WANDAVISION Showrunner Comments On Introducing [Spoiler]: "It Was Complicated"

WANDAVISION Showrunner Comments On Introducing [Spoiler]: "It Was Complicated"

This past Friday's episode of WandaVision introduced actor [Spoiler] as [Spoiler], and showrunner Jac Schaeffer has now commented on the surprise reveal and how it came about...

News
By MarkCassidy - Feb 08, 2021 02:02 PM EST
Filed Under: WandaVision
Source: Tornado

As you're no doubt aware by now (we spoiler-tagged just in case), the latest episode of Marvel's WandaVision introduced Evan Peters as Wanda's brother Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver.

Peters had already played the character in Fox's X-Men movies, so the big reveal that Wanda had "recast" Aaron Johnson's now deceased take on Pietro with the American Horror Story alum obviously raised a few questions.

Did Scarlet Witch (or someone else) pull this Quicksilver from the Multiverse, or is he one of her illusions? Does his presence represent the introduction of mutants to the MCU, or is it simply a fun crossover that won't have any major implications going forward?

We might be waiting a while for definitive answers, but showrunner Jac Schaeffer did comment on the episode's surprise conclusion in a new interview with Marvel.com.

“We loved the idea of [bringing him back],” said the show's head writer, who hatched the idea with executive producer Mary Livanos. “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.”

“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.”

As it turns out, Peters didn't take a lot of convincing!

“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.”

Kevin Feige was also on board, but wanted to ensure "that it made sense." Schaeffer adds that she "hopes that's what we did," but isn't quite ready to spill any more details just yet.

What did you guys make of Evans' MCU introduction as Quicksilver? How do you see the story playing out? Drop us a comment down below, and be sure to tune in for an all-new episode of WandaVision this Friday.

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MovieMonster
MovieMonster - 2/8/2021, 3:05 PM
@regularmovieguy - One of the most entertaining and creative sequences in any CBM.
tmp3
tmp3 - 2/8/2021, 3:07 PM
@regularmovieguy - Suuuuch a good sequence. DOFP was honestly one of the best cinema experiences I've ever had, so much fun
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 2/8/2021, 3:19 PM
@tmp3

I remember being super surprised by it. The time travel was a lot of fun and something that hadn’t really been used in CBMs at that point. McAvoy and Fassbender were at their best and it was refreshing to see Hugh Jackman in the typical Patrick Stewart-type mentor role.

The sentinels were well incorporated. People say Peters was only a set piece and in a lot of ways they’re right, but he’s also dynamite from the moment he appears on screen. His intro with Xavier, Wolverine, and Hank was hilarious. Looked like he was having a blast in the role
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 2/8/2021, 4:26 PM
@regularmovieguy - My only real complaint against it is that they showed Wolverine arguably looking the coolest he ever has, but we never got to see him in action as such.
Humperdink
Humperdink - 2/8/2021, 5:23 PM
@MosquitoFarmer -

Nope.

ANd I've been saying since last week that this was a wink to the FOX X-Men and NOT those X-men joining the MCU. They're not going to show up at all and will be entirely recast when they do.

No way Feige tries to breath life into a franchise that had so many ups and downs then finally a disaster of an ending.
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 2/8/2021, 5:34 PM
@Humperdink - ?
Humperdink
Humperdink - 2/8/2021, 5:47 PM
@MosquitoFarmer -

I was agreeing with your sentiment that sadly we’ll never get to see that cool version of Logan and adding to the point that all signs point to Quicksilver being just a set piece not an MCU/X-men merger.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/8/2021, 10:35 PM
(Just to be clear, though, I don't put the blame for any of this at Evan Peters' feet. The dude delivered what they asked for and from what I've seen of him on AHS he seems like a guy who is eager to pitch into any project whatever is asked, even if it's not in his comfort zone. Whatever the precise capacity Peters is joining the MCU, I'm not mad about it.)
LSHF
LSHF - 2/8/2021, 11:16 PM
@Spock0Clock - Of course, many people see the same thing in many different ways. One different angle (out of many) from yours is that some people are not concerned if they have "seen this kind of stuff before". Some people like to see some of the same kind of thing again, as they would like to see the same character do things they like more than once. They were fun scenes.

More than "just there for the music video", I'm willing to guess the writers didn't just think, "Hey, let's stop the story and do a music video!". Instead, they had the character, wanted to do something with him that was fun by adding some humor to the film, and entertain people. Which it obviously did. It also helped push some boundaries on special effects, which is usually a good thing.

It's all just entertainment, whether dark, light and/or in-between.

Just a different angle.
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 2/8/2021, 11:53 PM
>yfw you remember that Spock was the same cat that wrote essays in the past saying how boring were the FoX-Men in how they used their powers

>"Just waving hands and shit"

>He doesn't even like the Quicksilver scene(s)


There's just no pleasing some people.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 12:01 AM
@Doomsday8888 - A valid point. In isolation, the Quicksilver scenes are certainly technically competent. I don't debate that. And in that respect they are a big step up from a lot of the later "FoX-Men Using their Powers" scenes.

But I still don't think it does much for the movie itself. It's like if someone dropped that Fatboy Slim video into a cut of Catch Me if You Can. Yeah, it'd be cool to see Leo Dicaprio's dad have a gravity-defying dance number, but it doesn't really serve the movie much.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 12:03 AM
(Though now that I've said it, I think Spielberg missed a trick there.)
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 2/9/2021, 12:15 AM
@Spock0Clock
Spock, quite frankly, i would hate to spoon-feed you, you're a smart guy at least that's the image you managed to sell me over the years, so...

Obviously i hear you, i get you, i know what you're saying and i agree with you.
Fox's version of Quicksilver is mad OP and after a certain point, he doesn't really serve the plot, when in reality he could.

But then that would be a boring ass movie, don't you think?

A movie has many different tasks to fulfill and not every plot point or character has to serve the main story of the movie, it IS ok to build up shit in order to ENTERTAIN the audience, ya know?

But i know you know this, cause everyone and their mother knows this.

It's all about giving the absolute best cinema experience, just like tmp3 and i had with DOFP. :)
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 12:15 AM
And let me take the other side here, too. You look at what they did with Nightcrawler in the White House attack in X-Men 2 where a mutant power was used for a spectacular sequence that really mattered to the plot, and the character remained relatively relevant to the plot for the rest of the movie.

I honestly don't think this is about me hating the FoX-Men movies, because I happily recognize and admit when they do this stuff well. But Quicksilver was just never a well-integrated character in those movies the way Nightcrawler was in that one film. Quicksilver was just a one-scene gimmick, in my view.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 12:22 AM
@Doomsday8888 - See my point about Nightcrawler. Similarly overpowered character whose powers were gamebreaking and yet, he still had pathos and an arc and remained present throughout the film.

Quicksilver just leaves in the middle of the movies or gets his legs broken or whatever because they don't know what else to do with him. They even build up his confrontation with Magneto in Apocalypse and never bother to pay it off.

If you introduce a character that breaks your story just to have a fun scene with him, and then don't do anything worthwhile with him beyond that, and the excuse is "the movie would be boring without it", it's just shoddy moviemaking for a cheap thrill.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 12:26 AM
Not that there's anything inherently wrong with a cheap thrill, of course, as long as people recognize that's what it is.
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 2/9/2021, 12:42 AM
@Spock0Clock
Except neither of his scenes stops the plot like you're implying with that music video example of yours.
On the contrary, he actually HELPS move the plot forward.

And he broke his leg AFTER facing Apocaylpse and wasn't sidelined in a pathetic ass way as in Dark Phoenix.

This isn't even about the FoX-Men, it's about filmmaking.
I could list hundreds of example were one could deal with Thanos and avoid the snap maybe just by using Dr.Strange, but most of those scenarios would make the movie boring af, it's not a question of making excuses, this is just how shit works, Spock, and we all know that.

But yeah, you can call it "shoddy moviemaking for a cheap thrill" if that makes you happy.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 1:21 AM
@Doomsday8888 - I think you've put the wrong emphasis on what I wrote. When I said:

"[they] undermine the character's role in the rest of the movie (i.e. Quicksilver could have solved essentially every conflict himself so they had to artificially sideline him"

I'm not complaining about him being too powerful (I think those complaints are a cop-out whether they're about Superman or Captain Marvel or whoever). Movie characters don't have to make perfectly logical maximal use of their powers.

My criticism isn't even that they break Quicksilver's legs or send him off on a plane to render him powerless (because they clearly have a problem with how powerful they've made him). Whatever. It's hacky, but there's a lot of that going around in all superhero media.

My criticism is that when you remove his solo power sequences, what else is there to his character? Kinberg doesn't seem to think there is much else worth exploring. That's the undermining I'm really talking about: the lack of investment in him beyond his speed power scenes.

In X-Men Apocalypse, Magneto decides to join a blue dude's plan to level several cities around the world because he tragically lost his family, and Quicksilver's entire purpose in joining the X-Men is to reunite with his long lost father, you'd think those two stories would meaningfully connect. But they just don't.

Quicksilver keeps their relationship a secret, Magneto watches on as Apocalypse casually wrecks him, so that the movie can focus entirely on the Magneto/Mystique/Professor X dynamic. (And I'm sure some earlier script actually did pay this off because it's just so awkward in the final movie.)

Quicksilver isn't just absent in the action outside his focal scenes (you can excuse that all day, if you want), but he actually serves no storytelling purpose outside of getting Character A to Place B (which is already only a contrived challenge anyway). His original appearance was first written as a Juggernaut scene. His arc in Apocalypse was never paid off. He's basically furniture in Dark Phoenix.

Without those slow motion scenes, he's basically a non-character. And Quicksilver deserves better than that, because he's actually pretty great character, not just a generic speedster.
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 2/9/2021, 1:41 AM
@Spock0Clock

Ehhh seems to me like you're moving the goalpost now but ok.

Like, why even bother asking people why they like that music video scene if your main issue is with him being a "non-character"? For all you know, they may even agree with you.

Also -and not saying i'm disagreeing with you but just trying to be understandble toward the storytellers- but if you're dealing with a character that has minimal presence in the movie and is mostly used as a "wow-factor" just what kinda character-progression can you expect him to have?

When you have a franchise in your hands, can't you afford to take your time? Weren't they ALREADY moving in that direction?

It's one thing to nitpick, but let's be fair.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 1:44 AM
And let me be clear, Quicksilver also deserves better than to be a one-and-done obligatory Whedon character death, too. While ATJ's version got to be part of a more organic ensemble and his personality better matched the comic version, I'm not saying that Feige didn't do Pietro dirty, too.

A criticism of Fox is not necessarily a praise of Marvel (or DC or whatever other combination).
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 1:58 AM
@Doomsday8888 - Let me make the goalposts as concrete as I can (and I didn't mean to move them).

The Quicksilver sequences didn't wow me. Full stop. Just like Doctor Strange's acid trip didn't really do much for me (and I know a lot of people loved that, too). Visually, it's fine, but what impresses me is when visuals and character and themes and all that are operating together.

And it's hard for me to talk about that without talking about all the stuff around those sequences which didn't work for me. (And it's also just more interesting to me than a well-shot technical sequence.)
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 2/9/2021, 2:41 AM
@Spock0Clock
Which is fine, really.
I get that we aren't cut from the same cloth and in your same vein, you are free to dislike what you dislike.

And i guess i also have my answer to the question "would you have liked that scene if Evan's Quicksilver had a proper character-progression, one of your liking" and the answer is "No".

And we both know why: BECAUSE YOU HAVE SHIT TASTE, OLD MAN!!! :P
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 2/9/2021, 2:52 AM
@Doomsday8888 - ...Goddammit, I am old!
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 2/9/2021, 7:41 AM
@Humperdink - Gotcha. The "Nope" threw me off.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 2/8/2021, 2:56 PM
Wanda didn't pull him from anywhere. He is not of her making.
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