The following story contains tangential spoilers for WandaVision.
- WandaVision finds two titular Marvel heroes living in a surreal sitcom world – complete with commercial breaks.
- The commercials – one per episode – all include references to other events, things and people within Marvel’s cinematic universe.
- Throughout the season, we will keep this story updated every WandaVision commercial and what the content really means.
Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) are living their perfect sitcom life. At least they think they are. Like WandaVision pulls the curtain more and more from its sitcom premise to reveal the action and mystery thriller underneath, it’s hard to avoid looking for clues in every corner of the show. A key place for this so far would be the fake commercials within the fake comedy, which all seem to have a running topic: they are connected to Wanda’s past.
We don’t know for sure what’s going on yet, but it sure seems to be tending to the idea that the reality of the sitcom we’re seeing WandaVision it is a projection of Scarlet Witch’s mind; all we see are things that she knows. Hence the connections of the commercials with her past and, for example, the lack of clarity about what Vision does in his work. It seems to be his way of dealing with the traumas and losses of recent life, but we cannot confirm this 100% yet. We can only analyze what we have achieved so far – and that has been some interesting and slightly enigmatic fake commercials.
A sequel to all commercials so far? Each seems to present the same presenters, a man and a woman. If all we are seeing is something built by Wanda’s mind, could these two people be your parents? As we learned in Avengers: Age of Ultron, a Stark Industries bomb hit her apartment when she and her twin brother Pietro were 10 years old. Just as she probably sees the innocence and constant happy ending of a sitcom as a relief for the tragic life she had to endure, she could see the salesman and the commercial woman as the two people she most trusts: mom and dad.
So this is something to keep in mind. We can be sure; we can be wrong. But in the meantime, let’s stay tuned. And for now, let’s stick to the allusions that to know they’re there. And we will continue to do this with each episode.
Episode 1
Disney
The first commercial in WandaVision presents a “new and improved” ToastMate 2000, a funny looking toaster made by Stark Industries. Stark Industries, of course, is Tony Stark’s company; Stark Industries built the bomb that killed Wanda and Pietro Maximoff’s parents when they were just 10 years old.
It is also worth noting the tiny touch of color that appears in this first fake commercial; the toaster light, as the bomb starts to count down, flashes red. The only moments in the two black-and-white episodes that contain color were things that could theoretically connect Wanda to the real world. Think about it: the SWORD helicopter stuck in the tree (since she clearly knows who the beekeeper is, and “Geraldine” is clearly wanting her not to know her true identity) and Dottie’s blood, which could easily bring her back any kind of trauma from his appearances in the MCU film. The blinking light from the toaster is yet another violent memory in Wanda’s head.
Episode 2
Disney
The fake commercial for Episode 2 focuses on a wristwatch from a company called “Strücker”. Right away, we can remember that Wolfgang von Strücker was the name of a Hydra operative who kidnapped and experimented on Wanda and Pietro; this resulted in both gaining their telekinetic and super-speed powers, respectively.
Not only is the name given in honor of the man who kept the Maxmioff twins in captivity and changed their lives forever, but the watch is impregnated with the name and insignia of the organization behind it – Hydra.
Episode 2
Disney
The commercials are evolving with the era, as the 1970s version here has the same pitchwoman – who may just be the mother of Wanda and Pietro – as a stressed-out mom who needs a vacation. Go to the next location and the pitcher from the previous ads is waving a fan up and down in his “luxury”. The product is revealed: a soap called “Hydra Soak”, for “when you want to escape, but you don’t want to go anywhere”. This reference is probably directly to Wanda’s time as a prisoner of Hydra when she was being tried, but it can also be for her current situation. We think she is designing and controlling the world of WandaVision, but we don’t know who else is involved in this; although it looks like Agnes really could. “Find the Inner Goddess, “the commercial says to close; we often hear that Scarlet Witch is perhaps the strongest Avenger, so this could be another nod to that.
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