WandaVision spoilers follow.
WandaVision is over – but some questions remain. And in the wake of last week's finale, fans were left to process the Marvel Cinematic Universe show's big bait-and-switch: that Evan Peters' 'Quicksilver' was, in fact, just a resident of Westview.
On top of that, his true name turned out to be Ralph, whom Agatha Harkness had referred to (falsely) as her husband in previous episodes – Ralph Bohner. Do you get it? Do you understand the joke? This means the 'Quicksilver' element to this character in the sitcom reality was a red herring, and nothing more than a meta reference to Fox's X-Men movies that has no bearing on the MCU.
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Naturally, not all fans of the show have been totally delighted by this use of Evan Peters, who previously played Quicksilver in the X-Men movies Days of Future Past, Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix:
“And they used Evan Peters who was Quicksilver for a ‘Ralph Bohner’ joke... A BONER JOKE” pic.twitter.com/f4jPEtHOZaMarch 5, 2021
WandaVision's director Matt Shakman previously explained that episode 9 would disappoint some fans, especially those who'd ran wild with theories about the show – and we're guessing this is one of the elements he was referring to.
Over the past month, fans have guessed Quicksilver could be anyone from Peters' actual version of the character, to a reanimated corpse of Wanda's brother with a new face, to the Marvel villain Mephisto made flesh.
The fact that there is no twist to Ralph Bohner at all – other than the obvious joke in the name – is strangely barbed for a gag in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the weird, unexpected nature of his true self is arguably one of the more interesting twists to a finale that's a little bit too concerned with setting up what comes next in the canon.
This means that the MCU has avoided weighing itself down with too much multiverse-shaped lore baggage – which was probably a good call, considering the number of non-Marvel diehards out there watching who might've been bewildered by any big twists like this.
Was WandaVision's Quicksilver twist secretly smart?
Everyone knows Marvel is dipping its toes into the multiverse over the coming fourth phase of the MCU, most notably in the next Doctor Strange movie, but also in the upcoming Loki TV show, which is literally about an alternate universe version of the mischievous Asgardian god.
Quicksilver's appearance immediately made everyone think of the multiverse: that somehow Peters' version of the character had crossed over from the X-Men universe into the MCU. Marvel decided to play on these expectations instead of giving fans what they wanted, which was salvaging this great character from an increasingly poor series of now non-canonical Marvel movies.
The Ralph Bohner twist basically means the multiverse will have to wait for another day, which is probably no bad thing. Still, if this means we've seen the last of Evan Peters in the MCU, that does still feels like a slight shame – even if Marvel is right to avoid giving fans everything they want.
