WandaVision: How X-Men, Inhumans & More Could Spawn From Wanda's Westview Bubble
In case you still haven't noticed, there is little sitcom spoof show streaming on Disney+ called WandaVision. And while only four episodes into nine (or possibly ten) episode run, the first installment of the MCU's Phase 4 has risen, answered, and altered a lot of questions from Marvel fans.
The new Marvel show is considered to be the first in a set of projects confirmed to explore the MCU's multiverse, followed by Spider-Man 3 and Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness. But while opening the door to alternate realities is a huge event that will surely shake the foundation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, does anyone really believe that the multiverse is the only thing that this pioneering show is setting up?
Through the first three episodes of WandaVision, audiences were introduced to a "sitcom time capsule" of sorts starring the MCU's favorite witch and talking toaster. Then episode four showed that this sitcom reality is being contained within some sort of electro-magic bubble. While, technically, it is shaped in an ever-elusive hexagon shape, let's call it a bubble for the sake of this article.
It seems Wanda has somehow created this reality-altering bubble that's emitting off-the-chart energy levels... So what would happen if that bubble pops?
COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION (OR 'CMBR,' FOR SHORT)
Marvel Studios has always found great (albeit fake) scientific explanations for some magical happenings of the MCU. For instance, the Bifrost in Thor is likened to the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Similarly, the Mystic Arts in Doctor Strange is explained somewhat like a computer program that taps energy from different corners of the multiverse and the magic's "spells" being looked at as reading code.
Well, Darcy Lewis and acting SWORD Director Tyler Hayward spent some time in "Episode Four" introducing fans to their newest scientific source of seemingly paranormal power - CMBR.
CMBR (Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation) is the energy coming from the Westview bubble at off-the-chart levels. Hayward explains it as "residual energy left over from The Big Bang." This checks out, as audiences learned in Avengers: Infinity War that the six Infinity Stones were manifested by the power of The Big Bang. What's interesting, though, is that the Infinity Stones are also relevant to WandaVision because the Scarlett Witch had her powers unlocked by the Mind Stone.
Considering CMBR is the energy given off by an explosion of Infinity Stone power, there are four events that need to be considered in the MCU: Thanos' snap in Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos destroying the Infinity Stones a month after that, Hulk's Infinity Snap five years later that brings everyone back in Avengers: Endgame, and Tony Stark's snap that defeats Thanos and his army.
Fans know that at least the first two events caused "a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions," according to Rocket Raccoon in Avengers: Endgame. So it's safe to assume the other two Infinity Snaps did as well.
That's a lot of CMBR on Earth. And now it's got even more in the Westview bubble, with Doctor Darcy saying the levels of emission won't be low for long. So what happens when Wanda's world can't contain all the radiation anymore?
THE MULTIVERSE
The multiverse is actually the only outcome on this list that is more confirmed than not. It's established as early as Avengers: Age of Ultron that Wanda is capable of using her powers to project alternate realities. Now audiences may be watching her using those same powers to create a seemingly ideal reality for herself in WandaVision. If the bubble around Wanda's small town were to pop and the world is exposed to even more CMBR, her alternate world within Westview may end up spreading further than just a small town in northern Jersey, and may tear a hole in reality that leads to the Multiverse.
It's been reported that the events of WandaVision affect the events of the upcoming Spider-Man 3. With the fan-fiction type roster Spider-Man 3 is building, there is a very good chance that WandaVision is responsible for that. Sounds like the perfect mess for Doctor Stephen Strange to clean up in his sequel, which WandaVision also connects to, titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
THE FANTASTIC FOUR
Fans didn't just learn science-magic language in "Episode 4," though. Audiences were also introduced to the intergalactic agency SWORD that has clearly been around for years, and that they have essentially halted their astronaut training program. Tyler Hayward (don't forget this name) stated that in The Snap, half of his astronauts went missing the other half lost their nerve. Could some of those missing astronauts have gone missing during a SWORD mission in space?
When Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian land in New York at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, it would make sense for SWORD to send a group of space travelers to check it out. Perhaps that group of astronauts just so happened to include Reed Richards and company. If they got snapped away by Thanos, and then returned five years later, they would resume their existence in the last place they were — in their shuttle, adrift in space.
It would be more than pleasing if Marvel's First Family kept their comic-accurate role as astronauts that ran into a cosmic event during their return to Earth. So what if that cosmic event doesn't come from another galaxy, but from Westview, New Jersey.
INHUMANS
Inhumans have one of the most unique and intricate origins in Marvel comics. To put things very simply, due to early-civilization experimentation on Earth by the Kree, there is a group of humans who hold a particular gene that unlocks special powers and abilities when introduced to an alien mist.
Apropos that Inhuman origin story, but replace the alien mist with a Chaos Magic explosion, and you have the makings of a vintage MCU twist to a classic Marvel Comics story — Inhumans awakened by the Scarlett Witch.
The focal point here is the proximity factor of Westview and a potential cosmic event. Westview is in New Jersey. There's one particular Inhuman who also traditionally operates out of the Garden State.
With Kamala Khan set to make her MCU debut sometime this year in her titular series Ms. Marvel, fans are wondering how her powers will come to be. If the effects of Wanda's eventual collapse are limited to just regional proportions, Kamala could still be in range. And with Monica Rambeu even closer to the situation, fans could see some very efficient MCU Captain Marvel-verse setup in Westview.
MUTANTS AND THE X-MEN
The MCU's Mind Stone has shown the capability to unlock powers and abilities in only certain people such as Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. While this is hardly a new theory, it's a common one, which may make it the most important one yet. Perhaps the energy that Wanda is emitting is comparable to that of the Mind Stone, thus making Wanda the same key to unlocking abilities in others that the Mind Stone once was.
This is a volatile outcome of the potential popping of the Westview bubble. Firstly, this outcome would lean into the genetic inclusion of MCU mutants, which would pay homage to their comic origin. But this route would also be a very MCU-specific explanation to mutants' existence, making it much harder to explain the more historically-rooted X-Men character stories of those like Wolverine and Magneto, as well as Professor Charles Xavier.
With all of that in mind, this could have been Marvel Studios' plan right from when Wanda was introduced in Age of Ultron. With her deep mutant legacy in Marvel Comics, the Scarlett Witch is the number one candidate to bring the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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