WandaVision may have ended last week , but the discussion surrounding the series is still going strong. One particularly popular topic of debate about the project has been the theories developed by fans over the course of the show's eight-week, nine-episode release.
Most of these theories about what would happen in the series turned out to not be correct, but there is one the show's head writer wishes the team had actually thought to incorporate.
SIX COMMERCIALS, SIX INFINITY STONES
In several interviews conducted after the WandaVision finale released last Friday, director Matt Shakman and head writer Jac Shaeffer were asked about the legitimacy of the popular fan theory that each of the six commercials included in the series were meant to represent a different Infinity Stone. As a guest on the Fatman Beyond podcast, Shakman explained how the commercials were meant to highlight the "history of Wanda" and revealed why the same two people were in all the live-action ads.
"I don't want to spoil anybody's fabulous theories, because there are some amazing theories out there. 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."
When the topic was brought up in an interview with The Wrap , Shaeffer expressed her approval of the theory, saying “That is really clever. I a little bit wish we had thought of that.”
Even though there were never plans for the commercials to tie in with the Infinity Stones that were the focus of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame , the creative team did consider making them more integral to the story at large. In an interview with Collider , Schaeffer explained how there was talk of them having "an agenda and a function in the plot" but why they ultimately went with more of an indirect approach to their significance.
"There were a lot of conversations and there were times where [the commercials] had a little bit more of an agenda and a function in the plot, conceptually. They were pretty much the same on the page throughout — it was more in conversations about maybe we could lean this way, maybe we can lean that way . My experience at Marvel, toward the end of making something, is that there's usually a hole that you have to patch, and I sort of kept being like, 'It's going to be the commercials. Whatever the thing that we box ourselves into, we're going to solve with the commercials. Guys, I promise. I promise.' Because there were times where we're like,'"Well, we'll just cut the commercials. Do we need the commercials?' And I'm like, 'No, we need them because they're awesome. And also because they're going to be our savior.' And then ultimately we didn't need that and it really ended up being just so tied to her subconscious in this open-ended way. But it was equally tied to her subconscious and to the MCU that, to me, it feels very right in the way it functions and exists inside the narrative."
COMMERCIAL CORRELATIONS
The theory in question began to be developed by fans when the first two episodes of WandaVision were released on premiere day and continued as the subsequent sitcom-based ones came out. These correlate as followed:
- The 1950s commercial for the ToastMate 2000 is associated with the Mind Stone due to the product having a face-like appearance with the beeping light in the middle of its "forehead" à la Vision, who has been referred to as a "toaster" in certain Marvel comics.
- The 1960s Strücker Watch commercial is associated with the Time Stone due to a watch being an object that tells time.
- The 1970s HYDRA Soak commercial is associated with the Space Stone , as the product comes in a blue cube-like box that is somewhat reminiscent of the Tesseract.
- The 1980s/90s Lagos Paper Towels commercial is associated with the Reality Stone from Thor: The Dark World, as the Aether is red and has a liquid form, just like the juice spilled in the advertisement.
- The 2000's Yo-Magic commercial is associated with the Soul Stone first introduced in Avengers: Infinity War. This is due to the parallels between the boy on the deserted island not being able to access the thing he desperately wishes to even though it is right there in front of him, much like Red Skull with the stone on Vormir. Both are doomed to remain where they are; the boy because he can't open the yogurt he needs to eat to survive, and Red Skull because he stranded as the guardian of the Soul Stone.
The 2010s Nexus medication commercial, however, has no clear associations with the Power Stone and, if being examined in its own right, would probably be seen as most closely associated with the Reality Stone, as the medicine is said to help someone "get back to [their] reality, or the reality of [their] choice".
Still, this theory seemingly held weight for the majority of the series, and from Schaeffer's comments, it sounds like there's probably a good chance that if the writers had noticed this, they would have deliberately ensured that each commercial did have a connection to a different Infinity Stone.
All nine episodes of WandaVision are now available to stream on Disney+.
