There have been plenty of crazy “holy crap!” moments in WandaVision, but the one that truly had many doing a double-take was when Wanda Maximoff opened the door to see her previously-dead brother Pietro on the other side. Except…it wasn’t so much the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Pietro Maximoff (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) as it was the X-Men Cinematic Universe version (played by Evan Peters). Yes, Disney had recently bought out Fox, so that meant they owned two movie incarnations of Quicksilver and this is how they were going to play that card. That episode five cliffhanger made fans wonder what this use of Evan Peters as Pietro meant. Did Wanda pull a different version of her brother out of the multiverse? Was this the beginning of some big X-Men crossover? Was it supposed to be her brother in spirit, but with a different face? Was this some kind of ruse? The following episode didn’t give us any real answers, but it skewed towards the idea that this wasn’t truly her brother nor was it the Eurythmics-loving son of Magneto from the world of movie mutants. Now we’re getting support on this idea from Funko Pops of all sources. He’s “Pietro Maximoff.” The quotes are part of the label. In other words, he’s not truly Pietro. Not really. So who is he? WHAT is he? No matter how much Director Hayward, Monica Rambeau, or even Vision have insisted that everything is Wanda’s doing, there’s always been this feeling that something malevolent has been lurking in the background of this series. It may not be forcing her to do what she’s doing, but it’s certainly egging her on and reaping the rewards. Wanda admittedly doesn’t know how this all started. She was ready to openly question this reality to Vision up until she became pregnant and suddenly became overprotective of her new life. There are certain parts of the reality that even she can’t control with her powers, such as the stork and her crying children. Even the appearance of her so-called brother is called out as something she swears she didn’t do. But that timing is extremely convenient. With Vision repeatedly telling her, “This is wrong,” the end of the fifth episode gave us the closest thing to Wanda realizing the error of her ways. This could have ended the situation, but it was like some extra force insisted the story go on and Vision’s disagreement be tabled for later. What’s more ominous is how they slightly showed Pietro’s hand is you read between the lines. Tommy jokes that Billy sees him as possibly a vampire. The stop-motion yogurt commercial has the shark character admitting to surviving due to feeding on “Yo-Magic.” Put that together with Pietro’s very first line upon greeting Wanda: “Long-lost bro get to squeeze his stinkin’ sister to death or what?” Those aren’t the words of someone experiencing an emotional reunion! Those are the words of an imposter ready to feast and turn his victim into an empty husk.
