After a brutal 18-month break in content, WandaVision helped to kick off Phase 4 of the MCU with Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff leading the way in her first true solo project. Throughout its eight-week run on Disney+, WandaVision became a hotbed for wild fan theories about everything from Mephisto to the Multiverse, particularly once Evan Peters' Pietro Maximoff showed up.
Episode 5 truly changed the game for the series as Wanda and Vision went at each other over the alternate universe that Wanda had created, all leading to Peters showing up at their door in the episode's final minutes. At the time, Marvel Studios had just recently regained ownership of the X-Men characters and was in the early stages of planning the Mutants' introduction, so naturally, this inclusion started a frenzy when it came to Disney+.
While Peters' character didn't wind up as anything truly consequential by the end of the series, fan theories ran rampant about what this new version of Pietro could mean in the grand scheme of things. Now, as Olsen prepares for her next round of magic as the Scarlet Witch, she looked back on these fan theories and how much she would have enjoyed seeing them play more into the show.
Elizabeth Olsen's Favorite WandaVision Fan Theories
The Independent spoke with WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen about some of the fan theories that circulated online throughout the show's run on Disney+.
Calling those theories "very clever," Olsen admitted that there were a few of them that she wishes Marvel could have actually used in the series itself:
“I love fan theories ’cause I always think they’re very clever. There are usually ones where I’m like, ’S***, we should have done that!'”
One of the theories hinted that Evan Peters' Pietro had actually come in through the Multiverse, although Olsen admitted that this idea "was not part of the docket yet" when WandaVision was filming pre-COVID. She wished that Marvel could have gone back to that material and changed it to be something more Multiverse-related, especially with the Multiverse about to take over storytelling in the MCU:
“There was one where they thought we were bringing in the Multiverse with the Pietro character, with Evan [Peters]. The sad thing is, when we were doing WandaVision before Covid, that was not part of the docket yet, and then it kind of overlapped when we finished the show. So we could have actually gone back and fixed or adjusted that. I thought that could have been cool to make Pietro a part of the Multiverse.”
Olsen's Wishes for Multiversal Pietro Fan Theory
When Evan Peters' Pietro Maximoff/Ralph Bohner first arrived, fans were convinced that the Multiverse had officially made its mark on the MCU, particularly with Peters' appearing in the '80s-styled fifth episode of WandaVision. In the end, Peters' Pietro Maximoff was revealed to be Ralph Bohner, who was part of a series-long ploy from Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness to get inside Wanda's head and figure out how she created the Westview Hex reality.
Considering how big of a role fake Pietro played in the back half of WandaVision, it makes a lot of sense that Olsen wanted to see him be connected to the larger Multiverse ahead of her co-leading role in the Multiversal Doctor Strange sequel. Thankfully, she still got plenty of huge moments as the series came to an end, going spell-for-spell with Agatha and fully realizing her true identity as the Scarlet Witch.
Even though the Multiversal Pietro fan theory didn't fully come into play, Olsen's Wanda Maximoff will see the true effects of alternate realities in bigger ways than ever thanks to Doctor Strange 2. Already confirmed to bring Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter into play, amongst dozens of other potential heroes and villains, Wanda is in for something truly wild in the coming days.
All nine episodes of WandaVision are available to stream on Disney+. Olsen will return as the Scarlet Witch in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which premieres in theaters on May 6.
