Marvel’s first-ever Disney+ series WandaVision is rolling out in full swing. The first two episodes premiered on Friday and plunged viewers into the picture-perfect world of Westview, a suburb where everything looks like a classic sitcom. We got to see Vision after the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, as the said character was killed in the former film. This show will focus on the human-like capabilities of Vision. Wanda Maximoff, a.ka. Scarlet Witch, has been around the MCU since the end of Phase 2, and has had some iconic moments but was never given the spotlight.
But that is changing now, as it is time for us to see who Scarlet Witch is, what her origins are, and what she is truly capable of. The only selling point we know of right now is the intrigue of the show replicating a style that spans decades of sitcom TV shows. With the likelihood of altered reality and setup for Scarlet Witch’s return in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
If you have seen the first two episodes, then you must have seen that the show consists of commercials it. No, these are not ordinary commercials. These are not your regular ad-breaks. Instead, they hint heavily towards the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and every commercial is no less than an easter egg. In one of the commercial, we see a man and a woman, which are believed to be Wanda Maximoff and Pietro (Quicksilver) parents. The two characters, Wanda and Pietro were first introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Both hail from the Eastern European nation of Sokovia, which was used as a front by Hydra. When Wanda and Pietro were 10, a mortar shell landed in their apartment and killed their parents.
A second mortar didn’t detonate, but the twins spent 48 hours waiting to die and staring at the Stark Industries logo emblazoned on the bomb. After they were rescued, Wanda and Pietro joined Hydra and submitted themselves to experiments by Wolfgang Von Strucker, who used Loki’s scepter and the Mind Stone to imbue them with superpowers. Pietro gained superspeed while Wanda’s new abilities included telekinesis, energy manipulation, and a form of telepathy. Unfortunately, Pietro died defending Sokovia in Age of Ultron while Wanda joined the Avengers and fell in love with Vision.
Each episode of WandaVision thus far contains one commercial break featuring an unidentified man and woman, who are billed as Commerical Man (Ithamar Enriquez) and Commercial Woman (Victoria Blade) in the credits. The first ad is for the Stark ToastMate 2000, an advanced (for the 1950s) two-tiered toaster. The commercial in the second episode is selling the man’s Stucker luxury watch. Cleverly, both of these items have direct ties to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s past and origin. The Stark ToastMate 2000 reflects the Stark Industries weapons that not only killed Wanda and Pietro’s parents but also terrorized the twins for two days.
In fact, the commercial subtly references how the Maximoff siblings were forced to watch Stark’s bomb and waited for it to detonate and kill them. In the ad, the couple waits patiently as it takes an unusually long time for the bread to toast while an ominous red light flickers, symbolizing Wanda and Pietro’s ordeal. The fact that the toaster is named the ToastMate 2000 also references when the Maximoff parents died, as it happened in the year 2000 when Pietro and Wanda were 10, about 5 years before the events of Age of Ultron.
Wolfgang Von Strucker may have given the Maximoff twins special powers with the Mind Stone but he also tortured and manipulated Wanda and Pietro. The Strucker watch in the commercial clearly bears the Hydra logo, and the tagline “Strucker: He’ll make time for you” indicates the Hydra leader showed Wanda and Pietro special attention since they were his pet projects in Sokovia. The fact that the same Commercial Man and Woman appear in both episodes can’t be a coincidence and they must have greater significance as players in Wanda’s story.
Since Wanda’s awesome powers have evolved to include reality manipulation, the commercial breaks in her fake reality may be tied to Maximoff’s memories, whether they are repressed or not. However, Wanda’s parents must be a source of trauma for her, and it’s important to remember that at a young age, she lost both her parents and her twin brother, and then the artificial man she loves was murdered before she also died and was resurrected.
The voice on the radio trying to contact Wanda and asking “Who’s doing this to you?” also indicates that the television reality Maximoff and Vision are living in is being inflicted on Wanda in some way. If the Commercial Man and Woman are indeed manifestations of Wanda’s parents, it means their unseen enemy knows a great deal about the Scarlet Witch.
