The first two episodes of Marvel’s have landed on Disney+ and Phase 4 has officially begun–but it’s really, really weird. The show has pulled no punches in terms of its vintage sitcom aesthetics and flavor, but asked more questions than it’s answered. How did Wanda and Vision get here? Where is here? Why are they hopscotching through TV history? And, perhaps most obviously: How is Vision, who we last left dead in Avengers: Infinity War, suddenly alive again?
Theories are already beginning to brew across the internet, but a behind-the-scenes featurette released by Marvel to celebrate the premiere might shed some light on that last question–in the most bizarre way possible.
In the “Story Featurette” head writer and executive producer Jac Schaeffer gave an interview in front of what looks like walls of blurred out storyboards for the show–but one character is immediately recognizable. The distinctive black-and-red uniform of Simon Williams, AKA Wonder Man, can be seen clearly in the frame.
Vision’s comic book history is a complicated and convoluted affair, but Wonder Man–an otherwise C-list Marvel hero–does play an important role. In Vision’s initial introduction to the Avengers, he was actually created by Ultron using parts of the original android Human Torch, which still contained the Torch’s memories. Ultron later modified his creation using the collected memories of the then deceased Wonder Man to create a unique lifeform.
While Ultron originally intended on Vision being able to destroy the Avengers, gaining free will allowed Vis to team up with them and take his “father” down. He was later accepted onto their team after the Avengers realized that Vision was functionally a sort of copy of their dead teammate. Later, when Wonder Man came back to life (as superheroes tend to do) things got even messier considering Vision still existed–there were attempted body-mergings, some deaths on Visions part–you know how these things go.
So what does this mean for the MCU? Obviously, it’s hard to say–but introducing Wonder Man into the mix would, in theory, be a way to “revive” Vision using the same sort of brain-wave or brain-replication technology vaguely explained in the comics. If some scrap of Vision’s original programming remained intact after his death, it could use someone like Wonder Man–or Wonder Man’s brain, personal history, what have you–to create a fully formed consciousness again.
Also, it would certainly be a quick and easy way to bolster the MCU’s roster with another new character that could be elevated from relative obscurity to the spotlight in addition to adding even more sci-fi weirdness to the mix for the future. Once you start allowing characters, even the robot ones, to merge or copy brain waves and come back to life, all the breaklines have officially been cut.
WandaVision will continue on Disney+ every Friday.
