a complicated problem for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and, more relevantly to WandaVision, why Wanda Maximoff has never been called “Scarlet Witch,” in any of the MCU films even though she clearly possesses the slightly magical powers of that character, and like Scarlet Witch in the comics, her regular name is Wanda.

Up until this point, we’ve only referred to Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch by that name outside of the context of the movies, and that’s because, in the comics, Scarlet Witch is revealed to be the daughter of Magneto, the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants played by Ian McKellen or Michael Fassbender, depending on the decade. Before the recent Fox-Disney merger, X-Men references in Marvel movies were kind off the table, but now that Fox and Disney are the same mega-corporation, Scarlet Witch can, in theory, start going by Scarlet Witch again.

This brings us back to that little pointed headdress and red outfit. Sure, this could just be a fun Easter egg in WandaVision, or it could be indicative of something else. A shadow of the same classic costume featured in earlier promos for the series, which seems to say that the Marvel comics backstory for Wanda will matter in this series a little bit more than it has in the MCU so far.

This all leads fun-loving brains to one conclusion. If WandaVision is like a family sitcom starring Vision and Scarlet Witch, then that means we’ve got to have an episode where Wanda’s dad (cough cough Magneto) comes over. But wait, isn’t Vision partially made of metal? Will that get weird when he tries to give his father-in-law a hug?

Now, some folks have pointed out that this is probably just an Easter egg and that this scene is simply Wanda’s Halloween costume in a Halloween episode. If so, then our dreams of Magneto being in the series have been dashed.

Let’s hope that it can be both?

As of this writing, Disney has not announced when Loki, WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Solider are hitting its streaming service, but a least one show is expected later in 2020.