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SYFY WIRE WandaVision

All our WandaVision commercial fan theories were wrong: 'Nothing to do with Infinity Stones'

By Josh Weiss
WandaVision ad

Pretty much all of our WandaVision fan theories turned out to be wrong...Go figure. No Mephisto, no Doctor Strange cameo, and certainly no Fantastic Four. According to director Matt Shakman, viewers were even off the mark when it came to the period-specific commercials that would often break up the action in Wanda's false reality. For instance, during a guest spot on Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin's Fatman Beyond podcast, he shot down a popular theory, which posited that each of the ads represents a different Infinity Stone.

"I don't want to spoil anybody's fabulous theories, because there are some amazing theories out there," Shakman said. "It was a way to trickle out some of the bigger questions of the show, history of Wanda, of course. Stark toasters, Strucker watches, Hydra bath soak, Lagos, and so on. They also worked thematically as well [like] the shark and the poor kid on the desert island. So [it's] up for interpretation, of course, but they had the same actors in all of them for a reason. Same idea, that everything was iterated in this world and Wanda just decided those two lovely townspeople needed to be cast permanently in the ads. That was pretty much it. There's nothing to do with Infinity Stones, really."

So basically, it sounds like they were just ... commercials, which brought some period vibes and connective tissues to the show's themes. No grand plan or secret twist required.

WandaVision 50s ad

Speaking with VarietyWandaVision showrunner Jac Schaeffer also sounded off on the theories surrounding Evan Peters' "Fietro." In the end, the carryover character from Fox's now-defunct X-Men universe wasn't there to set up the multiverse. He was there to set up a joke about the last name "Bohner," which, understandably, left some audience members disappointed. That said, the use of Peters was too good, that it can't not be revisited down the road.

"Naively, I didn’t expect people to get carried away in that way," Schaeffer said, adding that it's not really up to her when it comes to laying the groundwork for future projects. "I couldn’t have anticipated… I don’t know, maybe [producers] Mary Livanos and Kevin Feige are like, 'Yeah, it’s like this every time.' But I’m like, 'These theories are crazy!' So it wasn’t that was not part of my thinking, and also, that’s not my department. I am lucky enough that I get to hear about the other projects and sometimes I’m involved and their conversations. I know a little bit about all the things that Lizzie’s been up to. But that’s a bigger, fancier thing, what you’re asking about."

"I knew that there are theories that had to do with people wanting more surprises in cameos. But I’m not really that aware of these fan theories," admitted cast member Elizabeth Olsen. "I didn’t know about the multiverse when we were filming this. So I wouldn’t assume that that’s what was happening. I thought it was just a clever way to have a Pietro. I didn’t understand the larger plan of the multiverse until I started working on [Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness].

Evan Peters WandaVision

All nine episodes of WandaVision are now streaming on Disney+. A making-of documentary (the first installment in Marvel Studios' Assembled docuseries) arrives on the streaming platform this Friday, March 12. The second MCU show — The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — premieres the following Friday, March 19. Schaeffer's next contribution to the comic book universe is Black Widow, which is currently slated to hit theaters Friday, May 7 — more than a year after its intended release date.