WandaVision Director Explains The Role of Commercials In The Series
WandaVision has definitely redefined the concept of sitcoms. The show heavily relied its theme on reality-altering moments, where Wanda was seen wrapping the reality and setting the outlay of Westview according to different time stamps. She also redefined the entire Westview according to her favorite sitcoms. This was not the only selling point of WandaVision. The show also had various commercials. Over time, there have been many theories regarding commercials.
People have also connected the commercials to Infinity Stones. Theories claim that every commercial represents a certain Infinity Stone. In episode 2, ‘Don’t Touch That Dial’, a commercial for the Hydra brand Strücker watches is one of the obvious representations of the Time Stone. Episode 3, “Now in Color” included a commercial for the Hydra Soak bath powder represented the Space Stone. The blue cube-shaped box clearly resembles the Tesseract, the Space Stone’s containment vessel. WandaVision’s premiere episode “Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience.”, had a commercial for ToastMate 2000. It appears to be a representation of Vision and his Mind Stone. The episode, “On A Very Special Episode…” contains a commercial for the paper towel brand ‘Lagos’. This was instantly connected to the Reality Stone. Episode 6 commercial, “Yo-Magic” was connected to the Soul Stone.
Two main characters in the commercials that were heavily noticed are Commerical Man (Ithamar Enriquez) and Commercial Woman (Victoria Blade) in the credits. These two people were even rumored to be Wanda and Pietro’s parents. In the commercials, we see the couple patiently waiting for the bread to toast. This was connected to Wanda and Pietro in their childhood waiting for the Stark Missile to go off and end their lives. 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. Now the fact that the couple appears in both the commercials was not a coincidence.
The series finale was undeniably satisfying. It ended up all the sectors WandaVision was set to cover. But it did leave the fans hanging over with some questions. For example, whatever happened to the Beekeeper? Where did he go when Wanda reverse or rewrote her reality? There had to be a certain endpoint for the Beekeeper. One of those lingering questions regarded the two actors in the in-universe commercials, and exactly what role they had outside of the Hex reality created by Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).
In a recent interview with TVLine, WandaVision director Makk Shakman confirmed that the commercials were Wanda’s creation and that the actors involved in them were two additional Westview townspeople.
“Wanda gave roles to almost everyone in Westview,” Shakman explained.
“Those two actors, or townspeople, that we picked to be in the commercials were meant to be the same as everything else — that they were iterating through time, in the same way, that Wanda’s car is a red Buick that iterates through time. Wanda has cast these two to be her commercial actors, and they appear in every single episode, and they are part of the broadcast.”
“It was also meant to be a repository for Wanda’s unconscious,” Shakman said of the commercials.
“She’s putting something into these commercials that are clues to some of the bigger thematics in the show.”
He said, “The commercials were part of our storytelling extremely early on, and have been such [fun], so incredibly fun to do those,” WandaVision showrunner Jac Schaeffer previously explained.
“[For] the casual Marvel fan, I feel like the commercials are very accessible in that way, but because they’re so true to the era, they also — for anyone who doesn’t know a single thing about Marvel — they just can exist as more color to the story. But yeah, they’re important. You’ll see where they go.”
In the past, Feige has spoken about the existence of commercials in the show. Speaking with ComicBook during a WandaVision press conference, Feige states the show will have commercials. They won’t be merely promoting a brand, however, or trying to sell viewers a product.
He said, “Commercial was an early idea for [WandaVision]. If this is the very first Marvel, MCU thing you’re watching, it’s just a strange version of the 50s or 60s commercial. If you have been watching all those movies, you might be able to start connecting what all those things mean from the past.”
What did you think of WandaVision? You may stream the episode on Disney+. The show has a total of nine episodes and has concluded its run.