With WandaVision coming to an end on Friday, we asked avid watchers at The Ringer to come forth with their best finale predictions, their thoughts on the series, and their takes on the larger future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
1. What is your tweet-length review of WandaVision so far?
Charles Holmes: “What is grief, if not WandaVision discourse persevering?”
John Gonzalez: Wanda should have waited before taking that extra gummy.
Ben Lindbergh: My love is persevering.
Sean Yoo: The MCU’s first television show might be their most singular production to date—and it just further cements Marvel/Disney as the forerunners of monoculture.
Andrew Gruttadaro: Not only is it incredible that Marvel and Disney pulled off the “part sitcom homage, part superhero story” premise, but they also managed to do it in a way that makes you more interested in the latter than the former—which is obviously great for business.
Alison Herman: It doesn’t have to be the next Twin Peaks to be pretty dang good!
Tunde St. Matthew-Daniel: Minus a slow start, WandaVision is one big creative flex by Marvel Studios. Not only is the story Marvel’s most refreshing to date, it’s already a top-10 MCU project that should make even the movie side up their game. Looking right at you, Ant-Man.
2. Who has been the MVP of this season?
Herman: Mrs. Fletcher, a.k.a. Rabbi Raquel, a.k.a. Alice from Step Brothers.
Adeniran: Elizabeth Olsen has been amazing. She’s encapsulated each new decade so well while also anchoring the show emotionally. Not bad for the other Olsen sister.
Lindbergh: I want to say Elizabeth Olsen—there’s no WandaVision without, well, Wanda, and within a single season she’s played the part ably in essentially seven different shows—but I’m giving it to Paul Bettany. Partly for providing pathos (there’s no WandaVision without Vision, either), and partly for what appears to have been a fantastic troll job.
Gonzalez: Jimmy Woo. The best magician in Westview isn’t either of the resident witches.
Yoo: WOOVERSE HIVE ASSEMBLE.
Holmes: Kat Dennings can really sell an exposition dump. In a show that often struggles to square 23 films’ worth of continuity, Dennings as Darcy Lewis has had the unenviable task of coming off the bench every episode to explain the latest high jinks in a matter of seconds. It might not have the same glow of Elizabeth Olsen doing her best Jane Kaczmarek or Julie Bowen impression week in and week out, but that’s why it should be rewarded. Dennings is given so little and yet produces so much. Also, she can rock the hell out of a circus performer costume.
St. Matthew-Daniel: Going off screen here to shout-out Marvel OG Kevin Feige and WandaVision showrunner Jac Schaeffer. The show’s sitcom premise was initially questioned, but just like Agatha, that crew was working their magic behind the scenes all along to deliver MCU entertainment with unique twists. Plus, even though I’ve always liked Age of Ultron (it’s the only Marvel film where the Avengers team operates as a single unit from start to finish), extra props to the WandaVision creatives for making even that a more rewatchable movie too.
Gruttadaro: Kevin Feige. Marvel is headed toward a Star Wars/Solo–style fall due to oversaturation; it’s inevitable. But WandaVision is not going to be the thing that triggers that—and that alone is an astonishing accomplishment.
3. If Marvel were to do a second season of WandaVision, what show or genre would you most want to see them hit?
Adeniran: Give me an animated episode!
Holmes: I need an entire season of WandaVision doing their best prestige drama impressions. I’m talking Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, and Evan Peters hamming it up in pastiches of The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad.
St. Matthew-Daniel: Give me another format-centric series like 24. Imagine Wanda in the Jack Bauer role taking out shadow organizations like S.W.O.R.D. alongside Vision, whose computer-wiz skills make him a dead ringer for the Chloe O’Brian sidekick part. We could even have “Fietro” reveal himself yet again as the we-thought-he-was-dead Tony Almeida character.
Wait … no one else stuck with 24 until it got really bad? OK, never mind.
Gruttadaro: The show never dug into reality TV, which would’ve been amazing to see. Whether it’s the faux-reality of The Hills, a competition like Survivor, or something extra dramatic like The Real Housewives, I’d love to see the way tackling this genre would force WandaVision out of its comfort zone.
Yoo: It would be absolute chaos (magic) to see Wanda and Co. become reality show contestants. Just imagine Vision in more makeup than normal while he competes on RuPaul’s Drag Race or seeing Agent Woo become the next Bachelor.
Gonzalez: Hamilton, but make it superheroes. We need an excuse to put Randall Park on the mic.
Herman: [Whispers] Marvel should not do a second season of WandaVision.
4. What is the biggest unanswered question heading into the finale?
Adeniran: Everyone is looking for Mephisto, but I would like to know who is on the other end of the conversations Monica keeps having. Is it Reed Richards? Someone else entirely? I would love to find out!
Yoo: We know Billy and Tommy are mutants, along with their mother, but how deep will the MCU dig into that with only one episode remaining? The show has similarities to House of M, but will they blow it all up in the finale? After revealing Agatha as a villain, are they really going to reveal that there’s an even bigger villain pulling the strings in Mephisto? It seems to me that Jac Schaeffer and her crew are purposely touching just the surface of this world, and that the finale might not actually hit on as many theories as people are hoping for.
St. Matthew-Daniel: I fell really hard for the John Krasinski–Reed Richards theory, but I still believe there is a big surprise in store for the season finale. Too many cast members have teased this, and while it’s nowhere near the Game of Thrones/Azor Ahai level of buildup, Marvel is smart enough to know that a seemingly unfulfilled promise could sour an otherwise fun experience.
Herman: Are the kids real? They’re not real, right?
Gonzalez: Having gone into the proceedings with only a casual understanding of Wanda’s history, I was unaware that there’s a whole story line in the “West Coast Avengers” comics where she essentially conjures the boys from her distraught and twisted imagination. I learned about that in one of Daniel Chin’s excellent recaps, which also alerted me to something he referred to as “horrifying demon baby arms.” This is a deeply weird show.
Lindbergh: Will Marvel be content to keep the series relatively self-contained, or will it go for the gasp-worthy cameo, à la Luke Skywalker in the Mandalorian second-season finale?
Holmes: Of all the places two Avengers could afford to live, why a suburb in New Jersey? Did Vision open a bank account to put down a deposit on this mortgage? Who is Vision’s real estate agent?
Gruttadaro: How much will the end of the season be affected by the Westworld Effect, the phenomenon in which fans, who have spent all season drumming up absolutely bonkers theories on the internet, end up disappointed by a show’s relatively straightforward conclusion?
5. Conspiracy corner: Will Al Pacino show up in the WandaVision season finale?
Gruttadaro: That Agatha Harkness has got a GREAT ASS—and Wanda’s got her head ALL THE WAY UP IT!
Lindbergh:
Gonzalez: I very much want this to happen, if only to read another op-ed from Martin Scorsese after he finds out about it.
Yoo: Golden Globes Al Pacino kind of looked like Mephisto, so I can totally buy that theory.
Adeniran: I would hope Al has better things to do than show up on Disney+, but hey, I won’t knock someone for getting them checks.
St. Matthew-Daniel: Introducing an entirely new character this late in the game isn’t Marvel’s MO. I can see a bigger bad being teased, but in these situations Marvel tends to only reveal the existence of such characters, and not the actor playing the role—à la Thanos’s Avengers cameo and the Adam Warlock tease in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Holmes: If the nerds win and Mephisto shows up and he’s played by Pacino, we might just have to nuke Al Gore’s internet and start over.
Herman: If he does, I will eat a cleat. (Don’t hold me to this.)
6. Will Agatha Harkness remain active in the MCU, or is this a one-hit-wonder deal?
Lindbergh: You mean the breakout character played by a popular actress in a huge hit series that’s part of a sprawling and ever-expanding cinematic and TV multiverse? The one who has an extensive comic book history with the star of said series? Nah, we’ll never see her again.
Gonzalez: I’m hoping she sticks around. With the notable exception of Killmonger, the MCU hasn’t produced many proper villains. On that front, Agatha is near the top of an awfully short list. Not only did she murder a dog (RIP, Sparky) and laugh about it, she worked it into a killer theme song.
Adeniran: I’d love to see her tango with Doctor Strange for a second before he snaps his fingers and sends her to the Dark Dimension.
Yoo: Regardless of the way WandaVision plays out, I hope Agatha stays in the MCU for years to come. That’s in large part because of Kathryn Hahn’s performance. The more actors in the MCU with a comedy background the better—it’s clearly a formula that works.
Gruttadaro: It’d be a mistake to only lock down Kathryn Hahn for nine episodes of television. I think we can at least expect to see her in the next Doctor Strange movie.
Herman: For the sake of Kathryn Hahn’s bank account, a recurring gig would be nice. For the sake of remembering WandaVision as more of a stand-alone story than yet another cog in the MCU, I’m hoping for a one-and-done.
Holmes: I don’t know what will happen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but I know the film would be much better if it had some sexual tension between Kathryn Hahn and Benedict Cumberbatch.
St. Matthew-Daniel:
Me (based on Marvel’s record of developing villains not named Thanos or Loki): Nah, she won’t be back.
The MCU (based on its ever-growing slate of movies and TV shows):
7. And finally, how will WandaVision end?
Herman: By zooming out to reveal that Westview, New Jersey, is actually inside a snow globe.
Gonzalez: At the dealership. Wanda desperately needs an upgrade.
Holmes: If some combination of mutants, X-Men, or Magneto doesn’t show up, I’m going to scream—not because this should happen, but because I’m tired of hearing people whine about it. Put us out of our misery, Feige.
Adeniran: It ends with Vision the White merging with Fake Westview Vision—Wanda gets her favorite vibranium robot man back, and they live peacefully together with Tommy and Billy. At least, that’s how I hope it ends, but Ramsay Bolton said it best. We’ll end on a cliff-hanger, with Doctor Strange coming to get Wanda after she has to watch Vision die for the third time.
Gruttadaro: Vision will sacrifice himself yet again and kill White Vision; it will be very sad. Wanda’s story will be left more open-ended, as she sides with Agatha over the supremely douchey director Hayward and leaves the state of the Avengers in disarray as we head into the next Doctor Strange.
St. Matthew-Daniel: No idea how it ends and I’d very much like to keep it that way until midnight PT on Thursday. Alternatively, though, here’s what I think will be trending on Twitter come Friday:
- The battle of WandaVision vs. Agatha(Ghost)Vision
- Vision FINALLY evading death by combining with Ghost Vision
- Monica Rambeau’s future as an Avenger after she hands in her two weeks’ notice to S.W.O.R.D.
- A post-credits scene teasing Spider-Man: No Way Home
Yoo: Wanda will battle Agatha while the Visions square off. Wanda will prevail but might lose Billy and Tommy, while Vision will ultimately sacrifice himself to save everyone … again. The big bad for the next phase of the MCU will be revealed and we’ll get a cameo from Doctor Strange. Also, Agent Woo will get a massive promotion and salary bump and they’ll throw a parade for him in New Jersey.
Lindbergh: With at least 12 minutes of credits.