While new Disney+ Marvel series WandaVision is full of mysteries, some of the most enigmatic moments come during the in-universe fake adverts that appear roughly halfway through each episode.
Created in the style of whichever TV decade WandaVision is currently riffing on (so the 1950s and 1960s for the first two episodes, and so on) and starring the same actors, each commercial nods to the wider Marvel Universe – but, according to the production team, they also contain key clues to the central mystery at the heart of WandaVision.
“It’s where other truths of the show begin to leak out,” Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told RadioTimes.com and other press.
“If this is the very first MCU thing you’re watching, it’s just a strange version of a ’50s commercial or a ’60s commercial, that you’ll have to keep watching the series to understand.
“But if you have been watching all the movies, you might be able to start connecting what those things mean to the past.”
“I love what Kevin had to say,” series director Matt Shakman later told RadioTimes.com.
“Certainly, you know, larger truths about the show are finding their way into these earlier episodes. So I would encourage fans to definitely pay attention.
“There are Easter Eggs that are small and that some people will get and some people won’t.”
So what are these Easter Eggs, and what could they mean for WandaVision? We break down all the commercials seen so far below.
Episode one – the Toastmate
“Is your husband tired of you burning his toast?” the host begins in the first WandaVision advert. “Try our new and improved Toastmate 2000. It’s the go-to for clever housewives.”
“Say, this machine has some shine,” replies his female co-star.
“You said it,” the host continues. “Set the dial and get the taste back into your toast. Top and bottom heating elements can handle anything, from meatloaf, to cherry pie, to open-face cheese sandwiches.”
At this point, a red light begins to flash on the Toastmate – the first colour seen in the series – with an insistent, alarm-like buzz, before the shot snaps back to normal.
“The all-new Toastmate 2000, by Stark Industries,” a voiceover concludes. “Forget the past, this is your future.”
Obviously, the nod to Stark industries – the company led by Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, AKA Tony Stark – is the easiest Easter Egg to take away from this commercial, and could just be a nod to the Marvel universe in general.
But we do also have to wonder whether there’s more going on here. Could the Stark industries nod hint that Tony Stark’s Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing software (AKA BARF, also seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home), which could be used to create convincing illusions, might be in play? Or does Tony Stark’s old company tie into Wanda’s own tragic backstory, which saw a Stark missile kill her family when she was a child?
Later, the slogan “forget the past, this is your future” seems particularly ominous given that Wanda and Vision do seem to have a form of amnesia in the series, while the red warning light (which could denote an alarm or the recording light of a TV camera) hints that all is not as it seems in Westview.
Is the light a signal coming through? Or a warning of something else that’s coming? All we know is, it seems a bit over-the-top to signify some burnt toast.
Episode two – the Strücker wristwatch
“They say a man is never fully dressed without two important accessories: his special lady, and his Strücker,” a voiceover says, over footage of the same two actors all dressed up for a grand night out.
“Strücker – he’ll make time for you,” the advert concludes, before a loud ticking clock noise counts out the footage. Look closely, and you’ll also spot the HYDRA logo on the watch alongside the words “Strücker Swiss made. Hydra 1000m.”
And the name Strücker, of course, has some close connections to Wanda. As seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron Baron Strücker was a high-ranking HYDRA scientist whose cruel experiments on Wanda and her brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) granted them their superpowers via the captured Mind Stone.
Though he was murdered by Ultron later in the same film, Strücker’s influence has continued in the MCU, at least partially through his son (who played a role in Agents of SHIELD) and the exploration of Wanda’s powers and how they relate to Vision’s Mind Stone in Avengers: Infinity war.
So what’s with the reference to Strücker and HYDRA here? And what does “he’ll make time for you” mean? Given the character’s death, it’s not entirely clear, though if he did in some way get resurrected, he’d certainly be a candidate for who could be behind the series’ strange setting.
And if he is genuinely dead, well, maybe this is just a reference to Wanda’s past – and a hint that HYDRA and those who still work for the organisation might not be done with her yet.
After all, episode two’s creepy insistence that this was all “for the children” and Wanda’s surprise pregnancy at the end does have us wondering whether HYDRA isn’t quite done messing with superpowered kids just yet.
WandaVision releases new episodes on Fridays on Disney+. Want something else to watch? Check out our full TV Guide.
from Radio Times https://ift.tt/3bG0KGZ
