WandaVision’s X-Men Cameo Sets Disney+ MCU Shows An Impossible Benchmark

Evan Peters’ appearance as Quicksilver in WandaVision was a great moment, but it now means fans will expect every Marvel show to have a “big cameo”.

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Evans Peters’ cameo as WandaVision’s fake Pietro has set the MCU’s Disney+ shows an impossible precedent. While the appearance of the X-Men movie universe’s Quicksilver wasn’t quite what it seemed by the end of the show – thanks to a disarming but genius dick joke – it still set a benchmark in expectations that will be difficult to follow.

WandaVision’s ending was ultimately – and rather unfortunately – undone by the level of fan engagement that had previously worked incredibly well for its marketing campaign. When the finale prioritized a satisfying story pay-off for Scarlet Witch and a more gentle set-up for several other MCU projects in WandaVision’s post-credits scenes, it did so, in some eyes, at the cost of fan-baiting that had self-perpetuated through rumor and fan theories. There was no big cameo – even a quite logical one like Doctor Strange – and no major twist to pay-off the speculation among the fandom that was more fantasy than reality.

The problem stemmed partly from Evan Peters’ appearance as Pietro and the gap in logic of him somehow looking like X-Men: Days Of Future Past’s Quicksilver without any attempt to explain it. That decision was purely for fans, but it encouraged something that was already in motion thanks to the very nature of the show: second-guessing what the next big revelation was. That in turn saw every small hint being leaped on as a set-up to something even bigger, like a debut for Reed Richards or a pay-off to the X-Men link, and it’s something every Disney+ Marvel show will have to face. Even though it was no more than a playful cameo, Quicksilver’s appearance was uncomfortably slotted in alongside the Luke Skywalker cameo in The Mandalorian and now every show will need its Skywalker moment to appease fans.

Why Quicksilver’s WandaVision Cameo Was A Problem

Part of the issue was that Quicksilver’s appearance was so complex and so carefully designed to troll the audience. It was ultimately paid off in a way consciously designed to be annoying and to lack satisfaction. But when something like the X-Men’s debut is dangled over the audience without a pay-off, particularly after all of the Fantastic Four and Mephisto theories had been debunked, the trolling was always going to be divisive. In a vacuum, that pay-off might have been received as playful and funny, particularly as it had been set up by Agatha’s repeated mentions of Ralph, but in the specific context of WandaVision, it was too much of a misstep for the more disgruntled fans. Rather than it being a gag, the Ralph pay-off was treated like a rug pull, when in reality him being a real X-Men or Mephisto in disguise would have been far less appropriate for the story.

Informed fans who like to theorize and who the marketing played into overtly (particularly in terms of vague, cheeky cast interviews) do not like to be disappointed, and rather than question the validity of expectations, it’s inevitable they would question the show’s story-telling instead. And that’s now going to be extrapolated across every upcoming Marvel project if Marvel continue the slow-drip mystery story-telling that has worked so well so far.

The MCU’s Issues With Momentary Pay-Offs

Because of how audiences now consume movie media, particularly in the second phase after the cinema, fandom-aligned franchises have to have a certain level of moments that are now not just memorable but memeable. They are the instantly gratifying snippets that can exist outside of the context of the movie that can be shared and reshared and studios now invest a great deal in making sure that side of the new marketing world is catered to. The result of that is that movies are stripped down to moments or hidden details to feed the conversation and there’s a certain expectation that some particular movies will offer such moments more than others. When you go into a Pixar movie, you know already what the Easter eggs are you’ll need to tick off; you know Zack Snyder comic book movies are full of Easter eggs before you go in; when you go into MCU projects you know to expect cameos, secrets and set-ups. It’s all part of the new great game and it has led to a new level of movie fandom that surpasses simple watching. When there is an element of sleuthing encouraged by the art, it’s only inevitable that secret revelation or mystery solving becomes the highest trending currency.

This is nothing new for the MCU, of course. Avengers: Endgame was arguably the single most scrutinized movie production of all time thanks to scoop culture and Marvel played into the fact by both allowing the marketing campaign to self-perpetuate in silence and also by feeling false teases as misdirection. Decades after LucasFilm had weaponized misinformation for the Star Wars’ original trilogy’s release, Disney protected their story asset by playing with fan expectations. After years of being whipped up into excitement by post-credits scenes and cameos, it wasn’t hard to see why the intended audience would fall into the trap. It’s just a problem when that is impossible to turn off. The big moments and memeable reveals now transcend their movies and TV shows, as any foray into MCU Twitter will reveal, and it’s no longer a case of getting the genie back in the bottle.

The Problem For Future MCU Shows

The problem now, of course, is that rather than being a show about the legacy of Captain America and Sam Wilson and Bucky finding who they are, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is going to be a series of opportunities to bring Steve Rogers back. She-Hulk won’t be an expansion of the gamma radiation hero/villain world as much as a chance to debut Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in the MCU (unless Spider-Man: No Way Home gets there first). And either of those releases will have to introduce Red Hulk to satisfy expectations that are already out there. There are already these Luke Skywalker/Quicksilver moments mapped out for every MCU movie and show, because of the nature of the beast and WandaVision has unwittingly poured gasoline on the fire.

The reality, of course, is that these shows will feature those moments in some form. There will be shocks and new character appearances and cameos and hundreds of opportunities to meme specific moments, but the audience will probably know about them in advance. For all of the hints that WandaVision’s secrets weren’t actually leaked ahead of them happening, the majority of the show was already mapped out ahead of time. When Katharine Hahn was announced to be playing Agnes, the assumption was she’d be playing villain Agatha Harkness. When Evan Peters was leaked, the first suggestion was that he’d be playing Pietro. White Vision’s part leaked in 2019 and even the unhappy ending was called early, because it was all seeded properly and to do anything else would have been a betrayal of Wanda’s story. But somewhere along the way, WandaVision became the show that was going to reveal the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Mephisto, and Blue Marvel despite there being absolutely no way Marvel Studios could have protected those secrets and the same dynamic will happen for all of the subsequent shows.

Marvel Studios encourage it. Disney wants fans to amplify official marketing messaging. Social media managers want their teases to become memes and their memes to go viral and the easiest way to do that is to fan flames. So while WandaVision’s finale was let down somewhat by something completely outside of its control, in terms of those left disappointed by the show failing to match their fantasies, the show played its own part. It will just be a crime if the other Disney+ shows are treated as disappointing because they too prioritise story over snatched moments of spectacle.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/wandavision-quicksilver-shock-cameo-disney-plus-impossible-comparison/