WandaVision cliffhanger was in the works for a while, says showrunner
"We were rooting for it for so long, and didn't know if it would be possible," Jac Schaeffer says.
- Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda reacts to the big episode 5 reveal.
Ever since the Disney-Fox merger, certain mutants setting foot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a tantalizing prospect. Enter the Twin Peaks world of WandaVision and -- spoiler -- it happened.
"We loved the idea of [bringing Pietro back]," showrunner Jac Schaeffer told Marvel.com. "And then we were like, how in the world are we going to make this make logical sense? Like, how do we justify this? Because that's the thing, you can hatch a million great ideas, but to make them land, to make them be grounded, to make them feel organic to the larger story."
Wanda's twin brother, Pietro, first played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the MCU, sacrificed himself to save Hawkeye and a Sokovian boy in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He returns in episode 5 of the Disney Plus series, but is now played by Evan Peters' Quicksilver (who went by Peter) from the X-Men film series. That episode draws from '80s sitcom tropes, so there's some sense in his recasting: Peters' Quicksilver first appears as an American teenager in the '70s.
Marvel chief Kevin Feige also knew the big move had to have some logic to it.
"Everybody was really excited. I think Kevin wanted to make sure that there was a reason for it, that it made sense. And I hope that's what we did," Schaeffer said.
This idea of Pietro's return came to Schaeffer and her team early on in the development process.
"This show is such a mind scramble, and because it's working on so many levels, and there's so many notions of what's real and what's not, and performance, and casting, and audience, and fandom, and all of that, we just thought it would be the biggest thrill to bring Evan over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe."
"We thought like, how do we give him this entrance, and then enjoy that, and then make it crazy? And we had long had the idea of the trope of the brother, or the relative, or whoever comes to town and like, stirs things up with the family -- that sitcom trope."
Luckily, Peters was fully ready to be involved.
"We were rooting for it for so long, and didn't know if it would be possible," Schaeffer explained. "It was complicated to make happen. Evan was always up for it -- like, always, always, always. He is a comic book fan, and a Marvel fan. He is always up for the absolute weirdest option. And he's a pleasure -- truly a pleasure to work with."
The next episode of WandaVision arrives Friday.
