Occam’s razor is the problem-solving principle that “entities should not be multiplied without necessity”, or more simply, the simplest explanation is usually the right one.
It wasn’t what was initially scheduled to happen, but WandaVision is serving as our entry-point into Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Having fans starving for content for over one year and a half since the last MCU property hit theaters, was certainly noticeable after just the first couple of episodes were made available a couple of weeks ago. Fans had already picked up on where the show would draw inspiration from, starting with House o M, Tom King‘s Vision run, John Byrne’s Vision Quest, and a few more, and so the theories being devised were already plentiful, but it was like nothing could prepare us for what was to come.
The MCU has always been a fertile ground for imaginative minds. The notion that everything produced within this Feige-designed Universe might have strong connections to the stories published in the comics for decades is all it took for the idea that everything does to settle in. If you really want to, every single detail in the movies can be interpreted as an obscure reference to something that took place in a 70’s limited-series that only a handful of people even know of. It doesn’t take much.
And now, with WandaVision‘s weekly format, the theories keep pilling up faster than ever, with each one trying to surpass the last, making it hard to discern what actually might or might not be a true possibility for future episodes. But amid all this chaos of Fantastic Four hints, Mutant origin stories, or Hell references, it’s in the past of the MCU that we might find a way to look forward into the future with a bit more certainty.
If you’ve been paying attention to the past decade of MCU content, one of the things that come to mind is how streamlined most events and characters introductions turn out to become. The theories that always come about after the first trailers, or after the first plot details are revealed, always seem to overcomplicate things, as the plot always seems to be way simpler than what fans expected. Yes, there is a regular number of call-backs that reward the investment of some fans in the material, but for these projects to become viable they also need to cater to the regular audience’s needs, and those can be summed up in a single sentence: “Make it easy for me to understand.” I’m also guilty of trying to develop theories that end up wanting to sound more clever than they really are. And even though most won’t amount to anything significant, it is still an important part of connecting to and with the material, and especially to other fans. It’s basically part of what makes it fun to share these movies with everybody. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
In WandaVision‘s case, we’ve all been inundated with Mephisto and Salem Witches references, and the latest is a supposed cameo in the final episodes that may rival Luke Skywalker showing up in The Mandalorian season finale. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We should really take a few steps back in order not to lose focus on what the show really is about. Family, grief, the inability to move on when one’s world is shattered to its core. In order not to upstage what Wanda (and Vision) are going through, we really should not expect anything that’ll impact the show more heavily than what these two are and will go through in the next few episodes already is.
Will we get a cool cameo? Most likely. Will it be from someone that hasn’t yet been introduced to the MCU? Doubtful. May the show unveil a new antagonist? Perhaps. Will it be someone who’ll manage to draw the show’s attention all to himself? That’s questionable. Will these “low” expectations take away from what the show still has to offer? Absolutely not.
