We got a rather sneaky reveal for an additional cast member in the upcoming Disney+ show WandaVision. Deadline just reported the casting of an HBO satire titled The White Lotus. The listing included five additions. Among them was the mention of Orange Is the New Black‘s Jolene Purdy. In the same article, they point out that she just recently wrapped filming for the upcoming MCU series. Not only that, but she also has a recurring role. This reveal signifies her involvement with multiple episodes throughout the season. There is a chance that she might be one of Wanda’s neighbors. So far, there has been no confirmation on this casting, so this is a great surprise. Purdy is well-known for her appearances on Under the Dome, The Magicians, and she even appeared in 2001’s Donnie Darko.
It is also interesting that it confirms that the series has only finished up recently. WandaVision still is rumored to release in the upcoming month, so they will be finishing up the effects on the later episodes as it releases. Plus, they will most likely have a Christmas break for a few weeks, which would give them more time to work on the post-production. We currently still don’t have a release date for the series. At least they seem to be aiming for a 2020 release for now. Hopefully, we will get a release date announcement in the comings weeks. The Mandalorian’s second season just released, so Disney doesn’t have to worry about the marketing cannibalizing each other.
“From the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then… boom. The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals, hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence.” In Phases 1-3, the MCU explored multiple individual stories, each of which became part of an interconnected storyline that we know as the Infinity Saga. In the Infinity Saga, the main overarching theme of these phases was the unification of the Infinity Stones from all corners of the universe. Now, with the Infinity Saga complete, we enter a new phase with a brand new storyline that fans will explore beyond the confines of our universe: the Multiverse.
Who are you, in this vast multiverse, Mr. Strange?
We were already teased about the concept of the Multiverse back in Doctor Strange (2016), and it was made a reference in the last MCU film of Phase 3, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), when Quentin Beck aka Mysterio, used the idea of the Multiverse to trick Peter Parker, Nick Fury (who was secretly Talos) and others into believing his ruse to become the “next hero”. But as Kevin Feige said back in SDCC last year, “Just because Quentin Beck makes up lies about the Multiverse, doesn’t mean it isn’t real.” We know that the concept of the Multiverse will be explored in Phase 4, with my money being on WandaVision (2020), Spider-Man: Something with Home in the Title (2021) & Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). I went very in-depth with my theory on how the Multiverse might play out in my “Reality Checked” Theory and discussed the possible universes that could be explored if Marvel indeed decided to acknowledge a Marvel Cinematic Multiverse.
Now, if we are going to deep dive into the concept of the Multiverse, then we need to acknowledge the presence of a very important character in Marvel Comics lore that I believe already exists in the MCU and might make his appearance very soon:
The Living Tribunal
Now, the Living Tribunal has been described as a “nigh-omnipotent, nigh-omniscient, omnipresent” individual that “possesses limitless power, is able to erase entire realities from existence.” His only rival is his creator; the One-Above-All. But the Living Tribunal in the comics is essentially regarded as the 2nd most powerful individual in all of Marvel lore. His role has been to safeguard the Multiverse and be its Guardian, and unlike other characters, where there are other versions of the same character across multiple universes, there is only 1 Living Tribunal that exists in all of the universes as he is the center of it all. “The Tribunal manifests itself as a being with three faces, which represent the three sides of the Tribunal’s personality. Its front face, through which it usually speaks, represents equity, the fully hooded face on its right side represents necessity, and the partially hooded face on its left represents just revenge. All three voices must agree in a case before the Tribunal can intervene.”
Why introduce him now?
Living Tribunal by Eric Hallquist
With the Multiverse now coming into play in Phase Four of the MCU and the idea that the universe might start to collide if Wanda Maximoff decides to go all “House of M” on us, then the Living Tribunal might be forced to play a role in trying to preserve the balance of the Multiverse by passing judgment onto Wanda, something I predict could happen in the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel. The first time the Living Tribunal was introduced in Marvel Comics was in Strange Tales #158, where he encountered Doctor Strange and had come to the conclusion that the Earth should be destroyed. Doctor Strange however managed to convince the tribunal to give the Earth a chance so he could fix it and save all life on Earth. The Tribunal agreed. We could see a scenario similar to this in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), where the Living Tribunal decides to pass judgment on Wanda Maximoff for altering the laws of reality and as penance, must die along with the rest of the Earth in order to preserve the balance. Doctor Strange will intervene and vouch for Wanda to keep her and Earth safe and manage to fix reality once again. And now, some of you might tell me that that sounds like an amazing pitch. But why introduce a character like this in the MCU now? How can I be sure that this is even the direction Marvel wants to go? What if I told you we’ve already had our first tease regarding the Living Tribunal?
The Living Tribunal has already been teased in the MCU
The Staff of the Living Tribunal by Sukh Singh
Remember this relic? You might remember it in a scene from Doctor Strange (2016) when Baron Mordo was wielding it while training with Doctor Strange in Kamar Taj. Baron Mordo had actually called it the “Staff of the Living Tribunal”. Quite the interesting name no?
Not only that, but Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely actually revealed at SDCC last year that The Living Tribunal was set to appear during Avengers: Infinity War (2018), to judge Thanos for his crimes against the universe. Clearly, that idea was opted out later on and we never saw that scene but if he was set to appear in this film, chances are that Marvel Studios has plans for the cosmic entity to make his way to the MCU very soon.
Only time will tell us if and when we are ready to face the judgment of the Living Tribunal in the MCU.
UPDATE: GameStop is also releasing an exclusive 70s Vision Funko Pop.
We now have our first look at the Funko Pop Vinyl line for the upcoming Marvel Studios Disney+ show WandaVision. The lineup of Funko Pops features Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany’s Vision across different eras.
As we can see from the images, we can see some of Wanda and Vision’s looks for the upcoming show which were already teased in the official trailer back in September.
Official Plot Synopsis: Starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, “WandaVision” is a blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Wanda Maximoff and Vision—two super-powered beings living idealized suburban lives—begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems. The show features the return of Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis & Randall Park as Agent Jimmy Woo, as well as the introduction of new faces, such as Teyonah Parris as adult Monica Rambeau and Kathryn Hahn as the nosey neighbor, Agnes.
The show is currently scheduled to premiere Late 2020, streaming exclusively on Disney+.
The first Disney+ show to finally be released will be WandaVision. There sadly is still no official release date. A recent datamine may have revealed that it is heading towards a Thanksgiving release, or at least in December. The show is still in production, as they still have some episodes to shoot after production was halted during the pandemic. Now, some pictures were released by @eobrmidias that give us a good look at the cast getting ready for an upcoming shot. The first set of pictures features Elizabeth Olsen in a rather interesting outfit.
Paul Bettany seems to be wearing a suit of some kind. This is just a theory, but it looks like Wanda may be part of some show or dance number. At first, her outfit seemed like a colorful swimsuit but her stockings would hint at this being an outfit for a show. The only confusion would be Parris and Hahn‘s outfits. If this is from the same day on set, their costumes are very varied that wouldn’t make sense in the same scene. It could be that while they are talking, Wanda and Vision break out into a musical number. Many shows have included musical episodes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother, Community, and many more. The sitcom inspiration opens up so many possibilities so it wouldn’t be unlikely. It would be very interesting if they break out in song while the warped reality breaks apart around them.
There might be one more picture from the set back in February that could give it away. In the backlots for both Loki and WandaVision, a huge tent was seen before they had to shut down. It looked like a circus tent, which could mean that Wanda is wearing an outfit for a trapeze artist. Bettany‘s smoking could mean he is the circus director. It only opens up the question why they are in these roles to begin with.
It will be interesting to see how this comes together. They may be wrapping up production so they can get the effects to work done before the show launches. Aa they are still filming, this could be the reason that no specific date has been set so they don’t run into an early deadline. Here’s hoping we get some kind of reveal soon.
Episode 65 is here! Charles and Charles tackle all the wonderful WandaVision news, the new Marvel Studios slate, the Shang-Chi scoop and more! Listen below.
When the WandaVision trailer dropped last Sunday, some of the biggest teases came from the black & white portion of the show.
As I stated in another theory post, by the time we hit the 1950s portion of the show, we know Wanda and Vision just got married and have moved to the town of WestView. They want to fit in with the rest and they’re living their perfect suburban lives. At some point during the show, they will invite Mr. & Mrs. Heart over for Dinner. Played by Fred Melamed and Debra Jo Rupp, the Hearts will ask them all sorts of questions like; “When did they get married? Where did they move from? Why don’t they have children yet?”. Wanda stuttered when asked these questions and she wasn’t able to answer them because she didn’t know how to answer them. None of it was real. Vision tried to answer as well, but he didn’t know either. And that’s when all of their reality started to slowly fall apart as the aspect ratio started to expand. Now, something that really puts us at unease is when Mr. Heart slams the table and says “Dammit. Why?”, with Mrs. Heart telling him playfully to “Stop it.”, all while Wanda and Vision give each other looks of concern. Such weird things to say.
Now, when I asked you guys about how you thought Mr. & Mrs. Heart could be, many of you have stated that they’re actually demons sent by either Mephisto or Nightmare or people manipulated by the nosy neighbor Agnes aka Agatha Harkness:
I kinda feel like they were normal but somehow got manipulated by Agatha to be negative and then get sent out/destroyed from Wanda’s world because they’re “negative” and all negativity doesn’t exist in Wanda’s world. I also see some people say they’re demons which makes sense too https://t.co/Kinlcxq7Ub
Now, these are all completely valid theories, considering how much Mephisto influences Wanda’s story and the birth of her children as a whole. Not only that, but we’ve also heard rumors regarding Nightmare possibly joining the MCU in this show and potentially manipulating Wanda to alter reality. But I propose another theory, and ONE of you actually got really close to what I was thinking:
And in that tweet was a reply from fellow Murphy’s Multiverse Contributor: Lizzie Hill, which pretty much consolidates exactly what I’m proposing today.
And because Lizzie and I had a bit of back-and-forth regarding our theories, we managed to consolidate both our theories into this one theory.
THEORY: MR. & MRS. HEART ARE THE MANIFESTATIONS OF WANDA’S SUBCONSCIOUS
Something we need to understand is that during this show, a lot of the things we see in these homages to the sitcoms are actually the manifestations made by Wanda as part of her alternate reality. Meaning, the whole world around her is made up by her (except for some exceptions like Monica and Agnes, who are “intruders”). What if when Mr. & Mrs. Heart are asking these questions, it’s actually Wanda asking herself these questions, to quote Lizzie, “like a writer trying to work out details of this story, getting angry/frustrated on one side(Mr. Heart), combined with the denial and trying to stay in the moment (Mrs. Heart), combined with the trauma of losing Vision & not being able to have this ideal life with him.” What if they are the life Wanda wants for her and Vision? And with the way Wanda looks at Mr. Heart when he slams the table, it looks as if he struck a nerve in Wanda. Another possibility for Mr. Heart asking “Damn it why?’ could be her manifestation of Vision asking Wanda “Why did you do this? Why did you bring me back?” since we know that Vision is probably the only manifestation of Wanda that has any sort of control and when Mr. Heart asks the question and slams the table over and over, it keeps cutting back to Vision looking at Wanda, with Mrs. Heart saying “Stop it.” over and over in the background with Wanda looking concerned at Vision. Either way, it always just comes back to the same principle that this is all in Wanda’s head and it’s her ideas and subconscious questioning herself.
For this Theory Thursday, I wanted to discuss a plot mechanism that I thought could play out in the show, and when I saw the trailer, I found that my theory could actually be plausible. So let’s delve right into it.
THEORY: EACH SITCOM ERA IS A “RESET”.
Okay, let me explain because it can get kind of confusing. We know that the series is a “blend of classic television and the Marvel Cinematic Universe”, paying homage to multiple sitcoms over decades of television, like “I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, Roseanne, and many more”. And the biggest tease we got in the trailer was from the 50’s portion of the show, which was filmed in black & white and in front of a live studio audience. In my opinion, this is the first era the show will touch upon.
Wanda and Vision just got married and moved to the little suburban town of WestView. They want to fit in with the rest and they’re living their perfect suburban lives…until “Mr. & Mrs. Heart” (played by Fred Nelamed and Debra Jo Rupp) come over to visit them and ask them all sorts of questions like; “When did they get married? Where did they move from? Why don’t they have children yet?”. This causes Wanda to stutter because she didn’t know how to answer them. When Vision tries to answer, he doesn’t know either. Mr. Heart slams the table and asks Wanda “Dammit. Why?”, & Mrs. Heart tells him to “Stop it.” over and over, all while Wanda and Vision give each other looks of concern.
Immediately before the scene can go on, it starts to rewind. This is where “the first reset” begins. Unable to answer the questions about how/when she and Vision got married, where they came from, or why they don’t have children, Wanda loses her concentration and her 1950’s reality starts to unravel and rewind like a VHS tape until it eventually kicks her out of that made-up reality back into our own. And I believe it will go a little something like this:
Now that we understand the concept of what “the reset” is, I propose that during WandaVision, Wanda will encase herself (and the town of WestView) in an alternate pocket reality, where she will try to live her life with Vision as if it were a sitcom with a happy ending, but every single time, she finds a mistake that can unravel her reality, causing her to reset the reality she is in and move to another era where she can start over, having learned from the mistakes of her previous era. But as she keeps resetting her pocket universe, or changing between eras more and more, she’ll eventually garner the attention of the likes of her nosy neighbor Agnes, S.W.O.R.D. (and possibly even a Master of the Mystic Arts). And the reason for this is that maybe, every time Wanda resets her reality, she alters the fabric of reality in all of the MCU little by little until eventually causing a rupture in that reality, which is what could kickstart the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
But we’ll only know for sure when WandaVision drops this 2020.
It has been a very dry year for Marvel fans. Suddenly, the Emmys gave us a glimpse of hope as it dropped the first trailer for WandaVision. It was the first new trailer we’ve seen from the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the last Black Widow trailer dropped back in April. We didn’t know if the Disney+ shows would even see a 2020 release. Originally, August was the starting point for this new venture with Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Somehow, the craziest of Marvel Studio projects were able to stick to its 2020 plans. Our first look at the trailer teased the unlikeliest of couples battle in an alternative dimension filled with sitcom tropes. It teases a completely new direction for the franchise and it looks like people are already all in.
Even though the Emmys sank to a new low of 6.1 million viewers, the trailer has been the talk of the town. Within 24 hours the trailer has garnered around 53 million views. According to the social media monitor RelishMix, this is in the same league as any Avengers or Fast & Furious trailer. It has reached 302.6K mentions which are numbers that are tentpole even pre-COVID. To put this into perspective, it beat out any of the major draws from the Super Bowl. Black Widow at the time garnered 18.7 million followed by Mulan and No Time to Die. Hell, it even beat out Avengers: Infinity War‘s 30.9 million after its Super Bowl reveal.
This is why Marvel Studios was quiet all this time. They knew that they needed to wait for the perfect moment. People were aching for some kind of life for the franchise. WandaVision not only filled that void but also changed our perception. We have learned to expect specific things from a Marvel Studios trailer. We get some comedy, action, and amazing effects. Yet, this trailer shows that the studio is venturing out into completely new territory that will break our understanding of the franchise’s future. It is an exciting time to be a Marvel fan and cannot wait until they finally reveal the official release date.
Last night’s WandaVision trailer took the hype for the upcoming Disney Plus streaming series to another level while leaving fans with more questions than answers. The trailer gave us our first look at Kathryn Hahn’s mysterious Agnes, a look at Teyonah Parris’ grown-up Monica Rambeau taking a mysterious trip and ending up with what we assume to be a group of SWORD agents. It also set the table for one of the show’s many interesting premises: Vision’s missing memories (and maybe Wanda’s as well?). We see the manifestation of this issue while Mr. and Mrs. Heart, dinner guests of Wanda and Vision’s, ask questions about the happy couple who have just moved into the town of Westview and neither are able to answer.
Now whether or not Wanda can answer and chooses not to is a question for another time (I don’t THINK she can, though); it’s clear from the look on Vision’s face, however, that he does not know how he came to be where he is. Later in the trailer, Hahn’s character bluntly tells Vision that he is dead, much to his surprise. From what we can gather, it seems that, as rumored, Wanda and Vision are living in an alternate reality where the events of Avengers: Infinity War have no hold. They are married, have children, and live in a happy little world where Vision still has the Mind Stone firmly embedded in his forehead. But we know there’s more to the story than just this new reality and it’s what’s happening outside that bubble that brings Darcy into play!
As we reported here, while Wanda and Viz are happy in their bubble, life goes on in the real world, where someone is collecting the parts of the synthezoid Avenger and reassembling him. When Vision finally finds himself humpty-dumptied back together again, much like in the Vision Quest arc, he finds his memories are not intact; in fact, he has absolutely no recollection of his demise at the hands of Wanda (nor, apparently much of the time following the work done on him by Shuri) and it falls on the shoulders of Kat Denning’s Darcy to fill in the blanks. We don’t quite know how Darcy and Vision end up crossing paths but we’ve heard from sources that Darcy ends up being a key figure in getting Vision back on his feet. One scene described to us has Darcy informing a very confused Vision of the tragic circumstances of his death. And so whatever series of events that have transpired since the last time we saw her, Darcy somehow ends up working on piecing the Vision back together again. As with many of the scoops we share, we know we’re missing some context here so it’ll be interesting to see this all unfold when the series streams LATER THIS YEAR!!!!!
UPDATE: The trailer has since been removed, possibly indicating the release date was inaccurate.
The first WandaVision trailer was exciting enough but now it seems that thanks to Disney’sIndonesian YouTube channel, we may have a potential release date for the first of Marvel Studios series for the streaming service.
While this is totally unconfirmed, the Indonesian trailer ends with a frame that says COMING SOON and gives October 30th as a release date, the same date as the release of the first episode(s) of Season 2 of The Mandalorian. We’ll wait for for confirmation from Marvel Studios or Disney before we get too excited as it seems HIGHLY unlikely that Disney would release both of these shows on the same day. However, the heavy Halloween theme of WandaVision makes sense as well. Fortunately, Disney’s October 7th investor call isn’t too far away so we won’t have to wait too long for clarification.
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